Dachau Concentration Camp

On Thursday I had an opportunity to visit Dachau with the Truett Seminary team who led our SEMP retreat. Dachau was one of the first concentration camps during WWII. It was a pretty somber experience and hard to grasp the harsh, inhumane conditions and utter devastation of what it was like for the prisoners. In the camp museum, you can read accounts, see pictures and watch a short film of the history. I saw pictures of piles of dead bodies - bodies so malnourished that you can see every bone pushing against the skin. The clothing people were wasn't remotely adequate for warmth and the food supply was beyond minimal. It's a wonder anyone survived their time there. This past summer while working at a camp for disabled veterans, I met a WWII vet whose unit was one of the first to liberate Dachau. I can't imagine what it would have been like to walk into the camp and see the horrendous living conditions.

I thought this was an interesting piece of art in front of the museum.

This is the main gate leading into the camp. Prisoners would come through here for in processing. It reads "Work will set you free."

Replica's of the bunk rooms.

The crematoriams.

Many of our students have visited this place as well. Every Wednesday I go to the middle school as classes are dismissing for the day, and I wait for my Bible study girls. Once they're all there, we walk to a house about 8 minutes away. This past week, I was talking with one of the gals who'd been there and asked her what it was like for her. It made for a good talk on how fallen and broken our world is. I think both of us still struggle to comprehend how people (mainly the prison guards) could be so totally hardened and treat people is such devastating ways.