The structured part of today was short but on a very heavy topic. An hour drive to a village outside Munich, and we arrived at the memorial for the Dachau concentration camp. Dachau was a work camp used for political prisoners, not used for extermination on purpose. For the 12 years it operated the conditions got worse and worse and more overcrowded to the point where may of the deaths came from disease.

It is a strangely peaceful environment. Some might view it as a bit sterilized from the the brutality that was there 80+ years ago. I’ve been to the Holocaust museum in DC, and the difference in how you are presented with the history could create that contrast in some people. I find it’s hard try and get yourself to be in the situation that those in the camps were in. People that haven’t been through it will never fully understand it, but we can try.

The tour guide was amazing, and I wanted to highlight something in particular that he did at the very end of the tour. He pulled out a color photo of some malnourished prisoners. He noted that it was taken in 1994 in Yugoslavia during the Yugoslav wars. He was part of the German army and served in those wars and saw these POW camps himself, and while we say “never again” it can very easily happen, so we need to take care to avoid repeating history.