Deutschland Dispatch # 5: Dachau.

The entrance to Dachau

While in Munich, we took the (way too short) drive to Dachau.  The first concentration camp built by the Nazis, Dachau became the model for most subsequent camps.  Architecturally, it checked every box that you probably expect a Nazi concentration camp to check: barbed wire, grey, stark, low ceiling buildings, and a feeling of hopelessness.  Upon entering, it is clear that this is no ordinary memorial.  Instead, everything that we did simply felt like a funeral for those who suffered and died.  It was quiet.

The infamous "Work makes you free" sign.

The feeling of despair was most potent, and it was hard to shake.  Today there are many memorial gardens, and houses of worship dotting the area - but the feeling is still there. Especially when touring the crematoriums (with their ovens, and fake showers), and the execution firing ranges - it is mortifying.

The Dachau concentration camp is located a mere 18 miles from downtown Munich - one of the largest cities in all of Germany.  It is surrounded by neighborhoods, and a small town (sharing the name Dachau).  When the US forces liberated this camp in 1945, they required all residents of the town to tour the camp and see the horrors.  In addition, the residents had to help bury the dead.  In many ways, this was the most terrifying element for me - as it was simply not very hard for tyranny to succeed.  The longer I was there, the clearer it was just how out in the open this process actually was.  Due to public complacency, and more likely, abject fear - it was borderline easy.

But the nation of Germany has worked harder than most to shine light on these horrors.  Again, we visited a massive concentration camp where some of the worst horrors were ever committed by man.  And it goes back to how I felt in Berlin - this country is so intent on using its own history as a tool to grow.  Though painful, as an historian, I can not applaud this sentiment more.

I walked away in tears, as I thought about my own family and loved ones.  But as I walked, I became more resolute to fight my own complacency in the face of tyranny, and hopelessness.  This tour made me even more grateful that I am a teacher, a profession that remains most crucial for the betterment of the human race. I hope that I can play my part well.

Never again.