Dachau

    Yesterday wasn't exactly a chipper day but what do you expect when you visit a concentration camp? It's certainly not a trip to Disneyland, I had no intention of going actually but somehow as we got closer I changed my mind and we all decided it would be a sobering yet educational experience. 

  My first impression was bleak and grey. Close your eyes and imagine a rainbow with nothing but shades of green. It actually is quite beautiful isn't it? Now that is Germany everywhere you look. So as always with nature it's a gift from god that all people rich or poor can enjoy just by looking around. Somehow the nazis managed to create a huge space and take away even the color around them. It was strange to walk on the ground where the shoes of such cruel and hateful people walked and also where the cold and tired feet of innocent men suffered day in and day out. In one day I learned more about world war 2 than I ever knew and still I feel like don't understand it at all. I feel like that one day for the kids made up for three weeks of missed school at home. Tristan had been studying about hiltler in school now he has seen first hand the evil and hate he perpetrated.  Dachau was a men's camp, and not technically a death camp, but still it's estimated over 40,000 people died here. When the camp was liberated what the soldiers saw must have changed them forever. We saw a video about it and like all films on this subject it tore at my heart. What surprised me was the place that Jehovah's witnesses had in this memorial. There was a big sign telling about them .500 witnesses came to dauchau if I remember correctly. But when our tour guide mentioned the Jehovah's witnesses it really hit me. I knew that witnesses went to concentration camps but I just didn't expect it to be mentioned I guess. A young boy asked 

" why were the Jehovah's witnesses here, did they not believe in god?"

The guide answered " no they believed in their god Jehovah" 

What a funny question I thought. 

I found myself thinking that if we were a family living in Germany at that time Jimmie and my boys would all be here and I would have come here then sent off to another camp to decide if I should live or die, and all because we wouldn't heil hiltler and renounce our faith. Scary. But at the same time I was proud of my spiritual heritage.proud to be part of a group who peacefully stood firm and refused to be persuaded by the crowd despite the cruelest means of torture ,to give into peer pressure ,essentially, 

 If there were more groups who could persuade people to do the right thing no matter the cost this wouldn't have happened. 

  Walking through the gas chamber was the strangest saddest part of all. I have no regrets about going or taking the boys. Life can't be a happy dance all the time, and the fact remains that history repeats itself so it's best not to live in a fantasy world.  I hope the lesson the boys take away from this is to never allow groups of people to influence their thoughts or actions. The only thing we can trust is what's taught to us through the pages of the bible. During nazi germany all of these people followed the crowd fully convinced they were the sharpest , whitest, smartest tools in the shed. God is not partial. He loves all peoples no matter what race or color they are. It's a simple thing, a golden rule to live by. I've seen that from traveling around there are people that are wonderful in every country and usually a few jerks too. That's just the way it is. But our true colors are shown when suffering is a daily task. It left me wondering, how would I hold up? Would I be strong ? Would I maintain my integrity no matter the cost?  I certainly hope so.