Day 3..... North/East tour of France

Had a wonderful night with Olivier and Martine last night. Great food, great wines and great company! Couldn't think of a better way to end the night but over a bottle of champagne with some new found friends!

Today Philippe took me to visit a German Concentration Camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller, called "Natzweiler Struthof". l like millions of Canadians heard or read the horror stories that took place during 1940-1944 especially in the Nazi camps. You can empathise but you can't truly get the feeling of what it must of been like until you actually visit one of these camps.

Visiting this camp today was one of the most emotional experiences l have ever had. I could not stop the tears from falling as l walked along the perimeter of the camp. We didn't actually get to go inside the camp as it was closed for the season but believe me just from what l saw was more then enough for me. I can only imagine what kind of basket case l would of been like if l had actually gone into the very room that people were gassed or cremated in.

Philippe and l were able to get the background history regarding the area, the camp and the times during 1940-1944 when we visited  the local Museum just on the other side of the village. We visited the Museum before heading up to the camp.

Museum

Old bunkers located on the grounds of
the museum

Camp Entrance Gates

This was a small camp intended for the incarceration of German criminals and Resistance fighter who were sent here initially to work in the nearby granite quarries, over 35,000 prisons walked through these gates

Nazweiler- Struthof located in a scenic area, in the majestic Vosges mountains, above the Bruche Valley, near the former Hotel Struthof, once a well-known winter resort in the heart of Alsace. .

The former Natzweiler-Struthof camp is now a protected historical site, called the "Memorial of the Deportation." The Deportation refers to the French resistance fighters who were deported to the Greater German Reich after they were captured. As illegal combatants who were fighting without uniforms in violation of the Geneva Convention of 1929, they could have been legally shot, but instead they were worked to death in concentration camps, particularly at Natzweiler, but also at Buchenwald and Mauthausen

The building in the picture was known
as Barracks # 1

Guards with dogs would walk
between the fences looking for
anyone who might be trying to
escape. The building located in the
background was the camp prison.
It is in these hills that the ashes of
 the dead were thrown

Building in the back ground was the
crematory, notice the tall
smoke stack

Barracks that housed the prisoners stood
 on the flat surfaces until they were
torn down in 1954

Looking through the front gate

Barracks #1 to the Left and in the
background was the camp kitchen

Shown in the photo above is the gallows where prisoners, who had been condemned to death, were hanged at Natzweiler. In the background you can see the terraced hillside where the barracks once stood. The hangman's noose was set up whenever an execution was scheduled.

A plaque indicating the location for which the
ashes of those who were cremated were
thrown

Memorial of the Deportation

From May 1941 to March 1945, more then
17,000 people died in the Natzweiler-
Struhof camp system

The remains of the prisoners who died at Natzweiler were brought back to the camp and buried beside the Memorial in the National Cemetery of the Deportation. In the foreground of the photo below, are the crosses that mark their graves. Each cross has the name of a resistance fighter who died as a martyr for France.

Hundreds of graves stand along the Memorial
of the Deportation 

 A view from above the camp

Memorial of the Deportation, looking
down onto the camp

I left this camp with mixed emotions. A part of me wanted to see this placed destroyed as it is a reminder of what evil once lived here and the many lives that were taken or destroyed, that is the heart speaking... So ok, now the  Common sense side says....... we have to preserve this history to remind all of us of our past and the hopes that it will never be repeated again.

I think anyone who gets the chance or has already visited on of these camps will be changed in one way or another. I will never forget this visit and as emotional as it was to see this place, l am truly glad that got the opportunity to see this place first hand.

Headed back to Martine and Oliviers for the night, sure could use some laughter after this somber day....

Had a wonderful meal, thanks Martine! Of course plenty of laughter and just a little bit of wine! :) Yes we had more wine and plenty of it.... Can't you tell by the size of the bottle that Olivier is holding!



Tomorrow, we head to our hotel and the week in Strasbourg starts! Plans have already been made to meet up with Martine and Olivier for the usual Friday night dinner at the restaurant. l will look forward to seeing them before we leave Strasbourg!