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Dachau Travel Blogs

Background: As Europe's largest economy and most populous nation, Germany remains a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO, while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War allowed for German unification in 1990. Since then, Germany has expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro.

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By Kurtis
October 15th 2008

Dachau Concentration Camp

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Dachau

Dachau Concentration Camp
The entrance.....It looked so innocent until you learnt what waswas happening

Tuesday 30th September Dachau Concentration Camp We arrived at the camp early and there were so many people and so many tour buses. Also surprising were the amount of Germany high school students. We hired some audio guide and started to walk around. There was a big museum like set up, with heaps of exhibits to read. The exhibits were set up in original rooms, so while you read and listened to the guide, you were also given the history of the room. After lunch which we had in the motor home, my Dad and I chose to do an English [View Full Entry]

By travelon86
September 7th 2008

Dachau and Saltzburg, Austria

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Dachau

Train tracks
Where the prisoners were brought in

Today was definitely an emotional day. We left Munich in the morning and headed towards Saltzburg, Austria and on the way we stopped at Dachau. Dachau was the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis, and it was a model for all of the other concentration camps, and it was also the last one to be liberated by the Allies. I really can't say much about it because I wouldn't be able to put into words the atrocities that occurred there. On a happier note, we traveled from Germany to Austria today. The ride was beautiful; about 2 hours in, [View Full Entry]

By DanMons
August 14th 2008

10th August - Dachau

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Dachau

Roll call area

Today we visited the Dachau Concentration camp remains from world war two. It was very interesting and very sobering. Some 200,000 people died in Dachau from 1933-1945. There are now a number of memorial buildings and sculptures on the site of the camp set amongst the remaining buildings, which include barracks, SS buildings, cell block, gas chambers and crematorium. It’s unbelievable what the prisoners were put through in the camp and that mankind can be so cruel to his fellow human race. We ended up spending the whole day at the camp going around the different sites and looking throu [View Full Entry]

By bsktcase
July 26th 2008

Dachau

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Dachau

Dachau
It was incredibly hot out, and LG's bag was heavy, putting us both in exactly the right frame of mind all day. We stopped for this pic on our way back to the bus.

I think pretty much everyone, including our tour guide, thought I was insane for bringing an 8-year-old to the KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau (Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial). Sure, all German schoolkids are required to visit a concentration camp, but that's 12- and 14-year-olds. Not 8. By the end of our tour, our guide had no doubt why I figured LG could handle it. Throughout the tour, I was happy to let LG wander off, or zone out; I certainly didn't force her to listen attentively to the catalogue of atrocities committed at Dachau. Inside the museum, we breezed quickly past the most gra [View Full Entry]

By Lani
May 25th 2008

Munich

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Dachau

Munich Train Station

One Day: When we arrived at the train station, we went to our couchsurfing.com host's (Norbs) house, and he was not at home. When we called him he told us he had the dates mixed up for our arrival. He told us he would be home in the afternoon and we can come back then. Lucky for us, the train station had locker where we could store our stuff. We decided to just go back to the station, store our bags and head to Dachau to go to the work camp and catch up with Norbs when we got back. We [View Full Entry]

By Roaming Rosie
April 27th 2008

The Birth of Hell (a.k.a. The First Protective Custody Camp)

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Dachau

Propaganda
Arbeit Macht Frei = Work Shall Set You Free.

In 1933, Hitler had recently gained power in Germany and needed a new place to imprison his political opponents. Thus was the birth of the Dachau Concentration Camp, or KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau. The city of Dachau is over a thousand years old, even older than its close neighbor of Munich, and the buildings of the concentration camp date back to WWI, when they were used as an armaments factory. When Germany lost the Great War, they were no longer allowed to produce armaments, and the factory at Dachau was abandoned. Later, in March of 1933, the Munich Chief of Police announced that [View Full Entry]

By peters family trip
March 19th 2008

On the way to Dachau

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Dachau

Hi it’s Austin again. Tomorrow we get onto the plane to go home. WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I don’t want to go I want to live here! I mean, no offense, I miss you all and it’s not that I don’t like you; it’s just that I could live here I love everything here. I am also a quarter Austrian and a quarter German I think. If you look at me closely and you know what Europeans look like, and can see that I am part European. When I go home, I don’t want you all staring at me so forget it. Well, [View Full Entry]

By BTrim
January 28th 2008

Dachau

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Dachau

Entrance gate to Dachau

This is where things take a more serious turn. I'm down at the lake because 1. It's a beautiful day, although a little windy, and 2. It's peaceful. I find that's what you need in order to write about something like that. To be honest, I enjoyed Dachau. You always hear horror stories about the Holocaust, but it's a completely different thing to actually be there and see it. I thought of Helga the whole time. Everything there was gray. Apparently one of the building used to be green, but I don't think I saw it. I remember seeing the place [View Full Entry]

Memorial to prisoners who were hung from these stakes

By Hendo2008
January 25th 2008

Germany - Dachau - Concentration Camp

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Dachau

After the morining in Amsterdam looking at the museum, we got back on the bus and headed towards Germany, on the way we stopped at the Dachau Concentration Camp, we were at little unsure of what to expect. When we arrived it was snowing and it was about minus 2. We all walked up through the gates and Aaron gave a quick talk about the camp. We then went and watch a video on the camp. It was a very raw video and I didn't realise how much people had suffered. We looked around the musuem and went in to the [View Full Entry]

By Seeking Nirvana
January 25th 2008

The Holocaust

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Dachau

Gate entering into Dachau
states "Arbeit Macht Frei" or "Work Will Set You Free."

Warning: This blog is depressing. We did the trip to Dachau on December 25th, and the trip to Prague 5 days later. Throughout our travels in Europe, we have taken time to visit reminders of human-kinds occasionally destructive nature. In the Netherlands, we visited the Anne Frank House, and witnessed the fear, the intimidation, and the spying that infected every day life of those people living under the Nazi regime. In the Munich suburb of Dacchau, we toured the Dacchau Concentration Camp. In Prague, we witnessed the destruction that continues today due to the Holocaust. It should b [View Full Entry]

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