Dachau

On making our way to Dachau Concentration Camp, our tour manager Loz gave us an experience I'll always remember. She made us put ourselves in the shoes of someone being ripped out of their home, being sent on a cattle train, seeing friends and family killed or die on the journey, experiencing the sheer terror and hunger within the camp, not knowing what would be coming next. She didn't make it any less easy on us than I do with my students. Factual, relatable but finding ways we could connect but also see the huge difference in the two realities - ours and theirs.

Before going to Dachau, I felt like I knew most of what there was to know. I know now that I know nothing.

Walking down the pathway towards the camp entrance, it was beautiful. I knew what was coming though and sung an oriori to help pave the way clearer so that there would be less resistance going and to honour the memories of those who had been executed and exterminated. Those words are confronting, but nevertheless true.

Walking through those gates with 'Albeit Macht Frei' and seeing the bleak landscape just put me into a state of shock. I couldn't quite believe that I was standing there, but also knowing full well what had happened there. Every step I took potentially had been where someone had died or was murdered.

Loz had asked us to pick up a pebble while there. I found a small yellow one and held it tightly the entire way around the camp.

We didn't have much time there today - you'd need a full day and then some I reckon. To fully understand and process everything. I didn't get time to go towards the gas chambers. Seeing the bleak space beside the barracks was enough to create many tears.

The trees will have seen so much.

The museum while good and informative was something I should have done last. I should have made time to visit the camp properly and let it all sink in. Regardless, I want to go back there and deepen my understanding further.

Upon leaving today, I told those waiting in the sidelines that they couldn't come with me, nor that they had to stay there. They could go home. But I felt that immense guilt of being able to leave today. They couldn't.

And that was the message behind Loz getting us to pick up that pebble. She wanted us to see it, connect with it and understand that when we saw it, felt it - that we would be more appreciative of the good stuff in life rather than dwelling on the bad stuff. Powerful. Because they didn't have that chance of freedom.

And so - another place is added to my #nexttime list.

Moe mai atu ra ki a koutou xx