Munich Day 1 - Somber Start

Today I arrived in Munich by 1 p.m. I got to my hotel, took a shower, and set off on 2 trains and a bus to get to Dachau, the concentration camp that trained most of the SS officers in WWII. As expected, even 60-ish years later, you could still feel the horror that went on here.

But what I expected to be completely horrified by was the crematoriums. But what I found is that this was expected for me. I'd seen pictures. Don't get me wrong, seeing the real pullies still hanging where they would hang prisoners before burning them was almost vomit-inducing... And there were some torturous things that felt irreverent to be even looking at, even with tears in my eyes, let alone standing and photographing.

But what REALLY got to me was standing here. In the room tens of thousands of people were told to strip down to walk into the "shower". I stood there for what felt like ages before I was able to walk in.

Into the room where the "shower" heads once hung. And the peep holes so they knew when everyone was dead still exist. I swear, I could feel them still there...

I've talked about going to this place with a lot of people. Some are adamant that they would never do it. But I'm really glad I went. Not happy, but glad that I walked somewhere where something so horrific happened decades before I was even born, and it makes me so angry and horrified that it happened.

I think this visit is going to stick with me for a while.