A concentration camp

On our return from Munich we decided to visit Dachau, the first concentration camp used under Nazi Germany. It was also a surprise to learn that less than half of the prisoners were Jewish, the rest were political prisons and mostly Christian. It was depressing and emotionally draining to walk the 2 hr audio tour. It was surreal to walk into the camp and feel like we could have been on the set of Schindler’s List or Life is Beautiful and to have dramatic scenes from those movies reeling in my head as the speaker described life at the camp. The crematorium with a gas chamber was even opened to the public. Personally I like doing service work and helping those less fortunate, but I’ve never had my heart break in such a way from human suffering. The most amazing thing to me though, was a photo of the prisoners on the camp’s liberation day. Everyone was ecstatic, smiling ear to ear, waving merrily from tortured, starved bodies having only known darkness and despair. An unexpected perspective was gained that visit for sure.

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