dachua

Visiting this harrowing place was a 'must do' on my Munich list. It's curious that I was timid when asking Germans for directions. It was a strange feeling even travelling there. I kept thinking of how many people travelled on cattle cars along the very same train line. It is a place of huge suffering and undeserved death. It was the first concentration camp, opened within weeks of the nazi assumption of power. It was the blueprint. It processed (their term) almost 200,000 people during its 'working' life. Of which some 43,000 people were murdered.

I'm reading Primo Levi at the moment so it makes it all the more poigiant. He survived Auztiwzc and recorded it with great humanity and dignity. It's very inspiring. I will pay respects there as it is on my agenda and I think I'll cry. But that's another story for another time. I won't describe my experience in any detail but I will tell of one incident. There were many school children there. One set, of about the age of 15 or so, were in the gas chamber when I was passing through. A young girl was taking photo's and I thought it a bit disrespectful. She was talking to one of the people whom she was photographing. I have no idea as to what they were saying but she exploded into laughter. In such a place!! I publicly admonished her. 'How can you laugh in a place like this when so many innocent people went to death at the hands of systematic murder!' I'm sure she didn't understand the words but she certainly got the gist.