“Nie Wieder”

“Arbeit macht frei”

Any takers? No? It´s German. It means “Work brings freedom,” and it is spelled out in iron across the gate leading into Dachau Concentration Camp, the first concentration camp set up by Hitler in Germany, and the only camp to exsist throughout all twelve years of the dictator´s reign. Today, it is junxtaposed with other words, deeply inscribed in stone on the oposing side of the camp: NIE WIEDER – NEVER FORGET. It´s both a reminder and a command to those of us who have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of history, not be punished by them.

Dachau has come to stand for all of the suffereing caused by the Nazis from 1933-1945.  A quarter of a million people from 34 different countries suffered there – that is approximately the amount of people it would take to fill Raleigh´s RBC Center 13 times over.  People were starved, shot for no reason, forced into sucide, tortured, and worked to death because they were born a little darker, or thought a little differently than everyone else. 

I know, however, that I am not telling you anything you didn´t know before, because this is the type of thing that we are all taught in school, or watch on the Hstory Channel.  But here is what I can promise you – no amount of text or statistic can ever compare to breathing in the oxygen inside of a gas chamber and then walking across a building into a crematorium.  Today, my visit to Dachau reminded me that something as regular and simple as a pulse may be the greatest thing to be thankful for.

And somewhere, buried deep down within that thought, is redemption.  Sixty-five years ago, Dachau was one of the darkest places in the entire world.  Today, however, the sun was shining brightly across the grounds.  Yards people would have been shot for walking on are now a deep shade of Christmas-tree green, and is decorated with a variety of multi-colored flowers.  Monuments have been erected where executions once took place.  Clouds blotched the sky a perfect white, but did not begin to hide the vast blue sky that lay behind them.  Dachau – one of the most horrific places in the worlds history – is oddly very beautiful.

Perhaps the most beautiful thing of all, however, are the hearts that visit the place.  All traces of mal-intent have vanished.  Today, hundreds of people flock to Dachau to see what they have heard about.  And all of them, myself included, leave different than from when they arrived.  These people, willing to learn – willing to remember, are what beautifies the place the most.  And all of it – the people, the flowers, the sunshine, the sky – it all works together to one purpose – one goal.  To show people that as evil a place as the world can sometimes be, with the right intentions, evil can be transformed.  It can be learned from.  This is not to say that any amount of visitors or flowers can ever make up for the tragedies committed at Dachau – but it does show that good can win.

If my experience today at Dachau has taught me anything, it´s this:

                  Where beauty uncovers what tragedy´s stolen-                          

                  Where memory illuminates what ignorance hid-

                  Where brokenness reveals what our pride closed our eyes to-

                                     It´s there we find hope for tomorrow.

                                     NIE WIEDER.