Dachau

On a recent trip, I visited the Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich. The visit gave me an immediate and visual perspective of the suffering during this time, an experience that gave insight into my heritage and the horrors inflicted over ethnicity, religion, and social status.

Much of my family migrated to the US in the late 1800s and I was never told about relatives who didn’t leave Europe before World War II. I can only guess that most lived in Ukraine or Poland when Hitler came to power. Some may have been taken here, Auschwitz, or other locations.

Most of the housing buildings have been removed, which accounts for the empty look of some of the photos. They were probably not in a condition that could be safely maintained.

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