Today was more of an emotional and serious day. It was our visit to the concentration camp in Dachau. Once we arrived we met up with our tour guide and began. I thought I was prepared for the tour but I was wrong. I was completely in shock to see how big the concentration camp really was. It was nothing like I thought, when the tour guide showed us a painting of the prisoners during roll call I got a pit in my stomach. Standing in the same place where so many people have suffered was gut wrenching.

Afterward we moved to the showers. Just being in the same place where many innocent lives were lost made me feel so many different emotions. Shortly after we walked around the entire camp before going to see a barrack. It was a huge camp but felt really peaceful there, with giant trees planted in the middle. The tour guide said they tried to make it look better than how things actually were in the camp to create a better image to the public at the time.

I have always heard things about how crowded the barracks would be, but seeing it in person really puts it all into perspective. Even with prior knowledge I was still astonished how cramped and terrible it was. We finished by going into the museum part, there wasn’t a ton of time to look around but I was able to see a lot of real pictures that were taken of the innocent prisoners in the camp.

I believe it is important to learn all about concentration camps like this because even though the event was absolutely horrific, it is important to learn about it in order to prevent it from happening again.

Jason