Day 10: Munich, Germany - Dachau Concentration Camp

The Dachau Concentration Camp memorial was a sobering experience, to say the least. You enter through the same gate as the prisoners, which reads "Arbeit Macht Freit." (Work Makes You Free.) They have a well-done exhibit in the former administration building, which also housed the bathing rooms. We read much of the history of Hitler's concentration camp plan in general, and about Dachau specifically. It was the first camp and basically the model for the others. They have a huge map of Europe and I didn't realize how many camps and sub-camps there were.

Walking out onto the grounds, the first large piece reads, in several languages - "May the example of those who were exterminated here from 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defence of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men."The memorial grounds, which are really only a small portion of the entire camp, show 2 of the barracks' interiors, the rest were leveled in the 60s but you can see where they previously stood, all numbered. There are four meditation areas beyond the barracks - Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Russian Orthodox. There are several smaller memorials within the grounds with the recurring theme of: "Never Again"

After our experience here and at the Nazi Documentation Center, it is still shocking to me how this all could have happened, not so long ago, here in Europe. A reminder plaque leading into the exhibit about the setting in Germany before Hitler's reign reads - "This room shows the historical background to the Third Reich.This preceding history does not necessarily mean that everything that followed had to happen the way it did, or that it could not have turned out differently. But the seeds of antisemitism, racism, disregard of human dignity and democracy had been sewn during the preceding period, and gained ground after 1933 with alarming speed. Each of us today is shaping the background history of tomorrow." - Chaim Schatzker

Never Again.