Thursday, October 16, 2014

Germany Trip (4): Dachau Concentration Camp

I woke up around 06:55 from the noise of the next-door neighbour. I think that is sort of shipping company. I look out the window and saw it was raining and went: Shit! Then I said to myself: The life should go on. So I dressed and got out. My destination today was the little town of Dachau, around 20 min. away from the Munich City Center to see what is left of Dachau Concentration Camp. The Nazis had established few of the similar camps in GermanyPoland and Ukraine, if not in any other country. Dacha, alongside with Auschwitz are probably the most notorious ones.  
My intention originally was curiosity and then spending time in and around Munich, of course, especially because there is no admission and I paid only €8.4 for a return ticket on S-Bahn and that alto included the bus ride from the train station to the camp.
Whether anyone would go, if there was a fee, I can't say but in West normally the schools are the first customers of such sites and they get breaks especially because they are continuous customers. There's no doubt in my mind that governments have spent millions to keep up and running this site and preserve and even modify it the way they want but the entire story is what is seen.
The site is very clean and well-maintained but does have a few staff only. Reading all of the material and seeing all of the documentaries requires probably more than 4 hours but that was out of my league especially because it was crowded with German youth in the barracks and information centers.
I guess if the governments, particularly American, German and maybe Israeli would have spent the, same money on educating their youth, telling them to stop hating foreigners, the result would have been much better. However racism and hatred could not be stopped, unfortunately. This is what is seen in the world in the past decade. People show less tolerance and tend to depart. Former Yugoslavia, the recent elections in Québec and Scotland are good examples. People have more tendency to fight to become friends these days and this truly proves whatever was the intention of memorial sites such as Dachau, has failed.
As per visiting the site I should say it is recommended and worth one trip. You should spend as much as 2 hours in there. I personally knew many stories myself but they are documented and in more detail which is good for someone who prepares a report or investigates about a family member. There will be similar sites to this, in different shape only, one day in Iran!
(Photo: Part of the camp's wall, its fences, barbed wires, ditch [or maybe moat] and watch towers have been preserved to give a sense of environment once many have to live in their last few months of their lives)

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