Travelin' Tuesday - Flossenburg

Not every place I've visited was fun. Germany is a very beautiful country, but it has a very tragic past. About 45 minutes or so from where we lived in Vilseck sits the remains of Flossenburg Concentration Camp. I've always been a huge World War II buff, so I jumped at the chance to visit.

My first impression was that it's very quiet. The air is heavier there, the silence is almost physical. You can literally feel the sadness that surrounds the place like a thick fog. It's very eerie. Thousands of innocent men, women and children were slaughtered on the very ground I was standing on, and my soul felt heavy. It's hard to breathe.


Some of the buildings are still standing, you can walk through the barracks where they stacked prisoners - sometimes 4 or 5 to a single bunk. There's a section that used to be the hospital, where they performed experiments on pregnant women and their babies. When you see the evidence of what mankind is truly capable of, it makes you want to run home, and yet somehow, you can't turn away.


Yes, this is what you think it is - an oven. This is where they cremated the bodies of the prisoners that were killed. Either shot, worked to death, starved to death or those who simply gave up hope. It's very small. At first I wondered how they could fit the bodies in there, but then I realized that by the time they made it to the ovens, they were so emaciated that the adults were the size of children.
This display caught my attention more than the others. These are actual shoes that belonged to the prisoners. There were piles of them, as the guards stripped the prisoners of all their personal belongings. There were piles of shoes, clothing, luggage, even gold teeth. And they were literally stripped of their humanity when entering the camps, prisoners were considered a sub-human species.

I've studied World War II in depth, and I thought I was prepared to visit a camp, but nothing can prepare you for the impact that this kind of place has on you. And while visiting a site of mass slaughter is not exactly enjoyable, I think it's necessary. This happened because people forgot how to treat one another, forgot that we are all equal in the eyes of God, forgot that spilling innocent blood has consequences. I think that by visiting these places and feeling the horror, we can fight back and prevent it from happening again. If you ever have the chance to visit a concentration camp, I highly recommend it. It will truly open your eyes.