On our day trip to Dachau I was surprised at many things and moved in different ways than I thought I would be for visiting a concentration camp. I've always heard stories from people about how going to one of these camps had a lasting affect on you and gave a differs perspective on the war. Dachau had some of that affect but overall it was not like that at all.
The first thing that struck me about Dachau was that it was a extremely pleasant place. This camp is nestled just outside of the small city of Dachau in the beautiful countryside. There is a small canal that runs along the side of he camp and the Main Street of the camp is lined with amazing trees. It was overall very hard to believe that about 41,000 people died there in just a matter of about 12 years. Now the reason for that was that Dachau was meant to be the model camp for the concentration camps so that anyone who was visiting or was taking pictures would generally capture a view of a relatively nice looking place. The parts that were very moving and unpleasant were the crematorium and the solitary confinement areas. Each of these held a strong feeling of sadness.
Overall our trip to Dachau was an interesting look back at history and included a pleasantness that I was not expecting.
I completely agree. It was an odd feeling to think how beautiful certain areas were. It definitely shows how manipulative the Nazis were to try to get political support. I agree that the crematorium was the most moving location at the camp.
ReplyDeleteIt was an almost surreal feeling being there. Dachau held a certain beauty but once you know what happened there its chilling.
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