Day 6: Munich Day 2 (Dachau)

This was probably one of the days that I looked to the most outside of the learning day. When coming on this trip history and understanding Germans and their viewpoint on WWII was one of the things that I wanted to know the most about. I feel like americans have a very Americo-centric viewpoint on a lot of things and dont get to experience or understand what these things mean to different culutres. Going in I had no clue what to expect to see inside, but it really didnt matter what was inside. What mattered more was what it represented. Learning that the barracks were torn down first had me upset that we didn’t see them in their original condition, but understanding why they are demolished and what happened made me respect the choice. I think its interesting how these viewpoints can cause these divisions on what needs to be preserved and what needs to be removed from memory. The tour guide was fantastic on explaining why these things happen and how we can relate it to the real world today and things that we are seeing with american history as well. Overall it was a really sombering but needed moment in the trip to understand the differences in culture and differences in viewpoints and what that can mean for a country.