On a cold, grey day, also first day of Pesach, we visited Dachau. Hitler opened Dachau, shortly after he became the Führer in 1933. Dachau was the first concentration camp and he modelled subsequent camps after Dachau. It was horrible to see how every detail of the camp was designed to systematically dehumanize the prisoners and strip them of their dignity in a cruel manner. From the minute the prisoners entered into its heavy iron gates, they publically stripped and they were given one thin, ill fitting striped outfit with a star or colored triangle, according to their religion, political conviction or sexual orientation. From the second that the prisoners woke up from their wooden bunks or coops, until they returned to their pen-like wooden bunk beds, they were abused. In the morning, they had to stand at attention for at least one hour and sometimes several hours for daily roll call. If they moved, they would be publically tortured. Then for the rest of the day they were forced to work at hard labor jobs, the women worked in the camp brothels, and given little to no food. They had only public metal toilets out in the open. Seeing all the instruments the Nazis used nauseated us. Germany, unlike many other countries which have tortured and killed in the name of "racial cleansing", has done a good job of showing all the gruesome details and constructing memorials so that the holocaust may never repeat. Unfortunately there are many "holocausts" today where people are dehumanized and killed only because of their personal beliefs.
Fortunately, Schloss Neuschwanstein was more uplifting. King Ludwig II was also crazy, but he only built ridiculously ostentatious castles that bankrupted the Kingdom of Bavaria. Ironically, they are now some of Bavaria's most popular tourist sites. It took King Ludwig II 17 years to build this castle. He lived in it only 177 days before he mysteriously died (taken out of his bed and found dead, along with his psychiatrist, in a knee deep pool). He spared no luxurious details and made one of the first kitchens in the 1860s to have a dumb-waiter. We had fun running around the grounds in a snow storm. Peter, Scott, Natalie, Gia and Annika easily crossed the pedestrian suspension bridge that spanned an impressive and deep canyon. The kids liked seeing the castle that Disney uses in their logo.
What would a vacation be without Justin Bieber? Since Justin Bieber performed in München during our week together, Scott and I took Annika, Gia and Natalie to the Olympic Hall for the show. The three girls went to and hung out in München all day before Scott and I met them in the city center. They enjoyed the independence that German kids experience in their early teens because of Germany's fabulous public transportation system.
All in all, we had a week full of tourist sites, local color and, most important, smiles.
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