I have memories of what I learned about the Holocaust.

[imanamerican63]

It is this that I heard and seen from a 11th grade Social Studies class then what I was able learn while I was stationed in Germany in the mid 80’s.

1st when I was in a Social Studies Class in Omaha. The teacher knew a Holocaust survivor and had her come and speak to our class. She had been in a a consecration camp as a teen with her mother and siblings. Her father was taken to other camp and was never seen again after they were taken to the camp. She described the horror and the ungodly way they were treated by the German soldiers. Before they were liberated her mother and 2 siblings died while in the camp. The one thing that stood out to me about this woman was when she showed us the numbers tattooed on her wrist. She was 8 years old when they tattooed her wrist. She said that was not coming off and she had been marked for life.

The 2nd, was when while I was in the Army, a group of us visited Dachau and Auschwitz Germany.
We went to two of the consecration camps in the area. I can still remember what the smell was like when we were there. It was an awful smell, which still today get me the shivers.

It is not often when one gets see for their own eyes the history of what one man can do to the world as Hitler did. I hope that we don’t see another come to power, but this why we need to vote like our lives and democracy depends on! Because it done!

[BlackSkimmer]

1. I've visited Dachau. Auschwitz is actually in Poland, not Germany.

No offense, but it is "concentration" not "consecration." I wouldn't point it out, but you made the mistake twice, and there's such a difference in those two words.

As far as the smell, I wonder if you visited Dachau in the summer? The farmers are treating their fields at that time of year, and it's a bad smell.

But there is no smell left from what happened at that place so many years ago. The place is scary and spooky. But there's no smell.

[canetoad]

2. I understand about the smell

In the late 90s an old prison was decommissioned and shut down in the northern suburbs of Melbourne Au. Pentridge Prison was pretty infamous - last hanging in Australia took place there, some escapes became the stuff of legend. Before the land was redeveloped, the prison was open for public tours and I went on one.

Bluestone and concrete. Rock breaking yards. Four inch thick doors in the very old sections, but the thing I remember most was the smell; a hundred and fifty years of sweat, despair, sickness and bodily functions. It had permeated the very stone, metal and cement.

[BlackSkimmer]

3. I've visited Kilmainham in Dublin. The cells are still there, and yes, what you say is true about

that smell.

Dachau doesn't have that.