Day 9 - Dachau and Munich

Sunday Morning we got on the bus an hour later than normal, it is amazing how luxurious an extra hour can be.... :-).  

We traveled just outside of Munich to visit the first and longest running (12 years) Nazi concentration camp. We were met by our local specialist, Fancesca, at the entrance of Dachau.

It was a very somber tour.  We have all learned about the atrocities of WWII in school, but coming here and actually seeing the conditions the people endured makes it really impact you.  It makes you want to just cry. I will not include in this blog many pictures of what we saw because it just seems too impersonal. 

This was a work camp, from here the prisoners were deployed to businesses all over the country as slaves to replace the workforce that basically was taken to serve in Hitler's army. Our guide has very strong personal feelings about BMW, VW, Bosch, etc. that all used slaves. However when talking to our TD she explained that these companies really had no choice, it was accept the labor or go out of business. Two-thirds of its occupants were political prisoners, including many Catholic priests, and nearly one-third were Jews. Records indicate that over 200K prisoners passed through Dachau, many were transferred to subcamps,  or one of the other 7 major concentration camps. 

Many prisoners were worked to death or died of diseases that ran through the overcrowded camp. The Camp had two buildings just for cremation.  There were over 32,000 known deaths at Dachau. 

Dachau had a gas chamber however it was never used, but it was still disturbing to tour it. 

The first camp was small, but it was expanded upon in 1938 and was designed for 6000 prisoners. When the allies arrived there were 42,000 in the camp. 

The average life span in the camp was 3 months. Many committed suicide by throwing themselves on the electric fence rather than endure the conditions. There is now a piece of art that depicts this on site.

The average weight of a prisoner when the Allies rescued them was 66 pounds.  

They found a pile of 11,000 bodies, since the Nazi's had run out of coal for their furnaces. The bodies were cremated by the allies and there is a memorial on site where their ashes were buried. 

After  the tour Francesca discussed the gate, it is the original gate (they have the man door but the one here is a replica). The words on the gate “Arbeit macht frei" translates to “work sets you free”. In reality the only way the prisoners were set free was through death.  There were many documented escape attempts, the success rate was 0%, this place was a death sentence. 

This tour prompted conversations amongst our group abut how people cope with such a dark history. This memorial is undeniable evidence of what is possible. Vanessa said every primary school student in Germany is required to visit Dachau, to ensure that this is never repeated. The first generation after WWII generally chose to look forward and ignore the past, their economy was in ruin and survival was the primary focus. The next generation started asking the why's and made sure that there was an effort to educate the population and create memorials. There is some fear the following generation will be too far removed and forget.

After the tour we boarded the bus for the ride back to the Hotel, it was a rather quiet ride. 

In the afternoon there was an optional tour of Munich, however June and I chose to just ride the bus into the old town and do our own tour. 

We had a nice time just walking the city, it was Sunday so not as crowded as it was on Saturday.

 There were young climate protesters blocking streets, as best we could tell they were protesting an Auto show. 

We saw some cool cars being prepared for the show. This is an electric Mercedes.

We eventually stopped for lunch at a café directly in front of the Glockenspiel. 

Of course I had to have the Weisswurst or white sausage which Munich is famous for.  It is best with a pretzel and sweet mustard. I do need a lesson on skinning these little buggers, mine jumped right out of its skin but I managed to grab it before it leaped off the table. They are quite tasty. 

After lunch we had some time and decided to climb St Peter's tower.  Dating back to the 12th century, St Peter's Church is Munich's oldest Catholic church. It is 306 steps, about 100 meters, to the top. The views of Munich are worth the climb. 

This is Marienplatz. 

We spent about half an hour just taking in the sights, and resting our legs for the 300+ steps back down. 

We enjoyed our time downtown and boarded the bus back to the hotel around 5PM.  After a short siesta we walked from the hotel to the local restaurant but were still too full from lunch to eat. Back at the hotel we found the fab4 and a few others on the back patio so we decided to drink our dinner. It was a nice evening. 

Tomorrow we head to Schloss Neuschwanstein and then the black forest region.