As I sat down to write this post, it occurred to me that I am not sure how to go about writing about our weekend in Munich because of the nature of the type of trip it was. We were in Munich first and foremost to celebrate the wedding of Alberto, and his bride, Sabrina, and it’s a trip that we had been looking forward to for months. Alberto is a friend I met at the synagogue here in Madrid and he and Sabrina married in Munich because that is the city she calls home. The wedding itself was magical and wonderful, but while we were in Munich, we also made a trip to Dachau. Not the town of Dachau, but the concentration camp where over 200,000 Jews and other people were sent as prisoners between the years 1933 and 1945, and where over 32,000 of them died. So that left me with an interesting question – do I split this post into two parts: the somber Dachau post and the joyful wedding post? At first, that’s what I had planned to do because how can you combine something as disturbing and sad as a trip to a concentration camp where thousands of people perished, with something as joyous and celebratory as a wedding? But when I thought about it more, I realized that they can be combined, and not only that, but they should be. Alberto and Sabrina’s wedding was a Jewish wedding, and it was a Jewish wedding in the very country that tried to eliminate all traces of the Jewish population not so many years ago. To me, their wedding was one of many, many symbols of the way that the Jewish people have risen above the atrocities that have been perpetrated on them and will continue to do so. The wedding was a symbol of strength, happiness, and the ability to overcome horrible, horrible things. So for those reasons, our visit to Dachau will be combined with the wedding.
Saturday
We had an early flight from Madrid to Munich and by the time we navigated the bus vs. train situation (FYI the bus and train are the same price but the train is faster!), it was nearly noon when we arrived in the center of Munich and just about 1 pm by the time we arrived at our hotel. We quickly dropped our bags off and then headed right back out the door to head for the Dachau Camp Memorial Site, since it is only open until 5 pm and a proper visit can take up to 4 hours. Getting to Dachau from Munich is actually quite easy, which had me thinking while I was there ‘how could such atrocities have taken place in such close proximity to people living their normal lives?’. It was the same feeling I had when I visited Auschwitz – that just on the other side of the fence, there were houses, and families, and communities.
Visiting the Dachau Memorial is free, but audio guides are 3€ per person (for students). We decided to take the audio guides and I really think it improved our experience, though you can read much of the information on the information panels throughout the memorial.
When we arrived at Dachau, my first feeling was that it looked like a big park – a big, green, sunny park. It wasn’t like Auschwitz with it’s rows and rows of buildings where you can actually imagine the prisoners. Instead, Dachau is very much a big, open space and it’s because it was pretty much torn down during the 60’s.
Despite this, when you start to walk around, you start to see that there is nothing park-like about it. There are a few buildings remaining, such as the administration building, where prisoners were processed upon arrival, and sometimes tortured. This building is now used as the museum and also has a small cinema where they show a film about Dachau. The museum goes in chronological order and focuses mostly on what happened in Dachau, but also how the war progressed in general.
There is a reconstructed barrack to show how the prisoners lived/ were kept during various periods and where you can see the downward progression of the conditions they faced.
You can see a reconstructed watch tower and the double barbed wire fence and the ditch that was the “barrier” between the camp and regular life, but where you would be shot without warning if you crossed.
After visiting the museum, we walked down the tree lined path that was lined with rows and rows and rows of the outlines of where barracks used to be, which made me think how could there have been so many people here?.
The trees offered shade to the intense heat we experienced that day- the sun was shining and the sky was blue and I said to Luis that it reminded me of how I felt when I visited Auschwitz – that the way I painted these concentration camps in my mind was as these dark, grey places, yet the sun was shining and the sky was blue, and the clouds were white and fluffy, and the trees had green leaves, and yet people were murdered and tortured under those skies. For me, it felt surreal.
We walked to the end of the tree-lined road to where 5 memorials stand to honor the victims. There isn’t much information on any of the memorials, but they remain there as a reminder that many types of people were affected.
To end our visit, we visited the crematorium, which is original. It was small- smaller than I expected when you think about how many lives were taken, but of course, a new one was built which is much, much larger.
We were able to walk through and see it, even walked through the rooms were the Nazis planned to gas the prisoners, but to this day it is believed that the gas chamber was never used. I read a sign that said no one knows why it wasn’t used, but they know for sure that it wasn’t out of compassion.
Visiting Dachau was emotionally, physically, and mentally draining, but it’s important to go and see what is left and to talk about and remember what happened not so long ago. After our visit, Luis and I were listening to the guide from another group who was breifly discussing the fact that there are still people who deny that the Holocaust happen, or who don’t believe it ever happened. She was talking about how this mentality is the most dangerous mentality because if you don’t believe that something of such scale could have happened with so much (living and not), then what is there to prevent it from happening again? She was saying that prevention happens by not only discussing it, remembering it, anazlyzing it, but also by sticking up for people- Jewish and otherwise- when you see that something bad is happening. As pastor Martin Niemoller said:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Stand up and speak out.
On Saturday evening, we had the chance to visit the Lowenbraukeller beer garden to hang out and meet all of Alberto and Sabrina’s friends and family, which was a great way to let everyone have fun, get to know one another, and spend some time with the bride and groom before the wedding itself.
The brewery itself was massive and the building was beautiful – like a castle! The beers were good (but in general, I didn’t really like any of the beers I tried). We ordered some sort of bread dumpling with a mushroom cream sauce and it was out of this world.
Hands down, my favorite food all weekend, but there was A LOT of amazing food we had. It made me laugh that the “salads” in Germany (or at least at this bear garden) hardly included a vegetable!
The night was fun – we stayed until a little after 1 am and then walked back to the hotel and crashed hard. It was a long day!
Sunday
Sunday was wedding day! I was so excited for the wedding – not only to see Alberto and Sabrina get married, but also to get all dressed up, do my hair, and dance the night away. I knew it was going to be fun (and spoiler alert: it was!).
Our plan for Sunday was literally to go running to all of the famous sites and then be back by 3:30 to start getting ready for the wedding that started at 6:00 pm. We had breakfast at the hotel, which was actually very good. German breakfasts are plentiful!
And then we ran all over town. We actually ended up being out from 11 am to 4:30 pm, but only ran about 45 minutes. The rest of the time was spent walking… and eatinf ice cream 😉
We did get to visit the English Gardens, since we heard that people surf in the river and it was REALLY cool to see! If I didn’t want to keep my hair dry, I would have jumped in (further down where it was a lot calmer, Mom and Dad).
We didn’t realize it, but the English Gardens are a good 45 minute walk from where we were staying and not only was a starving, but my legs were just about to fall off from all the walking. It was a long, hot, and sunny walk back, but a nice shower rejuvinated me while Luis went on a hunt for food (Subway sandwiches) and then I took my time getting ready. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for my hair, but I ended up following this tutorial and I think it worked out really well!
An hour later, we were ready to go and our Uber drove us to the wedding!
The venue was absolutely beautiful, as was everything about the wedding. The food, the design, the ceremony- everything was lovely. Our dinner was delicious (and completly kosher)- from the Israeli salads to the salmon course to the steak and (dairy free) mushroom risotto.
And then there was the actual party part of the night, with the open bar and incredible music, we didn’t stop dancing until 3 in the morning! Needless to say, we didn’t make it to our (free, included) hotel breakfast (darn) and the next day included a very, very slow stroll through Munich, a pretzel, and a big plate of goulash.
In the interest of getting this posted once and for all, I am going to end this post here and just say what I said in the beginning: this weekend was all about witnessing. Bearing witness to the atrocities that took place during the Holocaust, and more specifically- at Dachau, and also, witnessing the beautiful marriage of Alberto and Sabrina. Life comes full circle, doesn’t it?
