A trip to Dachau made for an interesting history lesson today.Instead of touring the place on audio or just reading the posts on monuments and sites, Casey and I booked a tour with an independent guide working for the concentration camp. His name is Gordon.
Gordon is a fine artist and provides tours of Dachau on the side. He does it because he is passionate about the history of Bavaria during WWII. Born in Ireland, Gordon has lived in Germany for 8 years, has learned the language, and had some fascinating insights into the culture and its history to share.
The tour was certainly flavoured by Gordon's opinion on the implications of what happened here during the war, what it meant then and how it remains significant in our world today. It was an enlightening experience as I knew little about the development and running of a concentration camp.
Dachau was the central camp, where high profile prisoners were originally held. It eventually became a training ground for S.A. members and a starting point where all prisoners were filtered through.
Gordon is pleased that the camp has become somewhat of a cemetery and a place where families of those who died here are able to visit and mourn. At the same time, the grounds have been imposed on by several religious memorials, each bestowed upon the camp as a reconciliatory gift by different religious denominations.
Here I have captured the peak of the Russian Orthodox monument. This church decided against erecting its memorial on the site of the camp in a motion to keep the location neutral of religious or cultural divisions. I am looking at the monument from across the ditch and beyond the electric barbed wire fence where prisoners were once tempted to cross the line and commit to their execution.
The camp was cold and eerie but not in a way that is spooked. Instead I felt empty here and at the same time fascinated by some of the stories Gordon told. I was less moved by facts and figures than I was by circumstances and opportunities which made the atrocities of WWII possible. The role of the Dachau concentration camp is a piece of this monstrous and materminded puzzle which.
