Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Day #11-12 Last days of the trip

So we put the last 2 days of our trip on one post. We spent Saturday and Sunday at Justin and Emily's house in Edlefield. VERY cold!! Foggy, humid, and low 40's. The cold seemed to soak through. Justin said it was unusually cold for late October.

Saturday was Halloween, which is an American holiday (didn't know that). We went Trick-or-Treating to other American army families.

Sunday we went to church in Justin and Emily's ward. It is an English speaking ward made up mostly of US Service men and women. When they are deployed, the ward dries up to a minimal amount.

After church, Justin took us to Flossenburg, a German concentration camp during WWII. Very interesting and humbling.

Monday morning we drove to Frankfurt to catch the plane home.

German landscape. Notice there are no homes out in the country. Everyone lives in small villages, then takes their farming equipment out to the farm site.

All hay was wrapped in bags; roads are narrow; and everything seemed to be very clean.


One excited Alya for Halloween.

Princess Keanna with the bags

Princesses ready to hit the town.

The church rents to bottom 2 floors of this building for church. I guess Elvis performed here once.


After church, Justin took Stacy and I to the concentration camp.

Took some pictures of the Flossenburg Concentration Camp. It was used mostly as a work camp for POW and political opponents. 1 out of 3 died from starvation, work accidents, or other horrible treatments. The above picture is what the Americans found the day Flossenburg was liberated. The Nazi's (knowing the allies were coming) had taken the 'healthy' prisoners on a 'death march' to another concentration camp. The sick or injured were left behind.
This was the 'processing' room, where the prisoners were stripped naked, shaved, and given a number. Very humiliating. To the right was the 'Shower Room' as shown in the next picture.

This was the shower room. Was not gas chamber like in other camps. The prisoners were basically pressure washed with scorching hot or ice cold water.


This is a picture of the bunks they stayed in.

At the far end there was a guard tower. Below was a track that went down this hole.

This is from the bottom side, where the track came down the hill. This track carried the dead to the cremetorium as shown next.


Dissection table.


The oven.

The building at the far end was the cremetorium. The pile in the middle are the ashes.


This is looking the other direction. Again, a very humbling experience.

After the visit, we headed back.
Part way home we saw this neat OLD cemetary. One date said 1600, but that is all that could be read.
Last night in Germany. What to do with all this 'stuff'.
It was sooooo nice to spend time with my brother and family. Our kids are very excited for there cousins to come home.

4 comments:

Bonnie Bingham said...

Great picture's of your trip. Justin and Emily and girls look great.

Justin said...

Thanks for the great post! It always cold at Flossenburg, but I'm glad you guys could experience it. Temps here down into upper teens, but still not as cold as your last days here in Germany. We got your box today--Thanks. You should be getting the box for Mom and Dad soon.

Leslie said...

This looks like a really fun trip. I think we would like to go there some day. Have a Merry Christmas!

Tara and Josh said...

Again, thanks for posting your trip. I love the photos of the farms and fields. Sure would have been nice if it would have worked out for Tara and I to go.