I Made Myself Go

Guten Tag!
My destination?  Set in lush countryside during the Middle Ages, the town boasted a fine ecclesiastical establishment and a stalwart castle.  Later on the Wittelsbachs liked it so much they built their summer palace there.  The town enjoyed modest fame during the Renaissance for a humanist circle and for its support of progressive ideas during the Enlightenment.  Currently the town has a charming historic center complete with the castle, and the inhabitants wish desperately that that was the extent of their home's fame.
The name of the place is Dachau.

Getting there is easy.  I bought a day pass for two zones from the machine at the train station.  I alighted with the rest of the tourists at Dachau Bahnhof or train station.  The bus to the camp was waiting for us.  Because I had a day pass I did not have to pay the bus fare as the public transportation system is unified.  It is possible to walk to the site, but it's several kilometers from the town, so it's better to take the bus.
Entrance to the site is free, but I rented the audio guide for 3.50E, and I would strongly urge any visitor to do this.  Or you can take a guided tour.  The experience felt surreal.  I was there on a brilliantly sunny day along with many other tourists.  As the site is large it did not feel crowded, but some people picnicked, others walked dogs, people chatted of this and that.
And yet the remains of the camp are bleak and evocative.  I tried to picture it in winter with gray skies and frost, the prisoners forced to labor wearing only their prisoners stripped pajamas and the unheated barracks and inadequate food.  The visitor can enter both a reconstructed barrack and the crematoria.  Dachau was not a death camp.  Weak or otherwise undesirable prisoners were shipped across the Austrian border to the gas chambers, but nonetheless, cruelty both casual and deliberate had a prominent place at Dachau.
One thing I found enlightening.  Factories all over Bavaria and Franconia begged for slave labor. The sight of the prisoners was very common as so many men were in the army, only the prisoners kept German industry going near the end of the war.  Claims of ignorance by German civilians holds no water.
For a few minutes I strolled away from the clumps of tourists, following a quiet wood-lined path. There amid dappled sunlight and bird song, I found the mass graves of those who died and the memorials to them nameless as they were.  Simple.  Moving.
The photos and films are harrowing as are the accounts of those who survived or witnessed the atrocity.  I had to make myself go.  I cannot say I had fun.  I am glad I went.
Munich in particular and Bavaria in general was a center of NAZI activity.  Adolph Hitler settled in Munich after he emigrated from Austria-Hungary.  People who are interested in pursuing NAZI sites and history can find many in the city and region.  This generation is not inclined to sweep anything under the rug.
But I am going back to more frivolous tourist fun.  When I got back to town as it was hot I treated myself to gelato--my favorite flavors, chocolate, hazelnut, and cherry-vanilla.