Did I say death camps? I meant happy camps.

All kidding and South Park references aside, today we took a train out to Dachau. An unbelievably moving experience. On approach to the concentration camp, it was surprising to see that there is a nice little town right next door. Most of the people in the town either didn't know the extent of the brutalities going on at the camp or they were too scared to acknowledge it. It certainly didn't help that most of the information came from a bunch of propaganda.

The SS made it very deceiving, only giving the German community the information they wanted them to know. I was disgusted to find out that they even gave people tours of the concentration camp, which were of course diligently orchestrated to show only the people who were the healthiest and had the most stereotypical physical attributes of the "inferior" races, such as the supposedly big nose of the Jewish "race."

They even went so far as to describe the wonderful recreational activities for the prisoners: swimming in the camp pool (actually a huge pond of filthy water and fluids that would have made anyone sick who entered it) or playing music (the SS did play, but any prisoners writing songs or poetry could be severely punished or killed). Imagine the prisoners' intense frustration at being unable to communicate the real horrors of life in the camp, while the SS made sure it seem like Dachau was just a work camp where prisoners, enemies of the state, would be educated in the work ethic while doing a service to the country with the prisoner's help (slave labor) in industry and repair work.

When the public did finally realize the truth of the attrocities taking place at the camp, they were horrified--I can't imagine living there and knowing that your town is associated with such a violent history.

The chilly evening air and snow lining the ground helped add to the bleak effect of the camp. There was A LOT of information to absorb there, but it helped that most of it had English translations. It was a good history lesson, tracing the beginnings of the Nazi party, Hitler's rise to power, and the concentration camp system. By far the hardest part was touring through the crematorium.

The gas chamber there at Dachau was never used, but it didn't prevent me from feeling really creeped out walking through the room with those vents in the floor and ceiling. I can't believe they had the dark humor to put the label "Bath house" above the vaulted door. And seeing the ovens...that was almost more than I could handle. As it was, I took a picture and got out of there, walking through the room where they used to store the bodies before they burned them. Yeah, it was a very sobering experience.

One of the most striking things about it was the how it looked from the outside. I expected a stoic, industrial looking structure, cold and impersonal. What I saw was a pleasant looking brick building, with terracota shingles, and a big cheery chimney. It made me feel sick just thinking about the sort of mentality it would take to build such a structure and then make it look homey. I am glad I went though--seeing all of it made the Holocaust that much more real to me. And the memorial site at Dachau is very well done, nothing touristy about it.

Tomorrow Jenny and I are probably going to check out the Science and Techonology Museum here--it's supposed to be Smithsonian-quality, and sounds like a good way to spend our Monday, when many sites are closed here for cleaning and maintenance. Tuesday we're likely heading to Füssen to see the fairy-tale castles of "Mad" King Ludwig II. I'm looking forward to that trip--it will take most of a day with the 2 hour train ride, but from what I've heard and seen, it will be worth it.

We still haven't had beer, sauerkraut or sausage since we arrived, but we have had our first pretzel. It was okay, but we've come across one that look tastier, so I'm sure we'll try some other ones. We also saw a man in liderhosen in the subway. I'm sure there will be all sorts of German experiences to share with you by the time we leave. I'll keep you posted :)