In the Footsteps of Heroes
By Chad Weisensel

Published Friday, August 17, 2007  | one comment  | Print  | E-mail

Day 12. Tuesday May 22nd. Dachau, Germany.

Today was going to be one of those days when you asked yourself, why did all this happen? We had the chance to visit Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany. There are still some of the buildings in which these men were held. We were able to see many photos of this work camp and some of the conditions these men had to endure. It was certainly a very sobering experience and certainly one that still makes you angry.

Words cannot describe the horror of many of these camps, some were worse than others. Today as I walked around the camp there were many younger school children touring the site. For these kids it was quite apparent that this was another day off from school, many of them just running around and having fun. At first it upset me but after a while I realized this was just the innocence of youth at its best. I pray that when they are older they understand what happened here and that it never happens again.

We also had to say goodbye to one of our tour guides. We dropped off Jake Powers at a hotel outside of Munich. We shook hands took a few quick pictures and Jake was heading back to the States.

Day 13. Wednesday May 23rd. Berchtesgaden, Germany.

As we checked into our final hotel on the trip you couldn’t help but notice the breathtaking views in every direction. Last year I had the opportunity to see the first mountains of my life in Colorado, the views in Breckenridge were excellent but this was something different. In every direction there were mountains and views beyond description. Today deep in the Alps we were going to tour some of Adolph Hitler’s and high ranking Nazi Generals’ Bunkers in Obersalzberg, Germany. A local tour guide hopped onto our bus early in the morning and we headed to Obersalzberg. She did an excellent job of explaining everything to us. Here we drove by some of the most notorious Third Reich leaders homes or at least what is remaining. Most of these homes were destroyed by the Allied Bombing Raids in 1945 and some have been converted into hotels. Just to know that Adolph Hitler spent a lot of time in this area gave you chills. We went to the Bunkers and toured the museum as well, the bunkers are dug deep into the mountains. Inside an elaborate design of machine gun emplacements guarded the entrances. There are some areas inside the complex that were never completed, I am glad that men did not have to fight their way through these bunkers.

We also had an entire afternoon to enjoy the city before dinner at the hotel. From our hotel we could see a crystal clear river running through the city and some shops. Ron and Judy Drez joined a handful of us as we toured the area. Ron took us to an old train station in which Adolph Hitler had used then some of us went to a local pub while others enjoyed the free time to catch up on sleep.

[continued on next page]

bookmark to

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.