An Experience of a Lifetime...

So today plans finally worked out and we went to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. I must admit that it was quite a sobering experience. When I used to think about the Holocaust and Concentration Camps I would always think of the horrible pictures in my history books, The Diary of Anne Frank, and various movies about such days and think "Wow that's really awful." But today as I stood in the barracks and looked at the recreated living conditions words escaped me and it was much more than "really awful." The moment I walked into the camp I could feel the heaviness of it all. There were maybe a hundred people walking around but it was relavitely silent. The only sound was the crunch of gravel under people's feet as they walked about. My cousin couldn't understand why we kept whispering and I simply explained that someplaces were meant for whispering and that this was one of them. I was surprised because I didn't cry, not like I expected to anyway. I mainly walked around the camp with a lump in my throat and blurry eyes, trying to wrap my mind around the horrors that went on within those walls. It wasn't even an extermination camp like Auswitz. I'm not sure I could handle that place.

The bunker where they kept other prisoners was absolutely breathtaking. There were two rows of cells running down a long hall. Some of them had been divided into standing cells, which were only 2 feet wide so prisoners were forced to stand for up to 72 hours. There were testimonies of prisoners broadcast onto the cell walls. One related the experience of a prisoner who had been sentenced to 8 months in the dark! 8 MONTHS!!!! I would have gone absolutely crazy. I couldn't imagine the horrors those poor people faced. Some of the pictures were absolutely nauseating. In another room, a prisoner testified to serving 4 months in the dark with food only every 4th day! I'm afraid that I would have been terribly tempted to pray for death, or run into the shooting zone in an attempt to end my suffering.

The crematorium also hit me in the heart. We actually walked through the gas chamber (that was supposedly never used) first and then into the crematorium. I couldn't imagine working in that room, shoveling a neverending line of bodies into ovens all day. What was worse was the fact that they sometimes hung prisoners in that same room, right in front of the ovens. How could anyone do that all day and think that it was a good thing? How could they do it without becoming cold nonemotional zombies? The thought alone sickened me. I don't understand how anyone could ever be so cruel. Surely some part of you would scream out that what you were doing was wrong! I couldn't do it. I really couldn't.

We watched a short film about Dachau and I couldn't help but feel a bit of a sense of pride when they began talking about the American Liberation. I was proud to be on the right side of the fight. I was proud of the soldiers that fought to get into the camp and free those people. The video showed a part where they brought food to the prisoners in the camp. The smiles and way they ate made me feel so proud that the US was there to help! And that we did help, at least as best we could. There was apparently a group in the concentration camp that worked to inform the Americans they could hear fighting in the distance that thousands of lives were at stake, that hundreds of people were dying every hour it took them to get there. I'm getting teary-eyed now as I think about it again. I shed a few tears during the film. It was quite moving.

I didn't take any pictures because frankly I didn't feel it was right. That is thousands of people's graves and I didn't feel right snapping photos like a stinky tourist. The only thing I took pictures of was the International Memorial.

This is the statue in the middle of the roll call yard. I think it speaks for itself and requires no explanation.

"May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933 - 1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow man."

I felt that the visitation of such a place demanded a certain amount of respect from me. I didn't wear sleeveless though it was quite hot, because I found it disrespectful. Consider it poppycock if you wish, but it was my personal feeling. I had emotionally prepared myself for this experience as I knew it was going to be rough. I don't think my dear cousin was quite ready for it though as she was somewhat taken aback by the reality of it all. I must admit that I was rather shocked and somewhat concerned that I knew more about what had gone there than she did. Perhaps I have read more because I have taken an interest in it, but it was frightening nonetheless.

The thought that anything like that could ever happen again is downright nightmare-ish. I pray to God that never happens. Funny how things like that always make you think about God. I found myself often thinking "Dear Jesus....I hope you were with these people as they suffered." It would be very easy to feel as if God had abandoned them as you looked around at the horror. But I know He was there then, as I felt His Presence there today. This may sound cheesy but it was almost as if I could feel His Spirit grieving the loss of soooooo many of His children at the hand of such hatred. I imagine the people at the cross felt the same presence.

So anyway this is a long but important post. I definitely have a new perspective on the Holocaust. If you ever have the chance to go to one of these places, PLEASE take it. It's hard but definitely worth it - an experience I wouldn't trade for the world.