Dachau Concentration Camp

The most intense and moving thing that we have done on our trip so far was visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial site.

Some quick background….Dachau was the very first concentration camp opened by the Nazis in 1933.  Known as the ‘Academy of Terror’, it was the model that all subsequent camps were based upon. Originally built to house 6000 prisoners, it held around 30,000 at it’s peak. It is estimated that over 30,000 people died there. 

It is hard to capture the full extent of emotions that we felt in a short blog post. We simultaneously felt shocked, sickened, sad, empty, confused, angry and hollow.

Intellectually we understood that the ground we were standing on was of immense significance, but it is hard to fully grasp, comprehend and process that reality. 

We found ourselves asking the age-old question ‘how can one human being do this to another?’

After learning about the torture, the murders, the sub-human living conditions, the human experiments and the indefinite incarceration without trial or hope of release, it was hard not to feel hollow when standing in front of the memorial plaque that read ‘Never Again’.