Dachau

This past weekend my friend, Erin, and I went to Munich. While we were there we went to Dachau, the first concentration camp established in Germany. It was a depressing, but worthwhile experience. I tend to think about WWII as being something that happened way before my time, and something that I don't need to interest myself much with. But as I walked around the concentration camp seeing the showers where prisoners were gased, the mass graves covered in ashes, the firing wall with blood still staining it, the atrocities that occurred during WWII were anything but distant.

The memorial that has been set up in the courtyard of Dachau where the prisoners stood for hours at a day at roll call. In the background is the building where the prisoners were checked in and stripped of all their personal belongings as well as their

dignity.

From the outside these letters spell out the phrase "Arbeit macht Frei" -> Work makes you free. From the inside they are meaningless.

The showers where prisoners were lead to unknowingly be gassed.

Where the barracks used to stand.

Escape was almost impossible: the camp was guarded by a fence that consisted of two large trenches, one filled with water, barbed wire, electrical fence, and a tall fence that would take significant time to scale.

As if the fence wasn't bad enough the camp was guarded by seven towers from which guards kept a constant eye on the fence, shooting anyone who approached it. Some prisoners approached the fence so that the guards would shoot them, ending their misery.

Germans are not proud of their history. But it was encouraging to see several german families with children there. The parents explaining about the past. The memorial outside where "Never Again" is written in several languages is a reminder of the mindset that Germans have today.