Munich, Germany: "Arbeit Macht Frei - Work Will Set You Free"

Hi everyone, sorry it has been taking me so long to get each of these posted. With each new city I am experiencing so much and it's hard to take the time to just sit down and write a blog about my most recent adventure-the last of which was Munich, Germany!

Munich was an absolutely beautiful place and I really enjoyed spending my time there. However, beer really is the answer to everything there. Beer helped the country pay off debts, stopped fires (or attempted to stop fires) in Munich, etc. And they do not kid around with it! It's so crazy to just see people walking around the streets at 11 am, beer in hand. Especially since the World Cup is going on right now and Germany is in the top four. They are serious about their "fussball" (soccer) and their beer!

Anyways, for the most part, this post is going to just be pictures. So here ya go!

Munich is the land of Frenchies - this little guy was just riding around in the basket of a bicycle!

This is St. Peters Church - it's absolutely gorgeous!

St. Peters Selfie!

We also climbed the tower at St. Peters, for another 300 steps added to our high climbs!

A perfect view of Marienplatz from the tower! Speaking of, during the World Wars, 82.5% of Munich was destroyed, but Marienplatz was part of the 17.5% not destroyed

This is Our Lady's Church - which also was not destroyed during the war since it was tall enough to be used as an orientation symbol for bombing purposes

The church also has a story about how Satan was destroying all of the new prisons, since Munich had too many. However, when he came into Our Lady's Church through the front door, he saw no windows and thought a place as dark as that could be used to worship him. When he later entered after the church was finished, he saw the walls lined with windows he was unable to see before because the pillars line up exactly to block out the light from the stained-glass windows. When he saw this, he stomped his foot so hard it left this spot on the ground and he stormed out.

See, no windows. And there used to be an altar, not at window at the end. 

These are the weird soldier angel babies that guard Mary in the middle of Marienplatz. Each baby is fighting off a symbol of evil (war, pestilence, hunger, and heresy)

There's Mary

Old Town Hall. Marienplatz is New Town Hall

This is Juliet. Women leave her flowers and Men rub her breast, both hoping for true love and marriage. Obviously, the men have been a little overzealous over the years...

Awkward selfie with Juliet

St. Peter's Church from the outside. And the vendor on the street makes all his own jewelry. It was awesome! The church also has 8 clocks, two on each side as shown in this photo

This little Frenchie pup was in Starbucks! So cute!

The Royal Residence

This is a golden trail to commemorate silent protesters against the Nazi movement. These people would take this side road to avoid giving the SS officers the Hitler salute at the statue on the next street.The trail stops halfway down the street because eventually an SS officer was places there. If a silent non-supporter were to walk down that street and did not have a legitimate reason, they were fined/beaten/killed/sent to Dachau.

Speaking of Dachau... here it is. Dachau was the 1st working camp created and served as the ideal model.
It was originally intended for Nazi resistors and communists.

The first motto prisoners saw: "Work will set you free"

The open square where Appel (roll call) took place twice per day

This was resurrected following the camps liberation to remind us all what happened. It says: "May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defence of peach and freedom and in respect for their fellow men."

One of the many memorial statues. Look closely and just feel... this sculpture is very powerful.

Another memorial sculpture. Each prisoner was given a label such as the ones shown here.

This is the entrance shower where everyone was deloused, given clothes, and tattooed. In order to scare prisoners, they often had other prisoners hanging by their arms backwards on the pole that once existed in the squares shown. 

The small cells for special prisoners

When the Allies came to Dachau, they discovered ashes still within one of the crematorium furnaces. They took these ashes and made this monument. The "Ashes of the Unknown Prisoner" lie here and represent all of the unknown prisoners that were lost. And the phrase "Never Again" in repeated in five languages. This was one of the most powerful sculptures for me.

Most of the barrack were following down, so they only have two prototypes now.
But this is where they were all lined up.

Over the years of the war, the barrack slowly got worse. This is the first level
of barracks. Here the prisoners had to make a perfectly square mattress with perfectly
square corners, but they all had their own space.

The second level of barracks. Shared beds.

The last level. These were so crowded the prisoners had to roll
over as a single unit.

The remainder of these photos are extremely morbid until the English Gardens... but I think they are important to share especially if you have not experienced it yourself. So feel free to stop reading at this point, but I (again) think it's important to share.

The original crematorium. It quickly became too small and they had to build a larger one.

The original crematorium

The second crematorium, complete with a waiting room, "shower"/gas chamber, incinerator room,
and a room for the bodies

The label going into the gas chamber. Brausebad means "Shower" in German

"Shower head" where gas entered the chamber

This is the actual chamber. The windows in the walls allowed the SS Officers to place the gas
cartons in without actually being in the room.

The incinerator room. The pole in the middle with the medal hooks and circles was also used for hangings. In fact, most hangings occurred right here in front of the furnaces. So they were hanged directly in front of the burning bodies of their fellow prisoners...

Another Ash Grave

This was the part of the concentration camp that hit me the hardest. Upon reading the names of the victims of Dachau, the become less of a story and become people that could have been my family, friend, or neighbor. It was really hard to read the names and where they were from. So many of the people in the holocaust go unremembered. I've decided to remember three of the names I read: Petit Paul, Rose Albert, and Stern Emil. I will remember them and at least know that someone in the world is thinking of them.

This was resurrected to remind those who come to see Dachau to keep looking forward.
This man represents the prisoners after the war, but with their own clothes and a future
ahead of them.

Okay... I know those were really hard to look at... The Holocaust is something that I have always been very interested in and seeing a concentration camp was really impacting. I was finally able to see what I've read about for so long and I was able to put real names to the faces in the pictures that I've seen. It was very powerful to visit Dachau... Though Dachau was terrible, as any concentration camp was, it was not an extermination camp. It was a working camp that did prefer to keep its prisoners alive so they could work for the Nazi effort. That was one of things I was not expecting out of a concentration camp. I learned so much with my visit to Dachau.

The evening after our visit to Dachau, we needed something to make us feel more cheery... So we went to visit the wonderful English Gardens!

And our final selfie of Munich! And off we went to Paris!!!