What’s to say about Dachau? Our visit there today was sobering, chilling and a reminder of what terrible evil humanity is capable of inflicting on fellow humans. Why Germans permitted and participated in the imprisonment, torture and killing of innocent human beings is the question we all, and especially Germans, must ask ourselves. Dachau brings the question front and center. Our guide quoted Mark Twain’s warning: “The past doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes.”

We met our guide at the Marienplaz near the glockenspiels and joined eight other tourists for the train ride to the town of Dachau and then a short bus ride to the concentration camp site. James, the guide, is an Australian living in Munich and working as a tour guide. He has a girlfriend and a four-year-old kid. His matter-of-fact description of the facility and telling of stories about what went on here were quite effective. He pulled no punches but didn’t over-dramatize events.

Dachau was a prisoner and work camp, not, as I had assumed, an execution site like Auschwitz although there were several satellite gas chamber sites under Dachau’s control. In fact, the Nazis maintained hundreds of work, torture and execution sites around Germany. Dachau controlled a hundred or more. How could the Nazis afford the manpower to run so many sites? Prisoners did all the work building, maintaining and running the prisons. Prisoners were even responsible for torture and even killing of fellow inmates. And not all prisoners were Jews. Many were political foes, dissidents and Catholic priests as well as true criminals. It was the criminal class that often took on the torture duties in exchange for special treatment.

Which is not to say that Dachau didn’t kill many prisoners even without gas. Thousands died here from torture, hanging, firing squad, overwork, malnutrition and disease.  Dachau did have a gas chamber, but it was apparently never used. Prisoners were herded into an entrance room and told to strip for a shower after which they were told that they would be assigned to living quarters. The next room, the shower, was the gas chamber in which tens of prisoners were gassed. The room beyond was a crematorium.

Today, school kids learn about what the Nazis did in the death camps. Students come from Dachau from all over the country to learn first-hand what went on here.

Upon our return to Munich, James gave us restaurant recommendations. We ended up at the nearby Cathedral for lunch: “Go to either the one on the left of the Cathedral entrance or the right, but not in the middle.” Two couples from our Dachau tour group were there too and we ate with them – two sisters and their husbands. It ended up being a pleasant late lunch of German fare and conversation.

Back at the hotel we took a good nap and organized our stuff for the next leg. Our Airbnb can’t be accessed by car, so we’ve consolidated our clothing for Salzburg, plus 10 days of laundry, into a single suitcase.

The same pair of fellow diners gave us a recommendation for dinner: “Really great goulash!” It showed as a 17-minute walk on Google but turned out to be more like 25. The goulash was good and we took a taxi home.

Tomorrow we’re off to the land of Mozart and Sound of Music.

Since I’m driving the bus tomorrow and it’s going on 11 PM, I’m going to post pictures later.