Southern Bavaria in September. The goal was to see Munich and meet family at the Tegernsee and then go into deepest Bavaria at the Austrian border, Berchtesgaden. And as this was very near to Dachau I thought it was about time to put my long term plan into motion and visit the memorial to this concentration camp. I have been to Bavaria very many times. And at twelve years of age I started reading extensively about the Nazi’s, the Dutch occupation, the concentration camps, the Holocaust and the liberation. All this probably started because there was an empty space in the family at my mother’s side. Her brother had never returned home in 1945. No. he was not a Dutch soldier and he was not one of the very many Dutch Jews persecuted by the Nazis. No, he was a young boy from a large Roman Catholic family who went into hiding from the German occupier.
By the time I was twenty I had a extensive book collection and a steel helmet worn by a British soldier and was forever trying to sort out the how’s and the why’s. How could it happen, how could people let it happen, how ugly can people be, how many were involved, why was it possible, why so many, why, why, why, how, how……. Finally I convinced myself that there were very few answers, that humans are capable of large scale destruction and evil, many just live their lives, and some are capable of acts of immeasurable courage. My attention shifted to other things.
Little did I know what a visit to Dachau would unravel….. This jolly, beer drinking country with lederhosen and dirndls has extremely beautiful countryside, but the shadows are everywhere once you recognise the marks of history. And the deeper I delved into history the more difficult it is to see the one without the other. Before I embark on the telling of the shadows let me leave you with some of the marvelously beautiful aspects of Bavaria. I got to enjoy five mountain lakes, each with its own character. The Tegernsee, Chiemsee , Königssee , Obersee and Hintersee. In the water you see the skies and the silent reflections give a sense of stepping into a magical world.
mogromo 
Gorgeous photos! I spent a magical two weeks in Austria with my best friend (the German girl, Hanna) the summer after 10th grade, I think it was. We hiked so much, and I was afraid of her Mom and asking for seconds so I lost a LOT of weight. I started out trim to begin with…
I look forward to hearing more about your family story. I can imagine all your reading and trying to make sense of the story. I never had any direct personal connection(that I know of) with the holocaust but at around that same age, I became both curious and mortified and read everything about the atrocities I could get my hands on. The story seemed too awful to be true and then it was, of course. kept trying to get my mind around it.
P.S., when I was in my 30’s, Hanna’s mother tried to see if I was receptive to the idea that maybe the Holocaust hadn’t really happened or was grossly exaggerated. She strongly hinted that she believed that, and I think if I had been receptive, she would have opened up more on the topic. I was not. That blew my mind. Do you think people actually, really believe that!? And she was affected by a Volksvertreibung out of Czechoslovakia or what they called it then! She lost her family home and property.
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Beautiful pictures. I wonder how those places felt to you?
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The nature is astoundingly magical, and well worth a visit. I was following a trail of family history and vacationing at the same time. More and more information became available to me as I travelled . And several Nazi closets opened up in the process – you always think you’ve heard the worst and then something new pops up. At a certain point you look behind every tree you see for ghosts from the past….
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An incredible quest, if somewhat emotionally challenging I’d imagine. Astounding that a place so beautiful could harbour so many dark secrets.
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