5/15

Today we visited the very first concentration camp which is located in Dachau. As we entered the building the words "work will set you free" were in German on the gate. Seeing that phrase truly drove home the pain as words truly cannot describe the way I felt during the visit. Clearly the Germans had no intention of ever letting the prisoners leave the camp. Growing up we learn about the camps and the Nazi party but when you actually set foot on the grounds you can feel the suffering in the air. All the actual barracks where they kept the prisoners had been destroyed since the mid nineties. However, the torture cells still remained in tact. As we walked down the halls I began to envision prisoners suffering in the cells as Nazi troops patrolled the hallway. The whole time I could not believe how humans could do something so horrible to other humans. The most tragic part of the visit was walking through the gas chamber and the crematorium. It was almost as if I could feel something in the air, a feeling of death remained in the air. As we were leaving the camp, Jan remarked to me, ""It is hard visiting these sites with Americans because we Germans feel ashamed, we feel like you guys look at us as if to say "how could you let this happen"". For some reason what Jan said to me stuck with me. Part of what he said was right, sadly and wrongfully sometimes I do ask myself, "how could Germans let this happen?" However, after visiting Dachau I realized it is the worlds fault for letting this happen. Humans never learn from their mistakes. People say WWII was the war to end all wars, and as I write these words, world tensions are rising and America is closer and closer to another global war. So to respond to Jan's comments, he should not be ashamed of his history but instead humanity as a whole should be ashamed because we all let something like this happen. After we got back from Dachau my SGL group and I worked on our presentations due in a couple days.