\Ielina
Pouell
Dr. Dan
\IcCaslin
History
7
2June
2015
{frforgotten
A
Report on
the
Memoir
of
Dachau by Franz
Thaler
For
my
third
book report,
I
read
Unforgotten
by Franz
Thaler.
Franz
Thaler
was
living
quite
normally
in
South
Tyrol,
a
self-governing province
in northern
Italy, when
he was
ordered to
report to
the Nazis
to
be drafted.
He
didn't want
to,
like
any
other normal
person
would,
so
he
ran
away and
hid
in
the Alps.
He lived
there
for quite
some
time
before
he was
asked
by
his
father to
turn
himself
in:
"With
tears
in
his
eyes
he
asked
me
to
turn
myself
in"
(Thaler
46).
Otherwise, the Nazis
could
and
would
do
terrible
things
to
his
family.
Unforgotten
then
describes
Thaler's time
in Hitler's
first
Kon<enhationslager
(concentration
camp) near the southwestern
German town
of
Dachau; the camp
was also
called Dachau.
Thaler
wasn't aware
at
first
of
the
horrors waiting
at the
camp:
"It
became
more
and
more
clear
to
me
that
I
could
expect
nothing
good
in Dachau" (Thaler
65).
When
he
first arrived
at the
camp,
he was
put in
a
room
and made to
wait. Then
he was
marched
to
a separate
area
of
camp
that looked
far
more
foreboding
than
what Thaler
had
seen
beforehand: "We walked along the
camp
wal1,
which
was
very
high
and had an electrified
barbed-wire
fence.,'..
I
took
a
close
look'at
my
escort again.
It
was a
sad,
silent
farewell" (Thaler
67).
Thaler
was
then
put in
a
room filled
with
bunk
beds
and other
political
prisoners, men
who
hadn't reported
when called
to
join
the Nazis.
They
were made to
work;
cleaning the halls and
the
like. One would
thinl<
that
it
was
much
more preferable
than what
awaited theJews,
but that
is
another
discussion.
Thaler
quickly
learned the
routine
at
Dachau:
"I
was
also
looking forward
to the meal.
I
stood at the
door
and
waited
for
the
fall
to
open.
I
stood
there
for
a
while
until
it
finallv
became clear
to
me
that
here the
principle
applied:
'He
who
does
not
work
does
not
eat.'
fn
our
rorv
of
cells
no food
was
distributed" (Thaler
72).
L\TORGOTTL\:
A REPORT
ON THE
MEMOIR
OF
DACHAU
BY FRANZ
THALER
