Germany Day 3

Sunday, September 26th 

*This may get a little confusing, but because I have been traveling since Thursday night I was just now able to post my weekend. The most recent post (today) is first so you actually have to scroll down to see Friday and Saturday. I'm sure you already knew this, but I know it would have confused me! :) Enjoy!

This morning we woke up, got ready for the day, took the linens off our beds at the hostel (seems so strange!) and hopped on the bus to head into Munich. I was sad to leave Ausburg after such a great day yesterday, but was very excited for what was in store for us today. The Dachau Concentration Camp and Memorial is only about  30 minutes from the Oktoberfest grounds, so a few of us decided to go and see that this morning instead of the festival. We got on an inner-city train, which took us to Dachau and then took a bus out to the Concentration Camp. 

I didn’t completely know what to expect upon arrival to the Memorial. I knew the background of what happened here from the big units we did in our world history class in High School, but had no idea how moving it would be. We toured the grounds, which included the barracks where thousands of prisoners were held and literally stacked on boards to sleep at night. We saw the different memorials that they have since set up in remembrance of all those that lost their lives here.  The most disturbing part of this trip were the gas chambers. I am not able to write about what I experienced because it was too awful to even explain. I must say that this was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had and really makes all the history I have learned and the stories I have been told about these awful events so much more real. We also took a look around the museum they have set up on site, which has actual documents from prisoners that were kept at Dachau. They also had all the propaganda posters displayed from when Hitler was in power. This was also very strange, just to see how peoples thoughts and feelings changed from the beginning of Hitler’s rule to the end. (If you want to see pictures of the camp, please e-mail me. I would love to share them if you are interested but I don't want to post them on my blog.)

Here is one picture I took at Dachau. They incorporated
 barbed wire into many of the memorials and sculptures
 to symbolize the struggle each of the prisoners faced. 
The clouds were incredible the entire time we were there. 

After the Concentration Camp, we took the train back into Oktoberfest and had only a short time to grab lunch before our group met back up to head home to Florence. What a contrast between the Concentration Camp and Oktoberfest. I felt an almost overwhelming guilt being back at Oktoberfest after just witnessing such a depressing period of time. We drove back through Austria and I must say this was completely breathtaking! I had my camera out for almost a straight hour trying to capture the beautiful landscapes of mountains and rivers. It was like a scene out of the movie “Heidi”! My quote of the day today was “That must be why you don’t meet many Austrian’s in America, they would have to be crazy to leave this place!” 

Hope you all have a GREAT week! 

Love, Dana 

Some pictures of the landscapes in Austria! The mountain sides were all so beautiful and yet so different every 20 minutes! How is it possible to fit so much beauty into such a small amount of time!