June 16 When in doubt, go to Dachau

I left the house with a spring in my step to go pick up our car. It was raining so hard I ended up taking the train even though the rental office was a measly 2 kilometers way. But whatever rain, I don’t care, we’re getting out of here. But the Fates have other ideas in mind. The car waiting for me is not a VW Passat Wagon, and I don’t know how they can claim that it’s similar, beyond it is a vehicle with four wheels and goes forward. It's a SEAT, and it’s just so small. I was excited for a fleeting moment when the counter girl explained to me that it was like a Mercedes. But when I felt the engine putter to life, I knew this car wouldn’t be with us long. But I go get the band so we can have a good laugh before visiting a couple rental offices to find a bigger car. And after not one, not two, but three rental cars, we are blessed with a Renault Scenic.

I am glad this car works out, because Hans at the service counter looked like he was going to have an aneurysm if I told him in my English devil tongue one more time that the Opel Insignia he was trying to get me to take was just too small. Now, even though I'm happy with the car, what is up with the key card? Really, what is wrong with a good, old fashioned key? We are driving a grocery getter, not a lady killer.

We’re on the road, hell yes. Oh wait, no we’re not.

On the way out of town, the show is cancelled. We pull off onto the side of the road to weigh our options. Go to Koeln anyway? Head back to the purgatorial safety of Munich? Ugh, just going back to where we came from seems like conceding some sort of defeat. So, even though it’s raining, we decide we have to do something. ANYTHING. So we stop by Dachau to see the concentration camp memorial. Might as well make the day as depressing as possible.

My first thought when I walked in was “this should be destroyed”. Yes, we should never forget what happened here, but we should not be retaining and preserving all this space screaming echoes of pain and hatred. Couldn’t this space be used for something that benefits humanity-a school, a human rights nonprofit, a park?

But as I walked though the area of reconstructed bunkhouses and the well-maintained, original building foundations, my thoughts towards the memorial changed, even though my disgust didn’t. The feeling of a vacuum being held up against my mouth persisted as the gravity of the environment started to make sense to me.

People really do need the whole structure, the overwhelming vastness of the site to really hammer home what happened here and how cruel it was. And by maintaining it as a site with homely, approachable buildings constructed of four walls and a roof like any other building there is the unspoken allusion to the fact that the men that ran these camps were men like any other. They were human and they were corruptible, and they were infected by the most horrible perversion of all, believing they were superior to other human beings. Seeing as this type of sadistic sickness persists toady, right now, I realize we need reminders like Dachau. It doesn’t make me feel any better though.

We make our way back to Munich, reflective but not defeated. All in all, we’re lucky, and life is good. Now if it would just stop raining