Yesterday was the most somber part of this trip as we visited the Dachau concentration camp. Unfortunately, an underlying theme throughout this whole trip was the atrocities that took place during World War II in this country. Over and over again, we’ve heard of this “German Guilt” from our cultural supervisor as well as German locals. Up until yesterday when we walked around the first concentration camp in Germany, the reality and severity of the situation hadn’t hit me yet. Hearing how so many people were dehumanized and forced to live in small quarters while sharing only 12 toilets was appalling. We also got the chance to walk through the area where prisoners were forced to burn the bodies of their fellow inmates. Standing in the same room that thousands of bodies layed before being insinerated was eerie and the whole experience was very humbling. Though painful, I now see why it’s so important to keep these monuments and facilities in tact. They need to stay to be a constant reminder of the worst that can be brought out of a human and a warning so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes again.
