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Originally we had planned to drive straight to Switzerland from Salzburg but a detour to Dachau, just outside Munich, was too tempting to miss out on, and it would only cost us an extra day.
Dachau, the most famous of all the concentration camps. Grossly overcrowded. Of the 200,000 people imprisoned here during the 12 years it was used, 41,500 were murdered. Although a gas chamber was constructed here it was never used for the large numbers as in some other camps. However, the atrocities conducted here were just as appalling. The camp was built to house 6,000 prisoners but in fact it housed over 63,000 prisoners. The conditions created by the overcrowding were responsible for many deaths. Anyway, you know the rest....
The most sobering moments for Jax & I were: the remains of the station platform where the prisoners first arrived; walking through the gates of the 'Jourhaus' with the words "Work Brings Freedom" above the gate; and the incinerators and adjoining rooms where prisoners were taken, disrobed, executed, and then piled up ready to be burnt.
The day we visited was a beautiful sunny day which did not seem appropriate for such a macabre venue.
However, all the huts, except for two, had been removed leaving just the footprints of the dwellings behind. Also many of the ditches, 'no mans land', were filled in. I wish they had left all these things in place as it would have added even more to the atmosphere and memory of what had happened here.
We left Dachau with much to think about; but after a drink and a piece of pizza we were back on the road to Bavaria and the town of Fussen to get a glimpse of the fairy-tale castles of King Ludwig.
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