Dachau...

WOW... what a day. Definetly one I won't forget. Definetly a sobering experience... Don't know how people could do those horrific things to fellow human beings.

We (Chris and I) got to the memorial site and got our little audio guides then wandered over to the enterence of the camp. The gate at the entrance - the Jourhaus, which was a remake of the original because the US forces tore it down ro something after the camp was liberated and they took over that site. There was an inscription on the door that said "Arbeit macht Frei" meaning "work will make you free".

We walked through the bunker - where prisoners were held and tortured and then headed to the museum, which was the old maintenance building. We learned all about the camp: the brutal way the prisoners were treated, history, types of people imprisoned and how they were identified, we listened to first hand accounts of survivors, the liberation by the American solidiers... Definetly couldn't have read all that in a text book.

We even heard about the 7 women who were able to carry out their pregnancies and have their babies in Dachau, and how the American soldiers burst into tears during the liberation of the camp when they saw them - new life amongst the dead.

Then we went into the barracks, saw the 3 different types of the bunkers from 3 different times in the camp; 1933-34, 37-38 and 44-45. Tthere were like 50 bunks in each room and 5 rooms per barrack building and 34 barrack buildings. At one point these barracks, only meant to hold 6000 people, were crammed with upwards of 30,000 people, and the disease spread quickly. While in the barracks we heard accounts of the standard to which they were forced to make their beds, and what happened if it was done wrong, as well as the fear the people had of disease.

We eventually made our way down the main road and saw the religious memorials (and behind them behind the gates of the camp is a convent... the nuns there pray over the souls of those lost in the camp), the crematorium and the gas chamber.

At one of the memorials in the camp there is one that says "Nie Wieder" which means never again and I certainly hope that is true. This was a horrible time in history, I hope we have learned from our mistakes.