Face of Evil

This morning, we drive to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, recognisable to most for its infamous inscription ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’. Our visit takes in the camp huts, gas chamber and crematorium, and we also pay our respects at the memorials honouring those who died. Later we return to Munich where we visit the Documentation Centre and take a walk through the city starting at the former Sterneckerbrau where Hitler first encountered the Nazi party and we follow in the footsteps of the 1923 Beer Hall Putschists to the Odeonsplatz, Munich’s central square. We end the day at the Hofbräuhaus, Munich’s biggest beer hall where Hitler unveiled the 25-point Nazi programme in 1920.

Leaving Munich, we drive through the beautiful Bavarian Alps to Berchtesgaden, the mountain town that Hitler and his cohorts adopted as their playground. We take the lift to the summit of the Kehlstein mountain for lunch at a restaurant which boasts spectacular views. At 1,834m, the ‘Eagle’s Nest’ was a luxurious gift given for Hitler’s 50^th birthday. Here, we have a guided tour of the building and find out more about its history and the stories housed within its walls. 

Today we visit the site of Berghof, Hitler’s home, where he sent time with his inner circle and also met with foreign VIPs, including Neville Chamberlain. After the war, the Berghof was demolished but the foundations remain. We then tour the Documentation Centre, an excellent museum recording Hitler’s links with the area and the history of the Nazi movement. Here, the permanent exhibition ‘Fascination and Terror’ explores the causes and consequences of Nazi Germany. Next, we explore underground tunnels which were dug by the SS beneath the mountain lair before continuing to Nuremberg.

We spend the day in Nuremberg starting with a walk in the Rally grounds where the Nazi faithful gathered in mass rallies each year until 1938 and continue to the museum which explains their context. Later we see Courtroom 600 where the Nazi regime was subject to a final judgement at the Nuremberg trials.

We make the long drive to Berlin stopping at Bayreuth on the way, home to Richard Wagner and the opera festival so beloved by Hitler.

This morning we visit Wannsee, the lakeside villa where the ‘Final Solution’ was planned by the Nazi leadership in 1942. We explore the villa’s museum which houses original documents from the Wannsee Conference and details exhibits about the deportation and extermination of Jews. Afterwards we visit the Topography of Terror exhibition which details Nazi crimes in Germany and throughout Europe.

Today we visit the Gesundbrunnen air raid shelter, built beneath an underground station. We explore the Humboldthain Flak Tower, built to protect the city from air raids by allied bombers.  In the afternoon we explore the Museum of the German resistance on the site of Stauffenberg’s failed 1944 putsch. 

In the morning, we take a walking tour of Berlin, viewing the Reichstag and Holocaust Memorial and ending at Hitler’s bunker before heading to the airport for our return flight home.