Today was a surreal, eerie, yet interesting day. We visited the first ever concentration camp, Dachau. This camp was used as the ‘model’ for other camps after rumors of the living conditions reached the masses. Entering the camp, it looked as I expected, bare, somber, and cold. Even if you did not know that it was a concentration camp, you can tell that this is not somewhere that people went to enjoy or have fun. We as American students are taught about the Holocaust and WW2 from a very young age, and to see these sights first hand is something I cannot put into words. I read a lot of books on the topic and even took a class on it in college since it is tied closely to my family, but no matter the amount of research you do for something like this, nothing can compare to the feeling you get from standing inside of the camp. As soon as you step foot inside, you feel connected to the millions of people who lived this horrible lifestyle for weeks, months, and years. I tried to imagine how I would feel if I were standing there famished, dirty, cold, sick, and scared, but it is unimaginable. It’s hard to image the extensive amounts of work and torture these people faced everyday. One of the most notable moments from being at Dachau was the feeling of stepping into the gas chamber. As soon as I walked into this room, I felt a pit in my stomach form. This was the room that thousands of innocent people took their last breath, saw their last view, and spoke their last word. These people thought that they were heading to the showers and they even had faux shower heads in the room to trick the prisoners. This was a surreal day, but I am glad that we got the chance to experience this. I believe that history can repeat itself without education, so the more people that visit these historical sites, the more aware we are for the future.