June 26-29, 2004
More than 200,000 Jews imprisoned and tortured here, near Munich, between 1933 and 1945. More than 43,000 of them died. A chilling place, even on a hot day.
Across a bleak roll-call area, imprisoned Jews were forced to stand motionless for hours. International memorial by Nandor Glid, built in 1968. Camp fencing of electrified barbed wire with grass strips, ditches, and a camp wall. Guards in seven towers shot at prisoners who stepped onto the grass.
Camp road with the poplars planted by prisoners, their meeting place during their few free hours. Two of the 34 barracks remain. Built to hold 200 prisoners each, they eventually were crammed with up to 2,000 each. Horrific medical experiments conducted by the Nazi Third Reich in three of them.
Not shown: two crematoriums, which included four furnaces for murdered prisoners--and a gas chamber for exterminating them, apparently never used.
Disturbing displays explained the Nazi rise to power and war: Fear of a vague enemy ... Fear of what people looked like ... Fear of their religion ... Attacks on minorities ... Charismatic leaders ... Vengeance ... Courts overturning human rights ... Government propaganda and lies ... Feeding untruths to the news media ... Limiting access to information ... Setting examples of "critics" ... Stifling dissent ... Rounding up "enemies" ... Spying on ordinary citizens, on one another ... Torturing to get information ... One-party rule ... Merger of state and corporate power ... Flouting international law ... Attacking, invading and occupying sovereign countries ...
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Follow-up respite at a Baroque rococo-style "church in a sweet meadow," on the way to Bavaria near Oberammergau. Jesus rides a rainbow in the ceiling painting. Originally built 1746-1754. Lunch at the Bier-brewing Andechs Monastery with German spam ... uh, meatloaf, powerful cheese, and other people gnawing pig knuckles.
Photo of group members in Andechs.
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To Germany I: Bacharach and St. Goar in The Rhineland, Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Bacharach | Rothenburg | Dachau | Wieskirche
Auf Wiedersehen to Germany! Danke to the beauty, history and inspiration.
Copyright Gary and Donna Larson, Seattle, Washington. Updated Feb. 17, 2007.