"The past is never dead. It's not even past." This memorable statement from the American author William Faulkner - quoted many a time by many a people - has a crucial significance for the city of Dachau. Therefore, when more than 18 years ago the association "Zum Beispiel Dachau" (for example Dachau) was founded, it was to demonstrate that the past was neither forgotten nor dead in Dachau. However, quite a number of citizens of this lovely old town, including the political representatives, had a devided view on its history. On the one hand there was Dachau, the concentration camp, "forced upon us..." On the other hand there was what they proudly called "the other Dachau", a decent and respectable town, with its castle up on the hill and its historic town center - in one word, the town as it had been before the "Third Reich". These were the times when Dachau had been appreciated for its charme as a small town close to the big city of Munich and when many artists - most of them painters - frequently came to visit. Yet, looking at history in such a selective way was just not acceptable to some citizens of Dachau. This is why in the early summer of 1980 a handful of people from Dachau and the surrounding area came together. They were deeply interested in that part of history neglected so far, when Dachau was the site of a concentration camp. They did not want to forget nor let it be forgotten, the twelve years of horror, crime and dispair in their home town.
The objectives that led to the foundation of "Zum Beispiel Dachau" are still relevant today: Their intention is neither to stand up for, nor to condemn the city itself as the site of a Nazi concentration camp but to uncover the cause and the structures, that once made possible a totalitarian regime of that type in Germany - and still make it possible in a similar way today elsewhere in the world. In this sense "Zum Beispiel Dachau" intends
These goals are intended to be achieved in two ways: On the one hand they want to find, study and evaluate all kinds of useful sources such as photos, official files, letters, interviews with former camp inmates, interviews with citizen of Dachau, interviews with former SS-members and other witnesses, literature, and films. On the other hand they wish to make known the results of their research to the public by means of publications, lectures, discussions, seminars, and guided tours.
In 1983 "Zum Beispiel Dachau" organised the exhibition "The city and the camp" in memory of the construction of the concentration camp 50 years earlier. In 1988 they provided information tablets of contempory history for the new district museum titled "Dachau in the 20th century". In 1990 an exhibition followed about the personal records of 14 former camp inmates of Dachau - representing the fate of thousands of camp prisoners. The next exhibition in 1993 illustrated the endeavors of camp inmates to document the life and the terror in the concentration camp in Dachau in order to counteract the lies of officical Nazi propaganda. Their last exhibition - to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp - was called "The last hundred days of Dachau concentration camp".
Along with these exhibitions "Zum Beispiel Dachau" offered a series of publications called "Documents of Dachau". Since then a 4th volume has appeared. At present "Zum Beispiel Dachau" has about 100 members - among them still a considerable number of former camp inmates.