After our time in Prague, we took a train to Munich for one day with the expectation of flying back to the US the following morning. The train ride was easy and uneventful. I was able to look out the window at the green rolling countryside while binge watching some Netflix and drinking Coke. It was a great train ride.

Once we got into the Munich train station we taxied over to our hotel, the MOXY, set down our things and headed back out to spend the rest of the afternoon at Dachau Concentration Camp. The town Dachau and the camp are located approximately 30 minutes outside of Munich and getting there was easy. The downside was it was tough to get an Uber; the hotel ordered us a taxi instead. Also, I found the hotel to be super underwhelming. It is just a crash pad so if you are looking for a cool hotel experience in Munich, this one isn’t it. If you literally need a place to crash before a flight, go for it but I personally would not repeat this stay.

Ideally if you are going to visit Dachau you will want to take a guided tour, which lasts approximately 2 hours. Unfortunately, we arrived too late in the day to do a tour and had to go through the camp and exhibition on our own. This has its advantages: you can choose to have a very singular and quiet experience if you are by yourself walking through the camp. There are extensive things to read at each exhibit/area and if you have the time to read them all, you will be well-informed. The downside is that you are probably missing out on valuable information you would only glean from a tour. Toni and I went our separate ways once we walked through the gates of Dachau and I think we both preferred to take some quiet time for introspection. The main exhibition hall focuses on the fate of the Dachau prisoners. The path that you take through the exhibition hall takes you through their entrance to Dachau, their processing, their life in the camp and either their death or liberation. It is stark and quiet and filled with emotion. You can learn more about the permanent exhibit at Dachau here.

I was really surprised and unprepared for how hard Dachau hit me. I have been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. twice and have always considered myself a passionate student of what happened during the holocaust. But THIS. Nothing prepared me for how vast Dachau is, how many people were tortured and died here, how quiet and unsettling the place is now. I was about halfway through the exhibit and noticed that my eyes were filling up with tears. My body just started reacting to the horrors and sadness of this place and once my emotions caught up I had a really hard time keeping it together. I am assuming most if not all people coming through this camp feel the same way.

There is a section in one exhibit where the wood lockers that prisoners used are kept. I ran my hand over the fronts of these lockers and slowly noticed that names and numbers had been scratched into each one. Names…and numbers…so many names and numbers. The tears really came then.

It was close to closing time and the sun was starting to set. The leaves on the trees looked like flames against the blue sky and everything was very quiet. There were cinder block outlines of barracks as far as the eye could see  – so many barracks, so many people. Initially I felt disrespectful taking photos. I wasn’t sure how to reconcile how I felt with my desire to make a record of where I was. I finally decided that it was important for me to be in the moment and really feel what I was feeling and then record images as I felt impressed to. As a result, I took far fewer photos than I normally would but the ones I took have great meaning to me and take me right back to the emotions I felt when I took them.

I found the entire experience of Dachau to be overwhelming. It is so big, so vast and so overwhelmingly sad. I had never physically been in a space like that before. After my experience, I firmly believe everyone should visit one of the concentration camp sites once in their lifetime. It engraves on your heart and mind the evil that can transpire if we are not vigilant about truth and goodness and justice. When you read over the timeline of the camp at the beginning of the exhibition, you see how small and seemingly insignificant the ideas for the camps starting out were. You can also clearly see how many years it took for the pinnacle of atrocities to occur. This wasn’t something that happened out of the blue overnight; it was years in the making. If you are ever near one of the camps or traveling to Europe I would strongly suggest that you make time in your schedule to visit and stand as a witness to history. It is so important, perhaps now more than ever.

After our time at Dachau we headed back to Munich for a much needed respite from sadness and dinner. More to follow on our very brief evening in Munich.