The Events of Wednesday, July 13, 2011 

                At 2:35 this morning, the silent night turned into a roar of pounding rain and booming thunder. Flashes of lightning illuminated the walls of the bedroom Lindsey and I share. The constant noise woke me, and I enjoyed a couple minutes of saying “Wow!” at God’s power. Soon, the rain lightened to a constant patter, and I slept soundly until 7:30.

                Soon, we were driving to Dachau to see the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Just before we arrived at the camp, we saw a garage that specialized in oil changes. Since a Renault dealership wanted to charge €150 for a simple oil change, Dad wanted to pop in and check for a better price. After a bit of figuring, we found it would be only €59, so we made reservations to return this afternoon.

                The KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau complex is huge, so we really had to hustle to make it from the parking lot, past the information center, through the gate, around the museum, into the theater for the 11:30 film. We found six seats just before the lights went down. The film was not the best quality, but it served as a good introduction to the horrors of Dachau. Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp and the training center for many SS officers and high-ranking officials. The prison started off holding only political prisoners, but later in the war housed all sorts of people from all over Europe. This camp was a labor camp for men, not a death camp like Auschwitz. Even so, conditions were very bad, and over 32,000 of the 206,000 prisoners that passed through the camp died.

                When the film finished, we headed to the information center to eat our picnic lunch in an inner courtyard. After the meal, we purchased our tickets for the guided tour of the camp. Our guide, Franz, soon arrived, introduced himself, and started our tour. He began with some early history of the camp and of the Nazi rise to power. When Hitler became Chancellor, he began putting his political opponents in jail. His “opponents” included Christian politicians, Catholic priests, Communist politicians, and generally anyone in power who didn’t like the Nazis. Dachau was the first concentration camp, billed a “re-education” center at the time. It was built near a WWI munitions factory, which was used during the war to manufacture ammunition for German troops.

                Franz led us on, to the main entrance. From 1933 to 1945, this was the only entrance. An iron gate kept the prisoners in, and the world out. In the center of the gate, three famously tantalizing words greet the visitor: ARBEIT MACHT FREI (work makes you free). These words were placed on every gate to every concentration camp in Europe.

                When we entered the courtyard, Franz guided our attention to the central memorial on the parade ground. The central statue depicts emaciated bodies mutilated to form barbed wire. It symbolizes the horrible circumstances the men had to endure: mean guards, hard work, poor clothing, bad food (if they got any), humiliation, and a loss of human dignity. The SS strove to force the prisoners to remove their identification as human beings. When they entered the camp, they were issued a number, which gradually replaced their names. They were mocked, beaten, and worked to complete demoralization.

                From the courtyard, Franz led us through the reconstructed barrack. It was built to show the gradual change over time from the nice bunks of the early years to the cramped boards of the last few years. When Dachau had relatively few prisoners (only about 5,000), the beds consisted of mattresses, sheets, and blankets. In addition, each prisoner had a plate, fork, and spoon to eat their hearty rations. In 1938, the attitude toward prisoners changed. They lost all the niceties and moved in to smaller bunks. These, however, still had separations between beds. In the last two years of the war, when Nazi troops were forced back westward from Russia, the eastern camps were emptied. The prisoners were sent all over Germany. Dachau got crowded. Soon, hundreds of men lay packed together on bunk-boards.

                Franz led us down the camp’s main road to the religious memorials. From there, we headed out a side gate to the crematorium area. On the way, we had a look at the tight security to keep the prisoners in the camp. The first area was a death strip of grass; anyone who set foot in the strip would be shot. Next was a ditch, six feet wide and four feet deep. From there, lucky escapees would be trapped in a net of barbed wire. Finally, an eight-foot-tall electric fence stopped any final attempts. None escaped from the camp. However, the electric fence was commonly used as a quick method of suicide for prisoners who could not stand the torment any longer.

                In the crematorium area stand two buildings: the old and new crematoriums. The old, with two ovens, was used until 1943, when the new crematorium was completed. The New Crematorium contained four ovens, a gas chamber, and a room for disinfecting clothes. The gas chamber, although used for the extermination of small groups, was probably never used on the scale of the gas chambers of Auschwitz or Treblinka. Actually seeing a gas chamber, where innocent people were herded in and murdered, was a very sobering experience.

                To complement the solemn mood, the clouds began to let down rain. Franz led us quickly to the museum, where he told us more about the camp’s horrible history. The notable sight was the torture room, where corporal punishment was administered. The camps were run in a system to force the prisoner to physically and mentally collapse. The SS used many, many rules to force the prisoners into a helpless state. Disobedience was met with torture. The prime method of torture was by flogging. Prisoners would have to count the beats (typically 25) in German. If they didn’t speak enough German to count, the guards wouldn’t stop.

                Halfway through the tour, Dad had to leave to make our oil change reservation. While he waited for the repairs, he headed next door to an electronics shop and purchased a plug so we can charge our laptop in Europe. Problem solved! After he finished the errands, he met us by the concentration camp exit, and we headed home. On the way, we saw lots of signs for “Blumen, selber schneiden” near fields of flowers. We deduced that it’s a sort of U-Pick for fresh flowers. What a good idea! As we drove, the sky turned a dark, dark gray and started pouring. It rained so hard, we decided to open our sunroof just to watch the rain come down.

                Once we were back in Kaufering, we idled the afternoon away. While dinner was in the oven, we turned on the TV to watch the US vs. France World Cup Semifinals. Since the game was so enrapturing, we continued watching over a dinner of fish sticks, yams, rice, and cherry strudel for dessert. We were all very excited when the US beat France 3-1. It means they are headed to the final…and we will have something to watch Sunday night! But just as the next semifinal game started, which decided who the US will meet on the 17th, it was time for bed.