(This is from May 2019) We went to Dachau yesterday. I have a lot of thoughts about this, so sorry if it rambles.  

Number one- this many years later, it is a sterile place with many reconstructions of buildings and items. The army, rightfully so, destroyed most of the original. It is still powerful, but easy to remove yourself. You must take yourself back to that time and imagine the filth and the smell (of dirt, sickness, and death). Imagine being put here for things you cannot (will not) change about yourself- your ethnicity (Jew, gypsy), your religion (Jehovah’s Witness, Christian, Judaism), homosexuality, and the list goes on.  Of course the Jews were the ones in the general population who had it the worst.

Number 2- I have always been interested in psychology. Why did so many people follow Hilter? Why did so many people play ostrich? I think we have a lot of this pressure going on right now in the US and the world. Conform or we will ostracize you. It won’t take much to make it “conform or we’ll kill you”. Most people just want to be left alone to live their lives their own way. They don’t want to push others to think their way, but they also don’t want to be pushed. 

Number 3- We saw a film that showed the army bringing the locals from the town of Dachau through the crematoria. The Germans had run out of coal to run them a while before, so there were dead bodies piled up there.  Why didn’t the locals do anything? A lot of them said they didn’t know what was going on there. I have to have compassion on at least some of them, because they just wanted to have a peaceful life. If they defied Hilter, they might have been killed. They didn’t necessarily join his cause though. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ― Edmund Burke. While that’s a great sentiment, it is seldom that easy.

Number 4- A lot of our young people are not learning enough about this era. It will be difficult for us NOT to repeat this history (not necessarily against Jews next time) if they don’t KNOW the history!