Today we had our most sobering visit yet: the Dachau concentration camp. As we drove into the town of Dachau, I was expecting to see the camp as we got close; however, it was not very obvious. We parked in what looked like a very ordinary parking lot in the middle of a modern town, similar to all the other towns we had visited. Only after we walked a bit into the memorial site did I recognize that we must be getting close to the camp as we came upon high barbed wire fences and what appeared to be the main entrance to the camp.
We entered the camp through the main gates which read “Arbeit Macht Frei” which translates to English as “Work sets you free.” A horrible lie inmates where told as they entered the camp, as many did not ever leave the camp. As we walked around the grounds, nobody spoke. It was a very power moment as we comprehended what we were seeing. A barbed wire fence enclosing the camp with armed guard towers, barracks built to house 200 people but housed 2000, and furnaces build for the very specific purpose of concealing the evidence of the atrocities carried out in the camp.
While I have been to war memorials and museums before, this visit felt more real. Not only were there images displayed of what had happened, but we stood in the very room where those images were taken, allowing us to imagine quite vividly what it must have been like 80 years ago. When we boarded the bus and left, I was still shocked that all of this could have existed and happened in the middle of what seemed to be a very normal German town.
