Happy belated 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July everybody!  Sorry this is a bit late, I just don't seem to have time to play on the computer.  Everyday this summer we seem to be out on the go.  This year for the 4th we did some pretty cool things.  We first stopped by the P/x to visit our favorite friends the Sweet Tooth Cakery for a sweet and yummy treat.  Then we decided we wanted to do something to remember what a blessing Freedom is, and what it is all about.  There is a Concentration camp not too far from here, one of the first established actually.  It is Flossenburg concentration camp.  So we decided to check it out.

 Here is the entrance to Flossenburg, and what would have been the SS headquarters and offices.

 One of the guard towers, and the fence goes around a tunnel they built which lead to the cremation room.

The hill behind my beautiful smiling children, is the hill of ashes from those who suffered in this camp.

It really brings to mind, how grateful I am for the blessing of freedom, and that my children have not had to know what true horror is.

This Church was built after the American's freed the camp, they added the church on to one of the existing guard towers.

There were two American casualties that occurred in this camp.  Two brave, unknown pilots.

All throughout the camp there were plaques signifying the different nationalities that were in the camp, and how many casualties each nationally suffered.  In then end close to 20,000 people suffered and died in this camp, ranging from jews, prisoners of war, and German's that were deemed traitors and a threat to the Nazi movement.

It was a great learning moment for my kids, for them to see what can happen when your freedom is stripped away.  

 After touring the camp we decided to climb to the castle ruins on the hill above the town.

These were really fantastic, just what I imagined castle ruins would be like!

 My little warriors hiking through the ancient halls...

 It was a fun way to spend the 4th of July, even though we missed being with family desperately and we didn't get a fabulous parade.  We did get home in time to throw some burgers on the grill and have a little family BBQ.  Then we headed on base to meet up with a group of friends and watched the awesome fireworks show the Grafenwohr army base put on for us.   It was a fun night!