Dachau

Today we visited the concentration camp of Dachau. The experience is hard to describe but I am very glad I went. We had a led tour through the camp and saw many of the main places and buildings of the camp including the crematorium and the gas chamber, which was never used. I thought the camp was very well maintained in terms of cleanliness and whatnot. Although alot of the buildings were destroyed after the war, one can still get the general scope of how things were. Its one thing to hear about and see pictures of a concentration camp, but it is a completely different experience to actually visit one. When you actually walk around where the prisoners did and actually see the conditions that they were subjected to it hits home. There were also multiple memorials at the camp. Some were in the form of Art while others were the typical plaques. There were also two religious memorials present. The experience as a whole was a rewarding one and I have only one complaint about the visit. It has nothing to do with the camp and the tour but rather with a few people I saw there. There were alot of German school tours which I found very good but I saw a group of 3 people posing for a picture in front of the main gate smiling. Im not against documenting ones experiences but I felt this was horribly inappropriate given what took place there. I wish I had a little bit more time to look around and reflect but it was a good trip nonetheless.