Dachau

On the last day of my month-long adventure in Europe, I decided to really end it on a happy note and visit the concentration camp located in Dachau.

Open in 1933, it was the very first concentration camp and it would be used as a model for all those that followed.  Started originally as a prison for political prisoners, the camp was never considered a death camp like those in Treblinka or Auschwitz.  That being said, some 32,000 people were murdered in the camp over its 12 year existence.  The complex also included a gas chamber.  Although it was never used for mass killing, it is recorded that it was used to execute a few groups of prisoners for "experiments".  It was one of the awful feelings walking through that chamber.

Originally built to house 6,000 people, by the time American troops liberated the camp in the spring of 1945 it was housing over 50,000.  Only about 32,000 would live to see the Americans arrive.  Today most of the complex is still standing except for the 69 barracks' of which 2 have been rebuilt.  The foundations still remain though.

The gate that leads to the camp reads in German "work will set you free", a grim message to the over 200,000 people that passed through its arches at some point over the period of 12 years.

The entire camp complex has been turned into a museum and memorial center with dedication to the horrors that took place on its grounds.

Neuschwanstein Castle

One of my side-trips while in Munich consisted of a two hour train ride to the town of Fussen in southern Bavaria.  Located just a few miles north of the Austrian border, it straddles the divide where the Alps rise out of the Bavaria plain.  Fussen in and of itself is a nice small German town but its real importance is that is the gateway to the Neuschwanstein Castle which sits on a clifftop a few miles away.  Despite being a remote area of Germany, I was amazed at the number of tourists, especially Asian tour groups, that were at the castle.  The 19th century castle is quite amazing and was the inspiration of Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle.

To try and get the best picture of the castle, I decided to hike up the mountains that surround it.  Unfortunately while reaching the summit, a driving rainstorm blew in not only soaking me but also pinning me down as the fog and clouds were too thick to see the path down.  After about an hour of trying to stay dry under my tiny umbrella the rain stopped, clouds parted and left me with an amazing view of the castle which I missed entirely on the way up due to the thick clouds.

Munich

Although I spent 3 days and two nights in Munich, my actual exploration of the city was very limited.  It really only consisted of half of day after I arrived by train from Berlin due to the excursions I took the following two days.  I did get to see a fair amount of the old city but unfortunately a lot of the main sites were under reconstruction so although impressive in size were not much to look at.  However a trip to the outskirts of the city was highlighted by a visit to the Nymphenburg Palace.  The palace is in a very different style, much more simplistic than other royal residences in Europe but its gardens and interlocking canals that surround the palace make it quite beautiful.

Berlin

After Prague, I traveled by train (again) to Berlin.  I could tell immediately that my hostel was in what was East Berlin as it was located at the intersection of Pariser Kommune and Karl Marx Allee.  The city is relatively modern due to the massive destruction during the Second World War but is full of history.  The centerpiece of world conflict during the 20th century, Berlin was first the capital of the Nazi empire and then divided by the conquering forces after its fall in 1945.  The Reichstag, the parliament building shown below, became a symbol of the end of the war in Europe when Red Army soldiers stormed the building and displayed the soviet flag above the city which would soon dominate the Eastern half.

Another interesting stop on my journey was at the Topography of Terror museum which houses history of the rise of the Third Reich and the acts conducted by the SS (branch of the govt that controlled the gestapo, the concentration camps and the Waffen-SS military and execution units) during the Holocaust.  Situated on the spot where the SS headquarters once stood, it is a very fitting location.  A few blocks from the museum is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  The park is entirely covered by coffin shaped slabs of concrete varying in height from one to fifteen feet.

The other half of history that dominated Berlin for over 40 years was the division of the city, and country, between the Americans and Soviets.  The Berlin Wall, a symbol of hate first constructed in 1961, divided the city between East and West.  I visited what remains of the famous border crossing, Checkpoint Charlie, and visited the museum located there.  

Although most of the wall was destroyed in the years after the fall, certain sections of the wall are still preserved.  On the north side of the city, a short section of the wall, including one of the guard towers is blocked off and preserved to show what the border zones looked like during the height of the Cold War (although to avoid confusion the picture is my own).

The largest section the wall (1.3 kilometers) that remains today is located on the East side about a five minute walk from the hostel I stayed at.  It has been turned into an open air art gallery with paintings done right on the wall.  

Please click on the above photo to get a more detailed view.  However, it is still very small in comparison to what is stored on my computer.  An example section is shown below.

I spent 3 hours at the gallery and documented the entire 1.3 kilometers in 382 pictures.  The above photo is a compilation of 32 pictures all spliced together.  Hopefully given the time and the effort, I will be able to recreate the entire gallery.

Prague

Unlike the rain I experienced in Vienna, the weather I had in Prague was beautiful.  I highly recommend visiting Prague if you get the chance, it is a wonderful city with a medieval feel due the lack of bombing during World War II (other than a single American raid during 1945).  The biggest highlight of the city is Prague Castle which dominates the landscape as it sits on a hill overlooking the Danube River.

 Inside the castle complex is St. Vitus Cathedral where I was lucky enough to witness the inside as the sun set revealing a beautiful display of light through the stained glass.

Nearby is the Strahov Monastery which, like many other of its kind, brews great beer.  The landscape photo of Prague shown below was taken from the Monastery.

Although the city did not receive the extensive bombing during World War II like many of the other German-occupied capitals it was not spared the fighting during 1945 as the German Wehrmacht collapsed under the force of the Red Army.  In the culmination of the "Prague Offensive", the city was the location of fighting from May 6th to May 11th 1945.  This occurred 9 days after the fall of Berlin and almost 3 days after VE day, marking it as the last major German resistance during the Second World War.  In the course of the fighting, the Pinkas Synagogue was almost entirely destroyed.  After the war, the synagogue was rebuilt as a Holocaust memorial and the inside is covered in the names of the almost 80,000 Czech and Slovak Jews who died during the genocide.  Nearly every available wall space is covered in the names of those that died.  It is very moving to see it and then realize how small of a fraction that is of the total number of people that were killed during the Nazi reign.

After that sobering experience, I found a poster on the street which I found very amusing so I had to include it in my post.