It was Wednesday when we arrived in Munich and we were planning on staying there until Saturday morning when we would go with Heini and Ingrid to Regensburg, one of the oldest cities in Germany, founded my Romans in 100 BC (or somewhere around there). Wednesday night Heini took us to Starnberg. We went to a fancy little restaurant where Zach and I had liver soup and I had fresh fish from the lake near the restaurant. It was good though, with the exception of the liver soup. Zach liked it (but what does he know?) It was a nice evening and we were able to get to know our hosts a little better. The lake area was beautiful and Heini told us that on a clear night, you can see some of the tallest Alps, we were just able to see the foothills.
Thursday, July 7th was the day Zach and I were planning to go to Dacahu Concentration Camp. I have always wanted to visit one of these places but it’s not something you enjoy in the sense that it is fun or nice or exciting. It’s a permanent reminder of what can happen when the world turns a blind eye and when bad people with bad ideas gain more power than they should ever hold. The town of Dachau is nice and looks like a quiet, small Germany town. The concentration camp area is surrounded by greenery and big trees. It’s almost beautiful if you don’t know what went on there. Zach and I were lucky enough to get to Dachau right before an English tour and we were glad we took it.
The history of Dachau is long; it was the first concentration camp built and was the last to be shut down by the Allied Forces. It was open for 12 years, beginning in March of 1933 and was closed May 1945. It was opened only two months after Hitler took power. The camp was publicized as a political containment camp for only men. Hitler mainly sent people who opposed him, his political rivals, and anyone who threatened his political ruling in Germany. Most men who were sent here in the beginning were released a year or two afterwards. Hitler was not someone who wanted to “spoil” German blood so if you were German, you were either released or sat in a prison, not made to work. The camp was built and expanded by prisoners and before WWII it was able to house 6,000 people in 30 bunker structures. When the US forces found and took over the camp, over 30,000 people were in Dachau. The Nazis had different labels for people, gays, antisocial, Jews, people who weren’t necessarily Jews but did not “fit” with what Hitler thought the dominate race would be. Dachau was a work camp, it was not the same as Auschwitz where people were sent there to die. This is not to say that people did not die in Dachau. In fact, Dachau was the model camp that every other concentration camp was made to resemble. The Nazis or new members to the Third Reich were trained here and they were then sent to other death camps. Dachau was a horrible place. The men were beaten, made to work all day long, all year long. There was disease and malnutrition. The Nazis would experiment on the prisoners; many German planes were being shot down in the north and they would die of hypothermia before they were rescued. Nazi’s would perform hypothermia experiments to see how long the human body could last in water. There was also a separate part of the camp where the gas chambers and crematorium were. There were prisoners that worked here too, but they were kept separate from the rest of the camp. People would be gassed and burned here. There was never mass murder like in Auschwitz but the German army needed a place to learn how to run a death camp. Thousands died here.
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| The different prisoner classifications |
Even after the camp was rescued from the Nazis, people couldn’t leave. There was so much sickness and disease and starvation that it took months for some people to be strong enough to leave. Even after the Nazis were defeated, some people died. I will forever remember this trip to Dachau and it was such a moving experience. I do not mean to upset or disturb anyone who has read this and wish they wouldn’t have, but I want to show you just a piece of what I experienced and maybe send a reminder to the world that this horror only happened 65 years ago and it’s not something the world should forget. Even Heini said his great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather, grandfather and father all fought in a war. His is the first generation that hasn’t known any war. Germany is still affected by its actions in WWII.
Zach and I were able to tour the city of Munich some on Thursday but we needed to come back to Heini’s home to get ready for a jazz concert that night. We went and saw a world famous French jazz musician in a courtyard of the royal residence in downtown Munich. Should I restate that sentence again? I mean, how cool is that?! Despite the fact I never listen to jazz, it was a fun experience. We also met two of Heini’s friends and their next-door neighbors. They are Czech so please don’t ask me to spell or quite remember their names! They were lovely though and were the cutest 70 year-old couple I have seen.
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| The Rathaus at night |
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| the streets of Munich |
One thing I will say about Heini is he doesn’t need much sleep. He can stay up until midnight or later and wake up at 5am. Zach and I were exhausted every day and when we woke up, felt like we could sleep for another 3 hours. It did get us going and we were able to see more of the city than we normally would have. On Friday, Zach and I spent all day in downtown Munich. It was rainy in the morning so we found a Starbucks, had our books with us, and snuggled into chairs to sip on coffee and read. It was a very relaxing morning and just what we needed. At 11, we went to the Rathaus, the town hall, to watch the glockenspiel. It’s such a typical German thing and everyone was very excited about it.
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| Old Roman ruins |
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| the Rathaus |
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| The opera house |
Next was the Royal Residence which was HUGE. I don’t know how much better to describe the place. It was mostly destroyed in WWII by bombs so much of the place is restored. There are normally over 130 rooms to see, but they are doing construction so we could only see 80. EIGHTY! That is about 4 times the amount of rooms you normally see on a royal residence tour. It took us three hours and we didn’t go into the treasury or even listen to the audio-guide the entire time. It was very nice though and looked like it could house an army and a half!
For lunch, Zach and I went back to the Viktuelienmmark where we had wandered into the day before. We had beer, pretzels and bratwurst on buns for lunch. It was so much fun to be sitting in a beer garden in Munich. The food was great and so was the beer. We walked around the place which was very much like a farmer’s market with more handmade goods. Zach had read about this beer hall called Hofbrauhaus. It’s world famous and so, with a few stops in some stores for me, we went for another beer. It was quite the place! There was traditional Bavarian music, the workers were wearing Lederhosen, and there were girls selling baskets of pretzels. It was quiet enjoyable.
We also wanted to see the English Gardens. Zach had heard it was a beautiful place to go and we walked all across the downtown area to reach this place. It was worth the walk however and we enjoyed a view of the pond with ducks and a Japanese Tea House while reading our books. We were exhausted and ready to go home. We made our way back and we stepped inside the house to both Heini and Ingrid. Unfortunately, Ingrid wasn’t feeling well. Heini asked us what we did and after 10 minutes of hearing about our day, he wanted us to get in the car so he could show us more of Munich. We were off again to downtown Munich.
What was cool was at the English Garden. We had missed it but Heini showed us an area on the little river where the stream went fast enough to create a wave and people were surfing…on the river! It was actually really cool and I was glad Heini showed us. He also took us to the famous Chinese Beer Garden in the English Gardens. We had beer, pretzels and some cheese thing to spread on the pretzel. It was really fun and an awesome beer garden. I think it was one of my favorites.
Zach and I were more than ready for bed that night and we didn’t even bother to pack for the coming weekend in Regensburg. With a thanks and goodnight to Heini, we feel asleep right away and I slept like a baby. Munich had worn us out!
Love,
Sara
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