Author: Ann Laemmlen Lewis

Here is a map of the Roman Empire.  The border ran through Germany, about 20 minutes from Frankfurt.  Today we went to visit a reconstructed frontier fort garrisoned by soldiers who controlled the borderline from about AD 100 to 275.  The former frontier of the Roman Empire, the limes, lies only a few hundred meters from the fort.

Today we learned all about this fascinating history.

The fort’s buildings were reconstructed on the original foundation walls at the turn of the 20th century.  Since then, the Saalburg has been an archaeological museum and research center for the Roman limes.  In 2005 it became a UNESCO World Heritage site, the “Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes.”

This is the complex of reconstructed ruins that we visited today:

Here’s where the Limes border was situated:

Our first stop was at the restaurant that served Roman foods.  We really enjoyed the offerings.

Above:  chicken breast with mushrooms, steamed bread and sauce.  Below:  Wursts, mushrooms, egg and Parma ham.

This is the wall that enclosed the camp.

There were so many interesting things to see here.  One building focused on everyday life for those living in the camp.  Here is a typical soldier’s bunk room.

Here is a Roman kitchen:

Things found in the storage room excavations:

Here’s  where a worker made tools and things from bone:

This is a shoemaker’s shop:

There is a central room for groups and school kids to listen and learn, with hands on activities.

Here’s the great hall where soldiers assembled.

Here’s a simple history of this fort garrison, starting in AD 83:

Now AD 135:

AD 260:

AD 300:

There were 2 covered wells in the courtyard.

These monument markers and engraved stones preserved a detailed history.

This room was the weaponry, with lots of samples of Roman weapons through the centuries.

Arrow and spear tips:

How the armies were organized:

An officer’s quarters:

Roman wagons:

I was interested to see this wheel pattern.  We saw it in Israel in the synagogues from this same time period.

Patchwork stones:

These next photos are of Roman items found in the excavations.

The famous horse’s head:

The horse’s head was found deep in a well.

Baking ovens were outside:

Latrines by the camp wall:

A bath house:

Another cooking area:

Another room filled with Roman findings:

Hot baths.

What a fascinating day.  I had no idea we lived so close to these Roman ruins.  Wow.  Today we took a huge step back in time!

We helped with more changes this week.  The Andersons have gone and the Spendloves have arrived.  Somehow we seem to keep the balance.  We love meeting the newly arriving missionaries.  Tina Spendlove is an Area Mental Health Advisor.

This evening we had dinner with our friends, Dinis and Silvia in Bad Nauheim, another beautiful spa town with mineral springs about 30 minutes from the office.  Bad Nauheim has lots of rehab and care centers there where doctors send patients to heal.  It’s a beautiful town with parks and waterways and nice shops.

Elvis Presley lived here in this town from 1958-1960 when he was in the army. After a delicious Italian dinner, we walked to the hotel where he stayed.  In front of the hotel is a candlelight memorial mounded on the ground where people burn candles, and lay flowers and gifts to the memory of Elvis.

Even the traffic lights for pedestrian crossings honor Elvis!

There’s a statue of him on the bridge nearby.  He was a pretty big deal here.

This huge cathedral was built in the 11th century out of brick.  That’s a lot of brick.  The cathedral complex filled a whole city block.

Donations for orphans and poor children.

Underground was a crypt from long long ago.

This Madonna dates back to about 1300.

All the church leaders through the centuries:

The courtyard around the chapel part of the cathedral was filled with 100s of the very old headstone/memorial slabs from so long ago. Before records were kept, the important people had their stories told on their burial slabs. Some just have a likeness of the person, some tell all of his accomplishments. It’s like a personal history. I am always wondering if these inscribed stones are chronicled and documented and translated and put into FamilySearch or other databases. That would be a fun job for someone with the skills to read and interpret them. They are written in Latin. I took quite a few pics of the interesting ones.

As we walked out of the Cathedral, we supposed that such a structure in what was probably a fairly small town back then was probably to those people like our building a temple is in our day–a marvelous work and a wonder.

Then we walked a few more blocks back the other way into the old town. Today this is a modern beautiful city, but the town square/plaza areas were beautiful and large, surrounded by historic buildings and the old town hall. The buildings are old, the shops on the ground levels are new and modern.

True cobblestones are unique and individual, pieced together like a quilt.

We wandered around the town a bit, enjoying being there. We had driven out of the rain, and it was dry here. We found a really good Italian place and went in for pizza and pasta. It was great. Enjoyed our food.

Then we headed back to the car and headed home. 3.5 hours to go. Beautiful pink to red sunset. Beautiful moon rising. Beautiful German countryside.

There is something important and special to me, and that’s being “in the place where it happened.” Walking where they walked, imagining being there with those who suffered. Being able to say to them one day, I visited your place. I felt your sadness there.

Here at Dachau, we followed what is called “The Path of Remembrance,” or the path the prisoners took as they arrived, lived and died here. We paid for  audio devices that had numbers and messages to listen to at each place, in addition to all of the signs and printed information with photos telling the story here.

This camp is a large area, a part of it was used to house the prisoners. Other parts were for housing the officials, offices, a brothel for the SS men (with women brought in from other camps like Ravensburg), a place to raise rabbits, a garden area, and just outside the camp is the crematorium.

There were 32 barracks, including one for clergy imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime and one reserved for medical experimentation. They were laid out with precision, in a grid, one next to the other on both sides of a tree-lined path or road through the middle of the camp. Each bunker or barrack was 10 meters wide by 100 meters long. They were filled with bunk beds, stacked 3 high and a common toilet room and wash room in the middle for all to use. They said the camp was built for 6,000 people, but the numbers grew to 30,000, and it was dramatically overcrowded. The catastrophic living conditions lead to the outbreak of a typhus epidemic that killed thousands.

All of the bunkers were destroyed, except for their cement foundations. Two were rebuilt for visitors to see what they were like, filled with the bunks and with the toilet room and wash room.  But the beds were clean and new, not as they were, infested, filled with straw-filled pads that absorbed human waste.  The survivors described the smells and the problems with hygiene. The officials were brutal and so unkind, forcing them to scrub and clean every inch of the floors.  Beds had to be made perfectly, or the guards went ballistic.

From what I read (the first part of the tour was like a museum in the main part of the camp where the prisoners were checked in, stripped of clothing and belongings, showered, hair shaved, then assigned to their places), this was a brutally mean place, heavy on punishment, torture, brutality and exercising unrighteous dominion.  It was horrible.  People were beaten and abused in every way.  Such inhumanity.

I felt SAD here. But there is a peaceful feeling in the camp now. It’s OVER. The terror of Hitler’s regime is gone. There is just quiet and peace and remembering.

Here’s an aerial view of the concentration camp.  In  the top right is the path that leads to the crematoriums.

The green outline below is all of Dachau as it was.  The red outline is the camp we visited where the prisoners were kept.  The crematoriums were outside of this red area.

Old photographs of what it looked like:

This is the area where the trains were unloaded before people entered the camp through the gates, taking their last steps in a free world.  It seemed right that we were here on a cold, dreary, wet day.

Coming through the gates, the large field in front of us was were roll call was taken.  Prisoners had to stand in lines for hours here.  the building to the right is where they were checked in when they arrived.  Now it’s a museum explaining life at Dachau and what was happening in the world at that time.

Looking back at the entrance gate:

Concentration camps in Europe:

The desk where they were checked in:

Used for punishment:

The shower room.

Outer courtyard and execution area behind the main building:

The execution wall and place for hangings.

The camp is surrounded by walls, barbed wire and watch towers.

The two reconstructed bunkers made to give visitors an idea of what living conditions were like:

The tree lined street between the bunkers.  I think men were on one side and women on the other.

These are the original cement foundations of the bunkers.

Here’s a photo taken after the liberation.

Each “block” or bunker had a number–evens on one side, odds on the other.

At the far end of the bunkers there are 4 memorials–a Protestant church, a Jewish, memorial, a Christian memorial and a Russian Orthodox chapel.

After visiting the memorials, we walked out of the gates, across a bridge and into a wooded area where the crematoriums were.

The first one built was small and not able to handle the workload.  A second larger building with more ovens was added.  Dachau wasn’t built for mass genocide like Auschwitz and Birkenau and other extermination camps. The ovens were used to dispose of all those who died or were killed. They didn’t fill rooms with people and gas them here. Maybe some of that happened, they’re not sure.  Mostly the ovens were used to get rid of the bodies because it was easier than burying them.

The large crematorium is nearby, built to handle more bodies.

First people were brought to these disinfection rooms.

Chemicals were released here.

Then the bodies were cremated in these ovens.

Outside the building is a park area for remembering and honoring those who died.  Here is a gravestone to the thousands of unknown people who died here.

The ashes were put into pits.

There is also an execution area behind the crematorium, up against a wall.

Going back into the camp.

Memorial

It was a quiet and somber day.  A lot goes through your mind in a place like this.  You wonder what you would have done in these circumstances.  You wonder how long hope would last.  You wonder all of the “what ifs” there are to wonder.