In 2009 I went with some of my classmates to Europe. We visited Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Austria. While in Germany we went to Dachau, which was a concentration camp from 1933-1945. It was one of the saddest moments of my life. I saw the gas chambers, the barracks (where they lived), the crematory, the churches, the execution range, and all of the other horrible living conditions. Over the 12 years of their existence there were 200,000+ people registered at Dachau and there were approximately 35,000 people that died there. On the positive side of things, it made me proud to know that America helped liberate the camp!!
Below are a few pictures of my visit there. On the front gates it states "Arbeit macht frei" which roughly translates to "work brings freedom". It just broke my heart to walk in there and try to visualize the hard ships of all of those people that passed through there. If you live in America, please count your blessings and realize that you could have it MUCH worse.
Me at the gates of Dachau.
Me standing by the fence. Keep in mind that I am 5'7".
Me standing in front of the Crematorium sign. I wasn't sure whether to smile or not.
The crematorium.
The "Pistol Range for Execution". You could only imagine what was done there.
The memorial at Dachau for all of those who had to suffer those 11 years of misery.
4 comments:
wow. those are great pictures.
thanks for sharing those!
I visited there too, once as a child and once with my husband as an adult - the most awful place - no joy, no birds, just saddness.
Wow. Just seeing the pictures made me cry.
thank you for your comments!