Day Eight: Learning in Even More Depth

Today was a very very emotional day. As soon as we got up this morning, we took a bus to Dachau, the first concentration camp in WWII. I have been learning about the Holocaust my entire life and taken several classes dedicated to it, but nothing hit me as hard as being where it all happened. Regardless of the number of videos I've seen or books I've read about the awful events that occurred, nothing prepared me for today. While my peers were just learning about the numbers and magnitude of what happened, I already knew this. Being there was a completely different experience. It felt as if I was taking the same steps that so many people who I've learned about have taken.

We got to the visitor center around 10:15, where we met up with our tour guide, a women of Latin descent who is fluent in at least Spanish, German, and English. I thought she was the perfect tour guide; she was clear, loud and sympathetic. She led us in the main gate and down the left side, past electric fences and a ditch that was dug in an effort to prevent prisoners from escaping. On the map below, there are a lot of clear rectangles, which used to be bunkers, but were taken down and are now just marked spots on the ground. We went into the back to see the gas chambers and crematorium, which completely broke my heart. We were given the option to walk through the gas chambers, which I tried, but ultimately couldn't. I left the building out the emergency exit. This whole area was covered by trees, so it was out of view from those in the camp itself. We then looped around to pass the Russian Orthodox chapel, Protestant church and Catholic chapel. The only thing I wish the tour guide did differently was stop by the Jewish memorial. She pointed out what it was from a distance, but we never actually went in it or by it, which I really would have liked to do. We had a 20 minute break to do what we wanted when we got back to the visitor center, but at that point, I would not have made it if I tried to go that far. If it were incorporated into the tour, I would have appreciated it.

I was not emotionally stable enough to actually be productive today, so I have no pictures from the Dachau visit besides the one above. This was at the exit of the camp, which I thought was a perfect way to tie up the tour. Unfortunately, after we saw this and were ready to leave, there was a documentary that we were brought to, which made us relive everything we had just learned all over again. I did not like the way the tour ended; if it had ended with this monument, I would have much preferred that.

After the Dachau tour, I needed a little time to recover, which is what I used the bus ride for. We went back to the hotel and split into our company groups to work. At this point, we have visited 4 out of 5 companies, all except for PPG, which is my group. That made it tricky for my group to work. So we basically just came up with a list of questions to ask at the presentation, which wasn't for another 2 days. Another group was working in the lobby, so we worked in Sarah and my hotel room. For dinner, we were all too lazy to go out, so we ordered Chinese food to the hotel! It was pretty much the same as the Chinese food you would get in America, except for the egg rolls. They were massive. A bunch of the German students came to the hotel to hang out for the evening, and I think we ended up having 21 people in one hotel room at one point. But only for a minute or two because there's barely enough room for 3 people to live in that room. We went to a dance club that night as a big group!

Patrick, Christian, Alex (kinda), Katie, Lucie, Lindsey, me and Raegan. It's weird how close we all got in a week.

Jan and me on the tram

Veronica's Struggle of the Day:

During dinner, I dropped a whole roll of sushi on the ground and ate it anyway.