We visited Dachau with the family during our 2025 summer trip to Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. I remember it being kinda sunny and a little cold on the train platform where we disembarked.
Most folks talked quietly in small groups where the atmosphere was mostly solemn. The crows in the nearby trees added to the somber atmosphere and prompted me to start taking notes of things..
After rediscovering those notes recently I thought that they read like a solemn poem.. I decided to share them here.
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Dachau
Bus stop crows cawing
They echo in the quiet streets
People chatting, joking, anxious
Anxious to visit a death camp
Squirming, the bus late
Visitor center echos hushed voices
First political opponents then Jews and then anyone not favored
Sensing parallel lines
It can’t happen here
It can’t happen to us
It can’t happen to me
Preventive custody
Political prisoners
Anyone the powers did not like
Disappeared, laws ignored
Dachau
Bus stop crows cawing
They echo in the quiet streets
No thru travelers here
All headed for a visit to a place
That was an end for so many
Those that didn’t conform
Those that didn’t bend
Those that had no choice
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These words seemed to capture my mood while visiting this place where so many were sent to suffer and die under inhumane horrific conditions.
I’m writing this months after we visited. Yet the memories of that visit are still strong.
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Remember – treasure your vote and your voice. They are both necessary to preserve our way of life.
These people lost their voice – Don’t let this administration take yours!!
