Day of Reflection and Remembrance

The pictures shared yesterday was from our tour of Dauchau Concentration Camp northwest of Munich.  This was a first-time experience for both of us touring a death camp.  How quickly a country and their people can get swept up into a national dream that's all a lie.  The time was ripe for Hitler and his killing machine to set up shop and destroy hundreds, thousands, even millions of lives.  The brutality, violence and unabashed killings were so very disturbing.  We had actually taken a tour while in Nuremberg that showed us how Adolph Hitler started building his "blood and soil" empire.  So many lies and so many duped. There were literally thousands from all over the world visiting the camp the day we were there.  Millions have visited the death camps in Germany and Poland since they have opened to the public.  There were those who lost loved ones in this war through the violence and brutality of these camps that were on opposite sides of what to do with the camps following the war.  Right away, many wanted them destroyed never to remember them again.  The side that won however were those who wanted to preserve the camps, those who wanted to tell their story and show the world what happened in hopes of keeping this from ever happening again.  Remember, this event happened less than a hundred years ago.  That's really not all that long ago and there are still dictators in countries and regions around the world still trying to rule by force and wreaking violence and brutality on humanity to this very day.  Our tour guide claimed that one of his wife's relation was in the room next to Hitler when he took his life.  That was the catalyst that got him interestested in studying and teaching about WW1 and WW2 for the majority of his life.   

In the afternoon we took a second tour in Munich which was proclaimed the "capital city of the movement" during those horrible years when Hitler came to power.  The tour guide was actually the grandson of those who were among those who lived through that horrendous time.  He remembers the resentment, the shame, the prejudice and anger that the German people lived with for two decades following that war.  Jewish families who could trace their families back centuries in Germany, fighting alongside other fellow Germans in many wars lost absolutely everything, including their lives when the Nazi regime took over.  While we were actually in Munich, they had just completed a memorial located in the square made famous by all the thousands of Nazi soldiers hailing their evil cheif Hitler.  The memorial was the place in the square where Hitler had burned any books from the city library that were contrary to his ideals and movement.  Having this memorial is something a greart number of German people have been wanting to do for decades and now, today if finally happened.  At the end of the tour we were shown a memorial for the liberators who came into Munich and liberated the people from the clutches

of the Nazi war machine.  If there is any "heil-Hitler" gesture or any language that demeans other nationalities in Germany it could mean a fine or if you're very intentional with your gestures and language you will serve jail time. 

Art piece of people caught in wire at the camp.             Memorial marking where books were burned.

"Where's Pastor?!" 

Even though we look like we may be in Italy, we are actually coming out of a restaurant that we discovered just across the street from our hotel in Munich.  Today was a travel day to our last German city Frankfort.  We are taking a few days to ourselves as we prepare for our trip to Romania on Friday. We'll try to get back to you on Saturday.  So, please stay tuned.