The Germans that we encountered in our visit there were polite, friendly and happy. They showed respect to us even when we made mistakes due to ignorance of their laws and customs.So when I walked through the famous "Work will make you free gate" at Dachau, I wondered, as many others have, about the paradox that Germany is. How could the country that gave us Bach and Einstein also give us "The Final Solution?"Because this is a photo blog, I won't attempt an answer other than to say that all countries, including my own, can offer up paradoxes in their history.

Deb and I visited Dachau 30 minutes before it closed on a cool, rainy day. It was eerily devoid of people. And it was almost completely devoid of color.Somehow that seemed appropriate.For those interested in photography, you should know that when I took this photo, I realized that tens of thousands of other photos have probably been taken of this gate. So I was thinking about finding a point of view that might help my photo be a little different. So, after taking a couple shots with my standard lens, I took my 50mm 1.2 lens to capture a very narrow depth of field.Canon 5DII 1/640s f/1.4 ISO640 50mm