Germany (Day 6)...

The two main things I wanted to see while I was down there were Dachau Concentration Camp and Neuschwanstein Castle. Today was Dachau. Sylvia and Elijah couldn't come with me to the Concentration Camp, well because Elijah is 2 years old and it would probably be inappropriate... but they happily dropped me off for 2 hours to roam around.

Dachau:

Where do I even begin... I can't write much here because quite frankly it would make sense unless you were there. As Sylvia and I were driving there, we missed the entrance to the car park and so we turned a corner and along the side of the road was the fence and guard towers... It took a deep breath to keep me from bursting into tears right then. It was powerful and painful and horrible. You could feel it.
When you first walk in you walk through a gate which in English reads "Work makes you free"...

Then you enter a huge yard which is where they would line the prisoners up for hours in the rain or sun to take role call...

I then headed toward the bunker, which is where they kept political prisoners and people of interest. So many well-known people in the holocaust were killed at Dachau.


I then walked through the museum... there they explained how it was the first concentration camp opened in Germany, how the prisoners were treated - the experiments, executions, etc... and the eventual liberation of the camp on April 29, 1945. (If any of you have seen Band of Brothers, this is the Camp they liberate.



After the museum, I had avoided it long enough... I walked across the camp and across a tiny stream, into a wooded area where the Crematorium was...




It was at this point that I needed time to myself... to cry. So I went off into this little path into the woods, ahead of me I saw a bench and sat down for a moment. When I finally looked up, there in front of me was a cross and a small garden designating the spot where the ashes were buried... then on a little ways where the execution grounds were... then were bodies were discarded... again you have no idea the devastation I felt.. man even remembering it is hard...



In the back of the camp there are 3 large buildings dedicated to Protestants, Catholics, and Jews as memorial to the victims of Dachau.




Then walking back you walk through the rows and rows of bunk houses, or at least the foundations of the bunk houses, only 2 remain standing...



I can't tell you how thankful I am for the opportunity to have seen it, been there, and seen with my own eyes the site of such suffering. It is truly horrifying, powerful, angering, and amazing.




Sylvia came and picked me up and since it was still early in the day we decided to stop in Munich and have a look around on our way home. I had not counted on getting into Munich, but I knew exactly what I wanted to see... the Marienplatz and the Glochenspiel clock in the city center.


Sylvia and I took full advantage of the souvenir shops and stands while we waited for the top of the hour for the clock to ring out and the Glochenspiel to move. Well the top of the hour came and went and no Glochenspiel movement... turns out it only rings out at 11am, 12pm and 5pm... we had gotten to the square at 5:30pm... 30 MINUTES LATE!!!
So we just walked around and took pictures... my camera battery had died right after Dachau and since my parents had accidentally packed my charger, I was in desperate need of a battery (I have since received the charger in the mail:)) Luckily the Marienplatz has a Kodak store, so I got a new battery YAY!!!