Travelling through Germany I visited Dachau Museum, created from what was left after the destruction of this Nazi work camp.  This was the first of the German concentration camps and was opened March 22, 1933. 

The day was freezing and snow hung ready to fall.  I wandered easily around the place, unlike those who inhabited the place, reading the details of the horrors that should never be forgotten.  Records show that the camp processed 206 000 prisoners between 1933 and 1945, with over 31 000 dying here.

The kitchen/laudry now housed a well put together display room.  The two penal barracks had been rebuilt from the rubble left after the destruction of the original 34.  There are also a number of the security installations on display and five memorials built by various religious groups.

By the time I caught my train back to the city I was chilled through to the bone but still the only threat I had suffered was the ongoing threat of snow.  A very moving day spent here.

I took a trip from Munich out to Dachau (about a 25 minute train ride) to see the concentration camp. I saw the crematorium last and wrote in my journal afterwards:

"Friday the 13th - what a fitting day to tour a concentration camp. I'm sitting outside the main crematorium (yes, there were 2). Seeing a concentration camp in person is sad, surreal, perplexing, unbelievable (that people can do such things to one another), etc. There is an ample amount of evidence that pain, suffering and torture were present here. The eeriest part was seeing the gas chamber - I actually didn't realize that's what I was walking into. I was just moving from one room to another. Strangely enough the victims didn't realize what they were walking into either. The difference, obviously, is that I get to keep walking forward and go home. Well I think I will leave it at that - no need to document a trip to Dachau any further, my memory will suffice."

The rain never stops. I've been in Europe for two days now and what I find most suitable is being wet, having nowhere to sit, a backpack that's my life, and personal drive that's beginning to question itself. Thoughts, just thoughts, of calling it quits surface and linger on as rain and walking become my best friends. Enough of the gab, seeing Dachau's concentration camp was, with a stupid cue for simple word use, an 'experience'. I got off @ the town's main train station and walked the entire way to the camp in the pouring rain. I saw and experienced a lot on that path of streets neighboring houses, places of business, rural farms ripe with fertilizer and sowed lanes of vegetation and black earth, and your average German walking their Hunde. Immersed in the typical life, as always, I think about buying a cheeseburger with a Warsteiner at the local McDonald's that happened to be on the way, but opt out to buy Coca Cola Light and a sweets at a petro station nestled among cobblestone alleys that would make any band's album cover cool beans. Reaching Dachau took a while, but once I saw the tour buses I knew I had reached the gig. "Would you like a audio tour device?" asked the guy in the booth. Never opting for those ridiculous vibrators of tourist soup, I told the dude, "Nein, bitte," and walked to the camp. The museum there was really good and I came out feeling an objective but accurate account was given on the things that happened at the camp. Military students were on required field trip to the site. Italians were Italians. The photography and sculptures were cool. And the book that anyone can write in was open and vacant. Outside was a different experience. Trees make no illusion to the vast rock gardens covering the fallen and silent generations buried in the depths. Walking on the graves of thousands is not fun, but you think about what led you and others to this place. Some came to remember. Some came to die. Some came with the purpose of learning to not repeat a past of mistakes. The church and temple there were cool, but the place really isn't a "nice place". It is, like I wrote, an experience. I saw the ovens used to burn the dead. The lockers where bodies were stored. The hooks that hung the dead. And a place I never want to go to again. Me and another old dude go inside to pay our respects to the sisters running one of the remembrance sanctuaries there; she talks to him as I wander around looking at the walls and reading letters in lost language, the language of hope. Keep in mind that I'm soaking wet, and have been for the last ten hours ever since I left Munich on rail. The only real break where I've been able to sit down was the freakin Zug. Last memory of the camp was seeing the tourist bus people stare at me as I started my walk back to the main station in the pouring rain--oh, and I never carry parkas or weather gear, just a black hoody. The walk back had me dazed and confused like Hunter S. Thompson jacked my mind. I thought I was lost for a moment, but I remembered the thought of a cheeseburger and beer to hone in on my location. "As long as I find the fertilizer farm," I said to myself, "I'll be sort of OK." Usually, when I walk back the way I came I take the opposite side of the road or what have you to take in something different. Oddly enough--and this happened all the time I was in Europe--Europeans asked me for directions. LMAO! You're asking the wrong, Dude. I'm American. I didn't say that, but the first group of questions came from two Italian dudes trying to speak German. I told them in a Westphalia accent, "Nicht verstehen" and laughed as they walked away talking in English of how wonderful no one seems to understand their German:) It always sucked when a hot German girl would hit on me because I would be straight up checking her out but upfront and say in American mumbling "tourist" and then look like a sad, wet puppy. Ah, traveling alone has certain perks, but not being treated like a tourist can be dangerous sometimes based on people's reactions when they find out you ARE a tourist. Case in point, when I finally made it back to Dachau's main station everyone there was miserable in the rain. I stood out because I'm sort of built and had this look of exhaustion but blessed aura around me. Some dude smoking a Rauchen came up to me to pass small talk. I was in no mood to talk, so I told him in my dialect, "Schlekt Wetter. Sehr munde. Was ein Tage?" He started talking again and I really didn't want to converse, so I used the old 'I don't understand trick' and it didn't work. Fast forward, the guy asked me if I was afraid of traveling by myself and worried about having my throat slit, assuming, of course, that I didn't know what he was talking about. I laughed at his comment and responded, "Nein. Nicht der Tod." He was caught a little off guard, but then offered me a cigarette. "Nein, danke. Nicht rauchen," I said to him. After that I walked away from him to wait for the Zug elsewhere and he just looked baffled and quipped to some nearby lady about why would a German pretend to be American. LOL. FIN

My trip to germany was not all fun but this side trip was memorable and I think nessasary.

There are several pictures that have a blue tint not done on purpose but came out that way.  This trip brings out so many emotions it's a must see for everyone.  just remember that this happened a long time ago and people today should not have to answer for the past. 

remember the qoute "those who do not know history are destine to repeate it"

once again in europe while walking through creamatorium you are told that the ash you are stepping on is real maybe its just me but hate stepping on peoples graves

Date  10-27-2006 1:32:57 AM

I´m enjoying my stay in München, a cool city.  I´ve never been to a place where life revolves around BEER. They even have a Religious Day for Beer. I´ll be wearing the leiderhossen or dirndl the way I´m drinking over here. Yes, Beer is GOOD here. I try to only drink beer during ´happy hour´ because it´s cheaper, only 2 euros for half a liter - yes, I´m peeing like a firehouse (bathroom time).  I met this guy from San Diego, he is backbacking on her own in Europe for 2/3 months I think.  We were trading travels stories.  We was just the Netherlands.  Bummer about my Euro Rail pass, can´t even make it to Berlin.  I only have a 7 days pass.  Long story.

I did the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial today.  I joined a guided tour led by an Israeli woman who lives in München.  She said once a tourist was so overtaken by emotion that she had to leave the museum.  The Nazis regime are such motherf___rs!! The crazy stuff that they have done to people. I got many photos of the Crematorium where they burned the prisoners.  Once the prisoners get off the rail station, they are greated with an iron gate say, 'Albeit macht frei', which means 'works sets you free.'  It truly does bec the Nazis worked the prisoners to death or just gas them at the Brausebad room.  This is why the name for shower 'Brausebad' is wiped out in the German distionary and replace by 'douche'.

Imagine, they only have 12 toilets for a barrack of 500 people. People hardly get to shower (actually, there were no showers only a big sink, imagine trying not having to wash your hands after poo). Disease were just spreading everywhere. The SS soldiers were sadist. This tour is not to be missed if you are in the area, very informative.

I learned that Bavarians don´t really consider themselves German. It´s like being a New Yorker to being a TEXAN. They are really the riches people in Germany. The local taxes are are 16%, yikes. They are crazy about football (soccer) here. FC München all the way!!! Many people drives BMW, Porches, Alpha Romeos cars. They consider people in the northern areas poorer.  Currently, Dauchau is the hot suburbia area to live in relationtion to München.  It is still cheaper there and you can get to the main city within 30 minutes.  Imaging living in Brooklyn but the more 'suburbia' look and feel to it - like Shore Road near the Verazzano Bridge.

Finally, ate some real German food. I think there are such No Thing as vegetarians here. They love their beef!!!

I still kinda get lost by walking but I´m getting better at it. Gotta, book my train tomorrow to check out the castle near the border of Austria. I hope to get a seat. I´m doing this on my own, not joining a tour.  tchuess, AC

Dachau is a small town located at 20 km from Munich. It is mainly known for its concentration camp, the first one built by the Nazis.

The visit of the concentration camp is really interesting with a guide. It is a real history lesson, a very impressive one. It is hard to write about how I felt there. It is a visit I do recommend.

Never forget.

I decided to keep using Munich as my base of operations in the area and took a quick train to Dachau in the morning.  Dachau was the first of many concentration camps in Europe during the Nazi regime.  While it is fortunate that not as many people died here as some of the death camps, it is still a horiffic place and will be a constant memorial for years to come.

It was a short walk from where the train dropped me off to where the concentration camp was.  As you enter the site, the first thing you see is a sign (see picture below) with a quote: 

"Dachau - the significance of this name will never be erased from German history.  It stands for all concentration camps which the Nazis established in their territory" - Eugen Kogon

Near this sign you can see the remains the the railroad tracks that brought the people to the camp.  Upon exiting the train, they would see the metal door with the words "Arbeit Macht Frei", which, loosely translated, means "Work Brings Freedom".  Everyone who came to the camp (including myself and the other tourists) had to enter through this single door.  How many actually went back out that door?  Sadly, not the same amount that came in.

The camp today is very open; a majority of the buildings used for housing were destroyed.  There were a few that remained though, so I got a first hand look at how these people had to life while they were imprisoned.  The next place I was able to see were the prison blocks, where the "troublesome" prisoners were locked away for a time.  These were simply very small rooms without a place to use the restroom.

All the way at the back of the camp was where the really bad stuff was.  In the back was a gas chamber and the crematorium, which were left intact - the Nazis were unable to destroy them before the allies liberated the camp.  This was not the case in many of the other camps.  I obviously can't begin to share the emotion that you will experience at a place like this, and it is something all people should see, whether it is something close to your heart or not.  The signs say "Never Forget", and we must never do so.

In the year 2005 my High-School choose the best ten students, who master the German language and reward them with a language course in Munich. I had the luck to be part of them. During this time we got the chance to visit Dachau.  I read and heard a lot about Dachau, but really standing on this ground of evil exceed all my expectations. It was a day full of emotions, teariness about those who had to die, felling sorry for those who survived all the cruelness, and a huge anger of those who did not knew the word mercy. I still can see myself standing there, shaken to the core and asking the world; “Why?”, “How can a human being do this to another?”, “How could the whole world watch all this barbarity happen without to act?!”

Opened on 22 March 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the coalition government of National Socialist (Nazi) NSDAP party and the catholic Zentrum party (dissolved at 6 July 1933). It was located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 miles) northwest of Munich in southern Germany. Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed.

In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau of which nearly one-third were Jews. 25,613 prisoners are believed to have died in the camp and almost another 10,000 in its subcamps, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide. In early 1945, there was a typhus epidemic in the camp followed by an evacuation, in which large numbers of the weaker prisoners died.

Together with the much larger Auschwitz, Dachau has come to symbolize the Nazi concentration camps to many people. Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau holds a significant place in public memory because it was the second camp to be liberated by British or American forces. Therefore, it was one of the first places in which the West was exposed to the reality of Nazi brutality through firsthand journalist accounts and through newsreels.

Liberation of the camp

On 29 April 1945 the watchtowers of the Dachau camp remained occupied and a white flag was hoisted. Red Cross representative Maurer persuaded SS-Sturmscharführer Heinrich Wicker, an officer in the SS-Totenkopfverbände, to accompany him to the main gate of the complex to surrender the camp formally. Late in the afternoon of 29 April 1945 KZ Dachau was surrendered to the American Army by SS-Sturmscharführer Heinrich Wicker.

The Holocaust

One of the foundations of Hitler's and the NSDAP's social policies was the concept of racial hygiene. It was based on the ideas of Arthur de Gobineau, eugenics, and social Darwinism. Applied to human beings, "survival of the fittest" was interpreted as requiring racial purity and killing off "life unworthy of life." The first victims were crippled and retarded children in a program dubbed Action T4. After a public outcry, Hitler made a show of ending this program, but the killings in fact continued.

Between 1939 and 1945, the SS, assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, systematically killed somewhere between 11 and 14 million people, including about 6 million Jews, in concentration camps, ghettos and mass executions, or through less systematic methods elsewhere. Besides being gassed to death, many also died as a result of starvation and disease while working as slave labourers (sometimes benefiting private German companies in the process, because of the low cost of such labour). Along with Jews, non-Jewish Poles (over 3 million casualties), alleged communists or political opposition, members of resistance groups, Catholic and Protestant opponents, homosexuals, Roma, the physically handicapped and mentally retarded, Soviet prisoners of war (possibly as many as 3 million), Jehovah's Witnesses, anti-Nazi clergy, trade unionists, and psychiatric patients were killed. One of the biggest centres of mass-killing was the extermination camp complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hitler never visited the concentration camps and did not speak publicly about the killing in precise terms.

Hitler had a really stunning career. Some describe him as a genius in a negative way. I would agree with this, you have to be a genius if you can wash the brains of a whole nation. I will never understand how can in someone grow such a huge anger of people, just because they are different.

”When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.”  (Charles Evans Hughes)

Outside of Hitler's birthplace in Braunau am Inn, Austria is a stone marker engraved with the following message:

FÜR FRIEDEN FREIHEIT

UND DEMOKRATIE

NIE WIEDER FASCHISMUS

MILLIONEN TOTE MAHNEN

Loosely translated, it reads: "For Peace, Freedom and Democracy - Never Again Fascism - Remember the Millions Dead"

It was really an experience for life to see this place. Why I am writing about Dachau is not just because I have been there, it is more because I think it is important to remember what happened in our past, even more to spend a thought of all those who had to die in such a cruel way.

“We can cart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present.” (Adlai E. Stevenson)

For those who would like to see more about Dachau:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS7pKG8qvsA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZnAGhwyIfY&feature=related

All the photos are googled, I could not make my own on this day I somehow thought it would be disrespectful…

We left the main museum to wander through the barracks and out to the chapels and crematorium, but unfortunately by the time we made it to the crematorium, we were several minutes late and they had locked it up for the day.  So we took many more pictures of the grounds and austere surroundings.  Getting that close to that level of hatred in mankind is truly frightful.  It’s evil in its truest form.  We headed back to Arvie, largely in silence.

Next we drove towards Rothenburg. Several hours later we were checked in at a campsite we’d read about in our book.  As they were having 10% off for post-season customers, it actually all worked out quite well.   I made some sort of rice dish for our dinner and after that we played another round of cribbage and I won.  That makes 2 days in a row!

It's quite sad to walk through this place, thinking about everything that happened here. But at the same time I think it's really important that it's a museum now and people can visit for FREE. Let's never forget, and never let it happen again.

Last semester I took a class on the study of Genocide. The professor was like an encyclopedia of knowledge on this topic, but the information he provided on Nazi Germany really didnt sink in until this experience. What a somber one at that... First you walk in and see the sign that says "work will set you free".. makes you realize why people never fought back... they had aspirations of leaving.... Too bad many suffered the fate of Gas Chambers and the Kremotorium.... When I passed this room a feeling of sadness and curiosity entered me.... I thought how could another human being gather up enough courage to destroy a human life without feeling or remorse... You can take a self guided tour here using an ipod like recorder that provides you all of the details you need to gain the full experience.. I want to say it was like 5 EURO, but I may be wrong... I know it wasnt that much. On average they say it takes about 4 hours to take in the entire site. However, if your not the type who likes to read and stop in front of things to appreciate their worth... you could zip through in about 2-2.5 hours... Whichever is more convinient for you is your perogative... However, to know that you stood on the same grounds that helped start a war against all of the superpowers of the world... a place where so much pain and suffering occurred... is just an overwhelming experience, which I saw brought some people to tears.

We toured the entire site... unfortunatly my camera batteries died half way through it so the remaining photos I had to take with the disposible camera... I have not scanned those in yet!

This Camp is located a few miles northwest of Munich Germany. This was considered the main blue print for all other concentration camps that arose during WWII. Grousome conditions were lived by many jews that passed the area. This was a part of history worth looking over, and instantly add to hatred against racist people. It was worth the drive to the area.

We just finished our tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp, which was the original concentration camp or "parent" camp. It was the training ground for the SS, for the SS doctors, for torture, execution, humiliation, and brutality. Upon entereing the gates, individuals who had been successful politicians, businessmen, artists, musicians, authors, professors, loving mothers, fathers, and priceless children found themselves condemned to a life never known to man... one of intense humiliation, fear, pain, discomfort, and loss. Those in control of the camp tried desperately to take everything away from the people including their self-worth by degrading and humiliating them upon arrival... cutting their hair, making their parade around naked, beating them, calling them the scum of the earth and treating them as such. How could one survive this? How did someone think of torturing others like this? How did they become convinced that others were less than they? How did one's race, country, or religious views determine one's sense of value or worth? How did doctors who were originally taught to preserve life.. to heal.. become so warped?

The motto of the camp, as seen in the majority of the camps is: Work Sets You Free. The men and women worked 12-14 hour days, and only some were given the bare minimal amount of food. They wasted away, which weakened them, and many perished as a result of starvation. I'm amazed by the horror that people experienced on an hourly or daily basis. I read about what happened, however, nothing prepared me for seeing it in person.

One of the memorials in particular brought hope and light. It was a memorial honoring the Jews who perished. the roof and the rest of the building was pitch black marking the suffering, gloom, sorrow, pain, and anguish. A deep sense of sadness accompanies one as one walks down into the covered memorial. Upon entering, however, light floods the end of the tunnel bringing a sense of hope.. there is light at the end of the tunnel. I think that this depicts the lives of these incredible survivors and martyrs. You have to focus on the positive in order to make it through the dark times even if it meant being given the chance to look up to see the sky. Psalm 117 was inscribed on one of the walls. It says, "Praise the LORD all you nations; all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the Lord." This is a message that peopel wanted to leave with the rest of the world. Still they saw God's love as great. Still they saw God's faithfulness as one that endures forever. Still they praised God. This brought them hope. This brought them life.

KZ Gedenstatte (Campo di concentramento)