I firmly believe that a visit to a concentration camp should be compulsory with everyone's first visit to Germany. Brad and I took it upon ourselves to take a group tour of Dachau, located on the outskirts of Munich. Visiting the only concentration camp that was operation for the entire Third Reich was profound and sobering. Our group guided by a well informed Australian gathered for a brief history of the infamous Dachau, and were then guided through the same gates as the thousands of prisoners of the Nazi regime. As we entered the gates it was impossible not to feel the weight of histories events resting on our shoulders. The blood and tears shed on this soil irreversibly shifted the gravitational pull within those walls. We somberly tread through the barracks, prison cells, gas chamber, and crematorium with heavy feet and heavy hearts.
Our guide was wise to advise us not to try and imagine the suffering that the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, the PEOPLE imprisoned in that place were subject to. This was sage advice, the horrors that unfolded at the hands of National Socialist Party are impossible to fathom or comprehend. Instead our guide recommended to bear witness to this terrible place, remember what had happened here, but turn our gaze forward. There is is a monument in Dachau that says "Never Again"; unfortunately this is a false sentiment as genocide continues to happen around the globe.
I have to give the Germans credit for acknowledging the scar that they have left on humanity, their openness and recognition of the cruelty of the Third Reich pulls back the curtain to reveal lessons that must be learned for fear of those atrocities being repeated.
"Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it."
-George Santayana
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