September 14,2011

Day 8 - Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Salzburg, Austria

Today was another travel day for us. We started out on what's called "The Romantic Road" which is Germany's way to attract tourists to some of its lesser known medieval towns. We saw a couple from the road but decided that Rothenburg was enough for us.

A spur of the moment thing we chose to do was try to find the Displaced Persons Camp my first husband, Max, was born in and lived until his family was able to move to the US in 1950. We did a Google search and saw that the location of the town was just an hour out of our way. There was no information about the location of the camp but a few things we read indicated that that Allies moved people into the barracks of a German Air Force base. All the holocaust survivors were moved to other locations by 1950 when the American Army occupied it until 1955 when it was given back to the Germans.

We found the German Air Force base and of course we couldn't just walk in. We pushed the intercom by the locked gate and explained what we were looking for. The person speaking to us indicated that he didn't know whether it was the location of the camp, he didn't know where we could find that out, that we couldn't come in for a look around, and that we couldn't take pictures. Go figure?

We spent a little bit of time driving around the town taking some pictures and also sneaking some of the base. I've included some for you to see.

This last one was a deserted field next to the base and where Rick thinks the camp was.

Being there was very emotional for me. I've seen Max's baby pictures and his birth certificate and it felt amazing to be in the vicinity of where he was born. Then I started imagining what it was like for all the traumatized people who lived in the camp, each suffered so much during the war and then each spent years in limbo not knowing what was going to happen to them. The social worker in me wanted to know if they were offered any counseling or help in dealing with their losses, memories, and experiences. I think I have some studying to do when I get home.

We were considering going to visit Dachau but this was enough for right now.

After we left Lagerlechfeld, we got on the Autobahn and while Rick drove a speed I don't even want to know, I slept on the three hour drive to Salzburg.

After a few tries we found our hotel, which incidentally is right around the corner from Mozart's house, and then headed out to explore and find some dinner. We happened on a little restaurant with some English speakers sitting outside eating an amazing wooden slab of food. It was the nightly special and they said it was good so we ordered it.

I thought it was veal so I didn't want to eat it but the veggies, rice, and fries were good. Then Rick informed me that it was actually pork shnitzel, so I ate it and it was good. I guess I don't feel as sorry for pigs as I do baby cows!

Tomorrow we'll explore a little more of Salzburg before making our way to Vienna.