Dachau

The second day we had decided to go to Dachau, which is just outside of Munich, and pretty easy to get to by public transit. And while we were not sure how we would react to the actual place, it called us and we went. The getting there was easy with the S-bahn. This dropped us in the centre of the town of Dachau. We had lunch there at a local hotel (and lunch in this part of the world is the main meal of the day. So we were full, when we caught the bus to the Concentration Camp Memorial. And the weather was dark, appropriately.

The Memorial is free admission, and they have used the actual admission buildings for the museum, and have also re-constructed a barracks in the fashion that it existed in WW2. The crematorium also still exists. And there are several monuments set up by various churches and synagogues to the victims of the camp. The rest of the area has pretty well been levelled. Interestingly, they have left areas of the barbed wire around the perimeter.

The exhibits were exceptionally good. The story is horrible, and the results obviously beyond comprehension, much less acceptance. The history leading up to the establishment of the camp, the social and political events preceding the rise of fascism, were all explained fairly and openly. The explanations of the groups singled out (and why they were singled out) were well-presented and accompanied by recording from survivors.

The actual facts of what went on in the camp was by its nature horrible. The degrees of torture, the work, the underground organising, the deaths, and finally the liberation of the camp all were there in full detail. And we began with a film about the camp, which set the mood for the rest.

There was more than we could absorb, and to say it was sombre would be to understate the obvious. The additional pathetic fallacy of a dark, forboding thunderstorm only added to the drama. We of course left too little time.

After that, we went back into the main old part of the town, and explored the Rathaus (Town Hall), the old square, and some of the older streets, before heading back home, again for a later eating time and talk with Ben and Jutta.

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Location:Dachau, Germany