Confronting Dachau - "It Isn't Good"
How does an American Jew go to visit the infamous death camp at Dachau? If one asks "why" the answer is easy - if you can, you have to. I could. My yearly trip to Israel would be via Lufthansa with a stopover in Munich. And Munich is just 45 minutes from Dachau.
The real question is 'how'. The mechanics are simple. From Munich, a subway and a bus take you right to the death camp entrance. But how do you cope psychologically with being in a site which murdered thousands of people, the first of the camps which murdered millions, and which would have murdered you if you had been there 50 years ago. My wife couldn't come this year. How could I go, especially alone? But, I would probably never be in Munich again. How could I not go?
Though airlines usually help tourists plan their trips, Lufthansa had no information to offer on the subject of Dachau. But the internet did. After finding -- of all things - web pages about flower and music festivals at the town of Dachau, I finally located the web page for the camp memorial.
I am not a religious person by Israeli standards, but the morning of the visit I put on a kippa (skull cap). Reactions were interesting. The concierge at the hotel wouldn't look me in the eye, and brushed off my questions about the subway with a brusque statement that signs at the train station had instructions in English (they didn't). A few other people looked at me with frank hostility.
But some Germans were extraordinarily friendly. One young woman helped me use the subway, and another solicitously showed me how to find the train I needed.
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The town of Dachau looked innocent enough, except
for that name on the train station signs. The very word -- Dachau -- evokes
memories of torture and death. How can people live there? The bus
station had a sign with the name of the town - Dachau - with McDonald's Golden
Arches flanking the town's name - McDonald's Dachau. It sounds like a joke.
Does not McDonald's feel embarrassment at its trademark adjoining
the name of a Nazi concentration camp?
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