Dachau

Just to clarify: Dachau is actually a town outside of München/Munich. Dachau Concentration Camp lies on the outskirts of Dachau.

I believe that every individual should have the experience of visiting a concentration camp. I am sure that they are sickening, haunting, and altogether painful places to visit, but bearing witness to the destructive consequences of evil can inspire the opposite: constructive humanitarianism.

I hope that I will have the opportunity to visit this place in the future.

A Painful Experience, but also eye opening. It was one of the saddest places i visited on my vacation but very worth it. There is so much history in this camp that should never be forgoten. This camp is a rememberance or the brutality, but we must remember that there is a future.

Arbeit Macht Frei

I visited the concentration camp, what else… So sad to see the place. The museum was really well organized. Really touching. arbeit macht frei

However, after we left the camp, we were stopped by the policeman and asked for our passport. It was in the middle of nowhere in bavarian forest too, with many other cars passing by, why our car? I guess because we’re all asians in the car, and he was checking for illegal immigrant? We’re not really happy with that experience.

Sullen feeling to it, but I think that everyone should experience at least one concentration camp in their life. It will keep this horrible piece of history from repeating itself

something everyone should see in their lifetime

...your mind, heart and spirit for a deeply moving experience.

this is an experience never to be forgotten. i’ve actually been to dachau twice, both on trips around austria and germany. i have a family history in the jewish faith and although i do not practice judaism, half of my family still does. it was surrel being there. everything is so uninviting and chilling. to think that people were forced to live in such conditions is unimaginable. for all those who suffered, this is is a great place to worship their existence and to truly grasp a sense of what people in this world are capable of.

I know that the Germans will never forget this part of their history. It was a very sad move for me to witness this place, but we thought that it was necessary to get the education that we could from it. I went with my german class in 1999. It was hard to look at the ovens they put people into, I have pictures of those…but I decided that it might be to difficult for some to view so I kept those private.

This is a picture of me in front of one of the houses they kept the people in during their stay at this concentration camp. They knocked down most of them though because they were falling apart,they kept this one up so tourists could see.

I remember walking through the tour, into the gas chambers…walking into the oven rooms…walking outside where there are still gun towers and barbed wire fences and ditches. It was very surreal and ugly. Not just depressing in the normal sense, it was…stiffening and grey. Cold. But it was educational, at times I was paralized by the feelings I had. I wanted to cry for those who died there.

Ironically it was a very sunny warm day when we went. I hope that the people who died in that camp…and all the others, have found sunny days again, wherever they are…

I was hungover from being in the Hofbrauhaus the night before and didn’t think I could feel any worse. My landlady’s son had been held here when it was open so I had a very real connection.