Dachau

Day 8: Sunday 5/15/2016

One word to describe Dachau; eerie. Our day today consisted of visiting the first concentration camp set up by the Nazi party in 1933. Since I love World War 2 history I was super excited to finally get to visit a concentration camp. Well I guess as excited as one could be to visit a place where thousands of people were killed… but you know what I mean. I really liked being able to see the camp and learn about its history, however I did not like the tour guide at all. She did not let us stop and read any of the signs and we went faster than I felt we should have. It was a very surreal feeling standing in the gas chamber, the actual place where people were murdered about 75 years earlier. Also, seeing pictures of the piles of bodies was sickening. We were also told that the SS training grounds were right next-door to the camp. I understand why it was completely destroyed many years ago and the tour people don’t want to discuss it (the SS were truly sick, the worst of the worst of Hitler’s army), but I would have liked to see it because it is history. While it was a very sullen afternoon, it was very interesting and I now look forward to visiting other World War 2 historical sites like Normandy and other concentration camps. 

Looking down the center of the camp