Europe Trip: Day 9, May 29th

I somewhat apprehensively asked my host, Robert, about going to Dachau concentration camp for the day. He surprised me by saying that it was a great idea and something that would probably be very interesting for an American to see. When I asked what Germans thought about it, he said that in general there is an attitude that it wasn't something they did, it wasn't something their parents did, and at least in his case it wasn't even something his grandparents did. So why should he feel guilty? Yes, it was a horrible thing, but it wasn't a horrible thing that he feels responsible for. I think it might be similar to an Americans view on slavery or what happened to the Native Americans.

In order to reach Dachau you have to take the S-bahn, and since it goes outside of the city limits I had to buy a day pass for additional 'circles'. It took about an hour to get there. After getting off at the Dachau S-bahn station, which is in the nearby town, I went over to a big map that they have showing the different tourist places to go to. As I was reading it, I heard some English behind me and a guide started talking about how they were going to take the bus soon to reach the concentration camp. I listened to him, and decided to try and infiltrate the group, after all having someone knowledgeable is much better than not.

The best part of this trip was that I didn't have to pay for anything. Once I had paid for my day ticket everything else was free from the tour (okay, it probably shouldn't have been) as well as the entrance to the concentration camp.

I spent all afternoon at Dachau, first with the tour that lasted from around 1:30pm-4pm, and then another hour or so looking in the museum and at some of the monuments.

The stories definitely hit your emotions, when you hear the horrible atrocities committed by an "advanced" civilization similar in many ways to our own. How could people do such a thing? Are people naturally so cruel and evil? It is easy to lose your faith in humanity when you actually see all the pictures, and the places where these acts were done. How can you think of people as being good when you are standing next to the gas chambers and furnaces that were developed at Dachau and later implemented in the extermination camps to kill millions of people, mostly Jews? But you do feel some hope, feel it as a shiver in your spine, when you read of the acts of solidarity and bravery and kindness by people in the camps. Even when they are being slowly tortured and starved to death, there are still rays of hope.

So I left Dachau with mixed feelings. You can't call it a 'fun' place to visit, but it is an important thing to see and to know. This is not something that should be forgotten. Similar things are being done even today, especially in Africa.

After that I just hung out with Robert, we went and got something to eat, went around the city a bit. Just more of getting a feel for Munich and taking it relatively easy.