O brother where am I?: Dachau

Today was a little different as we headed out to a tour (with the same tour group Sandemans, who were just as excellent today if not better) of Dachau, the model concentration camp for the nazi’s. Our guide, Marcin, was actually a tour guide trainer for Dachau, so needless to say, he knew his stuff. He took us through the beginnings of Dachau (which was an ammunition factory for WW1), all the way through the ending in 1945. Although it didn’t have any personal connections, it still was somewhat emotional to go through something that was used for something so terrible. It is unfathomable that mankind can be so cruel and terrifying.

We saw the registration building (which is now the museum), where they were “registered”, which basically meant tortured (a common theme there, both physically and mentally), the bunker with individual cells for the truly unfortunate, the barracks which had upwards of 500 people in a space big enough for about 50, the crematorium and the gas chamber. The crematorium didn’t really bother me that much (because at least they were dead and were through with the suffering), but the gas chamber really got to me. To be standing in a spot where thousands upon thousands of people lost their lives (for no reason at all) really brings it into perspective. If you are ever in Munich (or near any concentration camp for that matter), you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t go. It might not be the most fun experience of your life, but will definitley be something you will never forget.

After Dachau, we got back and hit the town for the night. Melissa and I were going to go on a bier challenge, but didn’t meet up with the group in time so we had to make our own, and Matt and Sarah went and hung out with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz (who were in town for the premier of Night and Day). All in all, Munich was a great city that I could definitely go back to.