My first impressions of Germany were that everything is so nice! There was a line of Mercedes Benz Taxis at the airport and Germany being the home of the autobahn, I felt like our driver had been told to "step on it". After being in Amsterdam and Paris where there were lots of old, ornate, beautiful buildings, it was quite obvious that Germany had been devastated by the war (they estimate that 80% of Munich was destroyed by WWII) and since they had to start over from scratch, everything just looks so new!!
We spent our first full day working. Andy met
with the branch office and I worked on finishing up some things for an SEC audit we had while I was gone (that's a whole 'nother story). We finished up work stuff early that afternoon and we went to the Numphenburg Castle. It's a SPRAWLING castle on several acres of beautiful gardens. Interspersed among the gardens are various 'cottages' that were once used for parties, hunting retreats, meditation etc. We walked
around for a couple hours and we probably saw about half of all that there was to see.
We then went to a nearby beer garden to have dinner. This is where we saw the meeting of the "Finer Things Club" I posted about earlier. There were several vendors all selling various German foods like sauerkraut, bratwursts, pretzels, rhubarb cake etc and of course, there was beer. Lots of beer. We saw shelves and shelves of beer mugs and there were hundreds of tables
and chairs set out. I can only imagine what that place must be like on the weekends or during Oktoberfest. Fortunately for us, things were pretty mellow that night and we were able to eat in relative peace. We tried a few of the classic German dishes and left without having even tried any beer. Shocking, I know.
The next day, we took a walking tour of Munich and saw the Glockenspiel, the Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady), an outdoor market, the new and old town hall, the Church of St. Peter, etc. along the way, we saw the most adorable kid lederhosen.
That afternoon, we went to
Dachau which was a concentration camp during World War II. Since then, it has been turned into a memorial. When you first walk into the camp, you see an open area where they would have morning and
evening roll calls. To the left were the barracks and to the right there was a main building where prisoners were first brought to be disinfected, shaved and given their uniforms. It's reported that
this camp was built to hold about 6,000 prisoners, but we know there were many more people there at various times through out the war. Overcrowding was a major problem and the conditions were quite deplorable. Prisoners had thin uniforms and shoes in the winter and the summers can get to be quite hot as well. Most of the prisoners at Dachau were males.
We were able to walk through the barracks where they had reconstructed bunk beds, bathrooms and locker rooms. I say
reconstructed because when the camp was ultimately shut down, the buildings were in such bad condition (infested with rats and diseases, warped wood, no foundations, etc.) that they had to just get rid of them.
We also walked through the prison cells where people were tortured...kept in spaces so small that they couldn't stand up, kept in the dark for so long that when they did finally go outside, their retinas would burst, kept in extreme heat or cold, etc.
Dachau is one of three remaining camps that has a crematorium--
two, actually. One had two furnaces and the other had four. It was extremely sobering to walk through the disinfection room, the holding room, the "shower" room where thousands of people were gassed to death, another holding room and finally to the crematorium. I had to force myself to take it in as the structure it was...and not to think about what happened there. It was really creepy, but it was an experience I will always remember. Our guide was really good and told us a few stories from those who survived.
Sorry the video is so hard to follow. We were in a hurry to leave and catch the bus so I had to film while walking. In the video, I said that the main building was where they manufactured metals. It was also where prisoners were first brought, disinfected, issued uniforms etc. Behind that building is the jail cell where some of the more severe forms of torture took place.
The prevailing concept I came away from Dachau with was that Germany has taken a huge step in the right direction simply by recognizing that the Holocaust took place and the injustices that people carried out against one another. Even as we were touring the camp, there was a group of German soldiers who were also on a tour. Our guide explained that high school students, military etc are encouraged to come to the concentration camp memorials so they can learn about what took place there. There are countries all over the world that have commited gross attrocities (the US included...i.e. Guantanimo). Take, for example, China and the Cultural Revolution. People do not want to talk about their experiences during the Cultural Revolution--either because it was too painful or because they are afraid of being censured by the government. I hasten to point out that while China has come a long way in terms of restoring a sense of humanity, it still struggles in terms of human rights issues. As with individuals, the first step in correcting a problem is to recognize that there is one. That's why I am glad that Germany has preserved the camps as memorials and encourages visitors to learn about what took place there. Simply recognizing the faults of a country or an individual is the first step in preventing such atrocities from hapening in the future.
The next day, we returned home.
