Concentration Camp Short Story

It was a cool summer afternoon in June, and I was on a trip to Europe with my school. Upon arriving in Munich, Germany, we were scheduled to visit Dachau, a German concentration camp right outside of Munich. I knew we were going to Dachau prior to the trip, and I cannot say that I was entirely thrilled about this particular stop. Nevertheless, I knew this was something that I wanted to do and a place I felt I should visit. The first thing I noticed when arriving at the entrance of the concentration camp was the immense black Iron Gate. In the gate was the common Nazi phrase used at concentration camps, “Arbeit macht frei” meaning “work makes you free” in German. This powerful phrase set the tone for the rest of the visit from the moment

The sound of nothing was eerie. It may have been silent outside, but there were a million thoughts running through my mind. Experiencing the camp in person was nothing like what I read or heard in history class. Suddenly standing where thousands of people stood 70 years ago in pain, starvation, and sickness, everything became real. The eerie feeling continued as I walked through the camp. The ground in the camp was all gravel giving it a cold dull feeling as I walked around. I noticed that everyone had either his or her phone or camera out constantly taking pictures everywhere they went. For me, it seemed unnecessary to take a bunch of pictures. I focused on taking in everything I was seeing and feeling while I was there instead of looking back at the pictures and trying to

However, they rebuilt one of the barracks for visitors to walk through. As soon as I walked through the door, I was overwhelmed by the amount of beds, that were more like storage box compartments, stuffed into one small room. By today’s standards, the living quarters were inadequate at best, and it shocked me to see for myself how poorly these people were treated. After visiting the barracks, I found myself at the gas chambers by accident. I had planned on not going to the gas chambers because I thought it would be too hard to stand exactly where thousands of people we lead to their death. As soon as I walked in, I knew exactly where I was. Standing there brought into perspective just what kinds of things were happening at these camps. These were places where millions of innocent people were persecuted simple because of who they are. I came to appreciate more what our country stands for, and the stance we took to help the millions of people in need during that