WWII

Our Second day in Munich was spent seeing sights that were not as pleasant as what we saw yesterday, however it was an important part of this trip to look back on a very sad period in history. that should never be forgotten.

Today we went on  a two part tour.  The first part in the morning consisted of a walking tour around Munich, to see places that played a significant role in the creation of the Nazi Party, and the rise of Adolf Hitler.  After a break for lunch we boarded a train for about a 30 minute ride to a small town outside of Munich, called Dachau.   On the walk to meet our first tour, I had to stop and take the picture above...probably the most pleasant photo of the day.

Our first stop on the walking tour was to look at the very average looking building above which today houses offices and stores. In 1919 this harmless looking building was a beer hall and the spot where Adolf Hitler began the organization of the Nazi party

The room above  was also a beer Hall in February 1920, and the location of one of Hitler's earliest speeches to a crowd of nearly two thousand.  Hitler himself was not the main speaker, but when his turn came he succeeded in calming a rowdy audience and presented a twenty-five point program of ideas which were to be the basis of the party. The name of the party was itself changed to the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi for short) on April 1st 1920.   
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This engraving is inside an entry way of the Neues Rathaus (City Hall)  and it says "On March 30 1945  members of the US Armed Forces released the city of Munich from the National Socialist Ruling power. "    This acknowledgement of the role the US made in overthrowing the Nazi government wasn't acknowledged formally by the city of Munich until April 30, 1992

Above is a square and pavilion which was the scene of many of the biggest Nazi Rallies.   There is a building to the left of this picture which you can just see a little bit of which was the site of the famous "Beer Hall Putsch"  of 1923 where Hitler unsuccessfully tried to overthrow the local Bavarian government.  This resulted in Hitler going to jail for a few months,.  He used the time in jail to write Mein Kampf.  When the Nazis came to power this Pavilion  became a memorial to to the Nazis who died in the Beer Hall Putz and it always had armed guards around it and Nazi flags.  Anyone passing by was required to give the Nazi salute.  The picture below is a little street called Viscardigasse, that was behind the memorial.  People who resisted Nazi control, would take this little street to avoid walking by the pavilion and giving the Nazi salute..   The gold bricks in the street memorialize that small act of resistance

Above a very dull and average building that was the headquarters of the Gestapo

The building above was the Headquarters of the Nazi Party form the time that it formed until their demise in 1945.  Today it is part of an college of art.

Right next to the building that was the Headquarters of the Nazi party is this modern building.   It is the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, a museum which focuses on the history and consequences of the Nazi regime and the role of Munich as the "capital of the movement"

The second part of  the days tour was about a half hour train ride away in the small town of Dachau, the site of one of Hitler's extermination camps during the last part of the Second World War.  I visited here one other time about 48 years ago when I was stationed in Germany.  It made an impression on me that I have never forgotten.  Although the visitors center has changed, most of it is the way it was those many years ago, and basically has remained unchanged since it was liberated in 1945, with the exception that the old dilapidated barracks were torn down. leaving one reconstruction and foundations of the many others.

There are many pictures that I am not posting of the place in this blog, and many pictures that I just didn't take. This is a hard place to visit, but I sincerely think that it's very important that it still exists and if possible one should see it for yourself.  We truly must not forget.

Two plaques at the entryway to Dachu  to commemorate the liberation of the camp by two different Divisions of the United States Army in 1945

Tomorrow onward to Nuremberg and more enjoyable pictures.