Day 06 - Dachau, Munich

After breakfast this morning we boarded the bus and headed for a tour of Dachau. On the way, Dan and Ursula let us know that walking through would be an experience that can be difficult and gave us some background to help us process things as we walked around. There were no death camps in Germany only work camps used to re-educate people who were considered to be agitated political enemies. Before we went on our self-guided tours, we discussed why bad things happen to good people. We really don’t have an answer to the problem of evil, but we know that Jesus overcame evil through his death, suffering and resurrection. We ended our pre-tour discussion with a moment of silence and saying the Lord’s Prayer together.

As I walked around I was able to focus on a few glimmers of hope. I found several rocks to bring home with me that were white and black, white representing good and black representing evil. I made sure to pick up rocks that were more white than black to show that there is more good in the world than evil. One of the areas that we walked through was for roll calls for the prisoners, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the song, “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder”:

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more
And the morning breaks eternal bright and fair
When the saved diverse shall gather over on the other shore
And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there

When the roll is called up yonder
When the roll is called up yonder
When the roll is called up yonder
When the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there

Let us lay before the Master from dawn 'til setting sun
Let us talk of all his wondrous love and care
Then when all of life is over and our work on Earth is done
And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there

When the roll is called up yonder
When the roll is called up yonder
When the roll is called up yonder
When the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there

By trying to focus on these glimmers of hope it made the evil of what happened here a little easier to process for me.  We can forgive, but we cannot forget the past.

Once the group gathered back together on the bus, we continued to München (Munich) for some lunch before we had a city tour with Brigitte.  For the bus portion of the tour we saw the balcony from which Hitler and Mussolini waved at the crowds on September 25, 1937.  We also toured the gardens of the Nymphenburg Castle and saw the current Duke of Bavaria go from his home to the chapel on the castle grounds as we walked around.  We walked through the old center of town ending our tour at the famous Glockenspiel for the 5 pm chiming.

Today we walked 6.1 miles.  Our trip is quickly coming to an end as we have only 1 more day together before some of us head home and others continue their travels to other areas of Europe separately before heading home.