Dachau entrance.
We left Hohenschwangau and headed back towards Munich so we could visit Dachau. When we arrived at Dachau we had only 1 hour ‘til closing which I knew meant we would really be hoofing it. But we did manage to see much of the museum, including the bunker which I hadn’t seen last January. It was really all rather gruesome. Perhaps surreal is a better word. The bunker had cell after cell on display, some were “standing only” cells where people had to stand in a 2’6” cell for six days and nights with no real light or food or anything.
Entrance gate at Dachau. The words translate to, "work will set you free."
It was torture at a medieval level really. And that’s not the worst of it. I’ll spare you that. But bottom line, even though I was there only 9 months ago, it still forced a knot into my throat at many junctures to be confronted again with the atrocities accosted on so many innocent lives.
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!
