Dachau.

The word cools the blood and chills the spine. Aside perhaps from Auschwitz, is any other concentration camp as well known to the Anglophone world? Here, under the murderous regime of Nazi Germany, untold thousands met their death, and many more suffered at the hands of perverted minds and twisted technology.

The camp itself - or, more accurately, the ruins of the camp - are well preserved, as the German government acknowledges Germany's culpability, and a steady stream of visitors keeps the camp a busy, albeit solemn place. The buildings are nothing special, but perhaps that's the whole point, as Hannah Arendt pointed out in Eichmann in Jerusalem - evil is not some supernatural force that exists from without; rather, it is a banal, an everyday pedestrian thing that can spring from the well of any human heart.

I happened to visit on a cool, overcast day, and as my shoes touched the smooth rocks that abound in the camp, I could not help but wonder how many such days froze the souls of those who had imprisoned there. Were it not for the efforts of brave men and women before me, I might well have been there myself.

Forgive them not, Father, for they knew what they did here.

Posted about 1 year ago