Dachau

After Auschwitz (in today's Poland), perhaps Dachau is the best known remnant of the Third Reich. Today Anita and I planned to spend a couple of hours there, but instead spent a lot more than that.

Later I plan to post more on Dachau and Germany's conflicted past. But for now, it suffices to point out that I saw the cell of Pastor Martin Niemoller; he who greeted the Nazi rise to power because of it's compatibility with conservative values, yet had the courage to oppose it after seeing it at work. He even went on to become an early advocate of rapprpoachment with the communist east of Europe.

I made a point of seeing all of the religious memorials at Dachau -- Jewish, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant. I was glad to see the the this latter memorial was very ecumenical -- very human, in many senses, without intending disrespect to the others -- and was also the one with people present. (To be fair, there is a convent behind the camp in this overwhelmingly Catholic state of Bavaria.)

It is true, so true; nothing could be truer -- "never again". Some things -- sadly, including the relative silence of Christians in the Third Reich -- must never be forgotten. Ever.