Dachau

Pronounced "dakow".

I'm trying to come up with an upbeat way to write this post.  There really isn't any, I think.

While looking up "things to do" here in Munich, one of the top five things to do is visit Dachau.  I did some research on the place and was a little hesitant but almost everyone who posted a comment said that it is worth the time.  That is was good exposure to Germany's history.  We went.

Dachau was the first concentration camp that was set up during World War II by the SS (Nazi).  It served as a model for subsequent camps and guards were trained at Dachau before they went to other camps.  It is now set up as a museum and memorial.  We toured this horrible dark place and it has traumatized me, to say the least.

We were bluntly educated on how the prisoners were treated.  How they were beaten, starved, executed and tormented.  I found it more than a little disturbing that my feet were standing right in the very spot where unspeakable things were done to human beings at the hands of other human beings.

I have a new found appreciation for the freedoms I enjoy and the life that I am so priveleged to have.  It's one of the many times in my life where I only have to reflect on this experience to bring me to that reality when I think I'm having a "hard life."