Dachau

20-21 June - The group picked James up at the airport and we traveled to a small town outside Munich. We linked up with our Favorite Munchener, Annika Ginkel and her family. Annika was an exchange student last year that we did many events with. We had a great dinner with them at her favorite Italian resturant. We stayed till they closed the place down - good food, converstation, beer and wine!! The next morning, we traveled 30 minutes to the town that cannot be forgotten - Dachau. Dachau was the first concentration camp in Germany after Hitler came to power in 1933 and was the only one to be operated the entire Nazi period until 1945. It was initially for political prisoners as a labor camp and later increased to house Jews, Gypsies, Beggers, homosexuals, etc. The prisoners were used as slave labor in the armaments industry in the town like in 100s of other similiar camps. Mass exterminations were not carried out here like at other more infamous camps Sobibor, Auschwitz, Triblenka. The gas champer was never used here. Many people starved or were worked to death. It was liberated by the 20th Division in April 1945. What makes Dachau so memorable are the experiments carried out here on prisoners from medical experiments such as high altitude pressure tests, freezing water duration, etc. The museum is really nice and speaks to the horrors of the time. This was the Germany of the past. Today, the German people are very understanding and working to move from their past that will haunt them along time. Our family is very pleased with the opportunities that Germany allows us to have while visiting in their country and we are Very happy that Germany and many other countries share the freedoms we have in the US. The sad thing is that while places like Dachau are maintained so that we never forget what happened because one race thought they were superior to many others and treated them like animals, we still see these actions occur in other countries - Kosovo & Bosnia in the 90s Cambodia in the 70s, and to a lesser degree and not as organized Afghanistan, Iran and Iran and now Darfur. Civilized people understand while those uneducated but taught hate carry out the same tragic events of over 60 years ago. Kim at the Holocost Dachau Memorial Jamie and Chandler at the front gate where all prisoners entered.