A Day at Dachau

"The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil." Genesis 6:5

I must admit that I approach this days post with a bit of trepidation as I attempt to convey what a day at a concentration camp entails. The verse above may have been applied to the world before the flood but I must admit that a sentiment similar to this crossed my mind several times today. With this in mind I will use a two prong approach and start by telling you the simply facts of the journey and then later delve into the emotional journey that Dachau was for myself and I believe the rest of the group.

We began by meeting our tour guide (Ralph Lunstrom) at the hostel and proceeding to take the 25 minute train out to Dachau, just outside of Munich. Once in Dachau we then took the bus to the actually camp which was originally outside the city but is now well within the city. Ralph talked us through how prisoners were brought into the camp and explained the sadly ironic meaning of the phrase that used to hang over the entrance. "Arbeit Macht Frei", which translates to the phrase "Work will set you free." This was disturbingly true at Dachau as it was a work camp that literally worked thousands to death. Sadly this sign was just recently stolen and attest to the frightening prospect that there are still groups that revere Nazi artifacts enough to spend upwards of 1.5 million Euros to steal them.

We then toured through the various buildings which included the administrative in-processing building, a replica barracks, prison, and crematoriums. By far the most eerie was the crematoriums. Dachau was the first of over 1,500 camps to be run throughout Germany and Europe during WWII. During its years of use it housed just over 200,000 prisoners and killed around 76,000 of those prisoners.  Of course exact amounts are impossible to know but I will tell you that standing in a room where thousands upon thousands of humans were burned is a heavy and incomprehensible experience.

This type of experience brought several truths about humanity into utterly clear perspectives. Evil is a real thing; any person who walks through the gates of Dachau and sees the images of starving faces and piles of bodies knows that humanity has this sickness of sin and is capable of unthinkable atrocities. I know for myself I left being once again assured that evil must always be actively, and sometimes violently, opposed.

The last monument had four different languages that all stated the same fact. It was a message that a day at Dachau or any concentration camp invariably teaches and commands the viewer; "Never Again".