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Pence visits Dachau concentration camp

Between international meetings, Pence stopped by Dachau with his family to pay their respects. 

US Vice President Mike Pence and his family paid a somber visit to the site of the Dachau concentration camp on Sunday, walking along the grounds where tens of thousands of people were killed during World War II.

Pence was joined by his wife Karen and their 23-year-old daughter Charlotte as they toured the exhibits at the former concentration camp, one of the first established by the Nazis in 1933 near Munich.

The vice president was accompanied by Abba Naor, a survivor of the camp, and other dignitaries as he passed through the wrought iron gate bearing the cynical inscription, “Arbeit macht frei,” or “Work sets you free.”

Naor, a veteran Mossad agent, often lectures about the Holocaust, mainly in Germany. He spends several months a year in the area and then returns to his home in Rehovot, Israel.

The Pences placed a wreath beneath the International Memorial at the center of the camp, toured the barracks and viewed the ovens inside the crematorium. They also stopped at religious memorials at the site and later attended a church service on the camp’s grounds.

More than 200,000 people from across Europe were held at Dachau, and more than 40,000 prisoners died there. The camp was liberated by US forces in April 1945.

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According to Jewish Virtual Library, “On April 26, 1945, as American forces approached, there were 67,665 registered prisoners in Dachau and its subcamps. Of these, 43,350 were categorized as political prisoners, while 22,100 were Jews, with the remainder falling into various other categories. Starting that day, the Germans forced more than 7,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, on a death march from Dachau to Tegernsee far to the south. During the death march, the Germans shot anyone who could no longer continue; many also died of hunger, cold, or exhaustion.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden visited Dachau during a trip to Germany in 2015.

Making his first overseas trip as vice president, Pence spoke to foreign diplomats and defense officials at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday and met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders.

Pence was traveling to Brussels later Sunday for meetings on Monday with NATO and European Union officials.

By: AP and World Israel News Staff