A trip to Germany also means a trip back in time to the early 20th century

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to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

If you want the background on the camp, please see link below:
More info

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I told myself I was going. I didn't care if Vicky didn't want to go. I'd go on the tour by myself. Without hesitation.

Luckily, she wanted to go. So we went.

I prepared myself for what would probably be a very emotional day. I wasn't even aware of this concentration camp because it was overshadowed by the larger ones like Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and Treblinka. Still though, it was part of history -- and it was very emotional to have been there. One of my friends here from the US, told me that her grandfather was one of the troops who helped to liberate Sachsenhausen. I teared up from her even just telling me that.

Learning about the wars and hearing about the Holocaust in school as a child, is fascinating. You learn about the infinite reach of human evil and grow up knowing that Hitler was infamous for extending that reach.

As an adult on the other hand, visiting Sachsenhausen was eye-opening, incredible and almost unbelievable. To see this evil, frozen in time, in the buildings, rooms, personal effects like shoes and the tell-tale blue striped uniforms, and cutlery used to sustain these people enough only to watch each other die was emotionally draining.

I didn't cry, per se. But instead felt a heaviness in my soul. I took a second to gather myself together to realize of the gravity of the events that happened there. Of how many people died there. Of how this was not the only place. Of how things like this, mass genocides and hatred based on uncontrollable factors STILL HAPPEN IN 2010.

"Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it" -- George Santayana

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Being in Europe for 6 months now, I know what St. Augustine meant when he said that 'The world is a book, and those who don't travel only read a page'.

My travels as a 21 year old began as a cliche, a spring break trip with my girlfriends to Cancun, Mexico where we participated in all the excesses of youth. Now, 7 years later, my travels have taken on a different form.

Travel. Not just for fun, and not just to see some place you haven't seen, but instead to learn things you will NEVER learn in school and feel things you will never feel again. The brain is not a vessel to be filled, but instead a fire to be fueled.


* If photos don't show up in the preview, click them. They should show up then.

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Photos

Main Entrance
The time on the clock is when the camp was liberated.