May 13, 2012 Dachau and Haffbrauhaus

May 13, 2012

Happy Mother’s Day to all!!! We started off our day with breakfast in the hotel lobby before venturing to the train station to make our journey to the concentration camp called Dachau. Dachau is one of the oldest concentration camps in Germany and was actually the only one that was operational all twelve years of Hitler’s reign.  The train ride was pretty enjoyable and we rode by parts of Munich I never would’ve seen otherwise. We also found a poster for a horse show this coming weekend, but sadly I will not be able to attend because I’ll be in Paderborn visiting one of my best friends.

Not too much later we finally arrived at Dachau. We had to take a bus to the actual prisoner camp and then it was just a short walk to the entrance of the camp. The main entrance of the camp had the words “Work Makes You Free” in German across the gate of the camp.  Entering you could see where all the barracks used to be and the old administrative building, where the bath houses were and were the prisoners initially walked through.  Walking through the camp to the back of the concentration camp I can’t quite describe how I was feeling. All the barracks had been burned down, due to the immense disease that was present throughout the old barracks, so all that you could see was 34 foundations on either side of a row of trees. We walked down the tree lined path until we reached a path that led out of the prisoner camp to where the two crematoriums were housed. The first crematorium wasn’t used after 1943 and you could only just see inside of it. The second crematorium you could actually walk through the rooms as the prisoners would have. You started in the sanitation room, walked through the de-robing room, and then were in the gas chamber. Supposedly the gas chamber at Dachau was not used for massive gassing of prisoners, but there are reports that it was used for single executions and for small groups. We then headed into the death chamber and then the crematorium where the dead bodies were burned and the last chamber where the dead prisoners from the camp were put to be burned.

I felt a little weird walking through the same building that the prisoners previously had walked through. There were mass graves for the ashes around the crematorium and you could walk right up to the wall where the prisoners were shot by pistol, execution style.  After leaving the crematorium area we walked to the three memorials that had been erected by a Pentecostal church, a catholic church, and the Jewish church. I didn’t go into the Pentecostal one because it was a legitimate church, but I did explore the catholic and the Jewish memorials and both were very well put together. The catholic memorial had a large crown of thorns adorning it, symbolizing the misery that happened at the camp. The Jewish memorial had a ramp that led into darkness with one ray of light coming through a hole in the top of the building where you could see the nine-candle statue symbolizing Judaism at the top of the opening.

I decided to walk back up the camp and see the two barracks that had been reconstructed by the camp when it was turned into a memorial. They showed how the barracks had changed over the years from when the camp had first begun to when it was overcrowded with people. The first barracks each prisoner had their own bunk with a little shelf above it for belongings, in the second room there were still individual beds, stacked three high, but no shelf and no ladder to reach the higher beds, in the last room all the beds were stacked three high and you couldn’t distinguish where one bed ended an another began.  There were 54 prisoners for each sleeping area and there was one wash area that was shared between two different sleeping areas. Each barrack also had a dining area, complete with lockers and a stool for each prisoner. Everything had to be kept in perfect order and nothing was allowed to be put out of place or a prisoner risked being shot. Within the barracks it was common to have suicides, though sometimes so called suicides were really improper treatment from the guards.

I then walked through the museum and read some personal testimonies from prisoners who had survived. The museum took over an hour to get through, but I could have easily spent longer in there reading all of the information. By far not enough time, only spent about two hours total, in Dachau. But emotionally I may not have been able to handle much more.

After taking a short bus ride, and some slight confusion as to which train we should be on, we are on our way back to Munich. I get off with Dr. Copeland and Dr. Rivello a few stops early in order to purchase my ticket to Paderborn this weekend. Despite the fact that it was a bit more than I wanted to spend I finally got it purchased and am officially ready to go to Paderborn on Thursday! Very excited to see Lena and Eric and watch them play football this weekend.

On our way we stopped and I got to try my first espresso in Germany. Can I just say that it is so much better here! Thanks Dr. Rivello for getting me that! We then head back to the hotel for the afternoon. While the rest of my group decides to sleep I opt to go for a run and find out where this infamous English Garden is.

Only getting slightly confused on where I was going once I eventually find the Garden about a mile away from the hotel. I fell in love the instant my foot hit the dirt path. First off the dirt paths to run on were a welcome relief from the hard pavement I had been running on and I could practically feel my shin splints disappearing.  The park was GORGEOUS! There were running paths everywhere and for the first time I actually ran into other runners out and about. I decided to run around the large green area towards the front of the park, since I didn’t want to get too lost on my first day. I found this amazing waterfall that was very close to a Japanese garden. Definitely decided to go back another day when my main focus would be taking pictures and not exercise. I’m actually really excited to go back running on those paths and may even go tomorrow before we have to leave for our seminar.

Arriving back at the hotel my fellow classmates were still sleeping so I kill some time on youtube, interestingly enough watching videos on the Europe horse slaughter, and prepare to go back out for dinner. We decide to go to the Haffbrauhaus, which is a famous brewery in Munich that has been around since 1516. Dinner was great, but the beer there was even better! I had my first authentic German liter beer and still have the glass to prove it. J After finishing our sausages and our beer, Molly and I engaged in a chugging contest at the end, which I won, title is still mine! Well minus that one person who beat me. One day I’ll reclaim full honors. We leave the Haffbrauhaus and take the long way back to the hotel through part of the Marienplatza again. I experience my first Burger King in Germany on the way back since it is the only place with ice cream that is still open on a Sunday afternoon. All in all I’m slightly embarrassed that of all the places I could’ve ended up in I went to Burger King, not like I can’t find those in the U.S.. After desert we head back to the hotel since it is a little late at night and we are all ready for some shut eye.