Should people visit Dachau?

This thought crossed my mind while visiting the Dachau Conentration Camp, when our guide told us that it is mandatory for a students in Bavaria to visit the camp. Dachau was one of the first concentration camps and at some level had every form of prisoner and method of torture. Pastors and priest who spoke out against the National Socialist German Worker's Party were held here. Jews, physically handicapped, mentally handicapped, Roma and Sinti were held here. Political protestors including Georg Elser, the man with the most ingenious and earliest assasination attempt on the Führer, was also held here. Tens of thousands of people died in Dachau because of it's conditions, yet it was not an extermination/death camp. It's primary goal was to make the lives of it's captives miserable, but to get work out of them.

The land on which the camp was located is now a site for historical learning and remembrance. Stories of individuals who were tortured in Dachau can be heard and read there. A few of the original buildings that housed the prisoners still stand. The others no longer stand, but their foundations can still be seen. The cells where the victims were tortured, the crematoriums, the gas chamber (which was primarily used for experimental purposes) the door claiming "Arbeit Macht Frei" and the gloominess of the place remain. Besides for a blue sky and the colorful leaves of the trees outside of Dachau's enfenced area, nearly everything was colorless- grey, white, light shades of brown.

Learning about the past is important, but events such as those that occured at Dachau are overwhelming. Seeing this enormous concentration camp, learning about the lives of individuals who suffered there as well as those who carried out the deeds, was truly overwhelming, but I am glad I was there. It allows me to better understand the reality of the situation and put it into a more acurate perspective. With basic background knowledge of the history of this camp, I think it is a good thing for students and others to visit the camp.