Dachau: A Difficult History Lesson

Warning: This is not my sterotypical blog. Serious content may make for a depressing read. But alas! Sometimes life isn't all laughs and giggles.

Lori and I decided to spend our last day in Munich visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. In 1933, Dachau became home to the first Nazi camp. Over the course of twelve years, 206,206 people were imprisoned there and over 30,000 of them died. Dachau became the prototype and model camp for hundreds of other camps across Europe.

It's hard to describe your thoughts and feelings when you pass through a gate to a place where such horrible things happened. When I hear the words "concentration camp" thoughts of disease, starvation, death, hate and slavery come to mind. The events of World War II were regularly taught in history classes. Hitler's reign is something everyone knows about. But it is a completely different kind of education when you are standing in the spot some of the events took place. Walking across the central square, where roll call determined the fate of thousands, you kind of stop in shock and awe. Looking to the right, you see the building where prisoners were first taken upon arrival. In this building they were stripped of their "possessions, rights and dignity". Looking to the left, you see the barracks where thousands were forced to sleep practically in piles on top of each other. Standing there in the center, you can't help but think of the two hundred thousand people who shed sweat, blood and tears right there only 65 years before.

In the building on the right (which is now a museum) there were items that were taken from prisoners on display. One photograph caught my attention. It was of a man and a woman embracing and laughing. I couldn't help but wonder if they ever saw each other again. We watched a brief video about life in Dachau. The images of starvation, disease, cruelty and death were overwhelming. Looking across the grounds I saw the guard towers, I can only imagine the sick feeling of fear they must have evoked. They stood ominously lurking above the prisoners like hawks poised to strike.

Our last stop on the tour was at a place known as "Barrack X". It was a building composed of a creamatorium and a gas chamber. As our tour guide told us about the history of the building, I heard birds chirping and wondered to myself if the prisoners walking the same path felt a sense of hope or a reconnection to humanity when they heard the sound. Did they know it may have been the last pleasant sound they would ever hear? The Nazi guards tricked the prisoners into the gas chambers by telling them the room was for showers. When they thought they were being shown an ounce of decency it was all a facade. Walking through the gas chamber, I could almost hear the screams echoing through the small, dark room. It was terrifying. There was a bland, empty room next to the gas chamber. On the wall there was a small plaque stating the room was used to store the bodies before creamation.

Sometimes I think mankind will never learn its lesson. Things like concentration camps, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing will never cease because we keep breeding hate. We have to all take a look within and realize that humans are humans no matter what race, religion, sexuality, gender, etc. (Sorry about my soapbox...)

After leaving the memorial site we boarded a bus back to Munich. Standing there staring out the window I realized how easy it was to leave and how so many people used to crave that same chance to escape. I saw three boys playing soccer in the park and wondered if they knew just how close they were to one of the darkest parts of their nation's history. Listening to three different languages spoken around me, I jumped back into the present and escaped the terrors of the past. It's hard to think of such a beautiful country as having such a morbid history.

Dachau was just one stop on our journey, but it may have been the most important one. We are lucky to be able to visit the site when for so many people so many years ago it was their final destination.

- Caitlin