Today was our eighth day in Augsburg, over half way done with our trip already. In honor of this, we took a look into some past history and visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp which was a prominent place during WWII. It is important to note Dachau was the first concentration camp in Germany and it was a working camp, not an extermination camp. So the goal was not to kill, but just to hold the prisoners. Our tour guide, who was spectacular by the way, said it is believed that this wasn’t an extermination camp because it was too close to Hitler’s hometown of Munich. Today a lot of buildings still stand, including one of the housing quarters, a “prison” for the prisoners who misbehaved in the camp, gas chambers, as well as a museum they built which including many different things to read, artifacts, and informative documentaries to watch. It was gloomy, but incredibly interesting to see. It is crazy to walk around and experience a place that has so much history and was a major part in one of the worst events in history. Walking into the rooms with the gas chambers was the most heavy thing to see in my opinion. It really put things into perspective and you could really feel the importance and seriousness of what so many people had to go through back then. Wrapping up seeing Dachau, although it wasn’t the most glamorous and fun, I think it was one of the most interesting and one of the most important visits we had yet as it gave a real feel to what we have heard and learned about in school for so many years. To actually walk around and see things with your own eyes gave me a whole different perspective. It’s important to see things like that and experience it because it was so vital to history and the world as it is today.
After a long, emotional morning, we went back to Augsburg and had a free day for the rest of the day. We wandered around more of Augsburg and then finished the day with dinner at the Street Food Schmeckfestival. It was super cool as it contained 40+ food trucks, a stage, and great music. It was a good time, and some of the German students came with us as well and showed us around.
