Today we went to Dachau where we toured the concentration camp. This is the first ever concentration camp that I have ever been to in my life, and it was certainly a powerful experience. We got to the camp around 10 am where we met up with our tour guide who was fantastic. He made the tour extremely powerful not only showing us around but by using words that made the whole experience more valuable.

I learned several things about Dachau and other concentration camps that I never knew before. I learned that Dachau was the first ever concentration camp created. It was originally made to put political leaders who disagreed with the Nazi Regime in jail. As time passed more and more types of people ended up at the camp. Some of these groups consists of Catholic Priests, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, Gays, Russians, Jewa and many more. I never knew that in Dachau only 20% of the prisoners were Jewish. I thought that all camps were mainly just Jewish people.

I also learned that Dachau was a work camp, not a death camp. This means that these people in camp were put to strenuous work until they could no longer work. Dachau was not an extermination camp that was specifically designed to eradicate Jews. Even though they still had a gas chamber they did not perform mass executions there. People that were no longer able to work were taken to a castle in Austria where they were all executed.

The experience that I had today was definitely different than any other experience I have ever had. Walking around the concreate made me realize how terrible this whole situation really was for the people in concentration camps. I could not imagine being in one of those camps years ago. The amount of courage and bravery that it took for people to fight for their lives is truly inspirational. Walking throughout the camp was truly a humbling experience and it honestly made me super appreciative of the life that I have today and all my blessings.

At the end of the tour our guide left us with some powerful information. He told us that in today’s complicated world your generation is the one that is going to decide if we will be able to never repeat this type of history. I found this statement very accurate. We will be the ones who will be in charge of the world. We need to be able to respect one another and learn to embrace our differences.

It was truly an incredible experience, and I feel that everyone should give it a try to learn about the history of these camps. The information is tough to swallow but it is truly humbling and inspiring.