Some people believe in supernatural occurrences, and some don’t. However, what many agree on is that terrible, often traumatic events can leave remnants of the past behind like a scar most can’t see, we can still feel that something is not quite right at these sights.

If you’re uncomfortable hearing about this terrible side of history or want to visit before hearing about what others felt, I would suggest skipping this article/video. If you’re staying, don’t say I didn’t warn you, and maybe get some tissues, because most of these are heartbreaking.

Dachau Concentration camp

Located in the Town of Dachau, about an hour north of Munich, the camp was constructed on the site of an abandoned munitions factory. It was said to be originally able to house up to 5000 people and was described as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners” by Heinrich Himmler, one of the primary architects of the Holocaust.

While there were 32,000 deaths recorded at this camp alone, that does not take into account those who die on the way there, or of sickness or starvation after liberation in 1945, some estimates say that around 10,000 of the 30,000 housed in the camp at liberation were sick.

If you thought that was where Dachau stopped working as a prison, you would be mistaken. After the war it was used to house SS soldiers awaiting trail starting in 1948, it only officially closed as a prison in 1960, and became a memorial site in 1965 with support from the Bavarian Government.

When I visited in April of 2013, I had read about camps like this one, but being from Canada had only seen it in movies, photos and the time Oprah had Auschwitz on her show, which had me bawling my eyes out.

The entire place, from the time we got off the train to the time we got back to Munich, was cold, almost unnaturally so. While I didn’t see or experience anything myself, the experience stuck with me and after I got home two weeks later, I was still uneasy about the visit so I looked up people’s experiences.

Much like me, almost every person who writes about it feels uneasy, some say sick, others ‘tortured’ which I find almost insulting considering the events that took place here, but almost everyone agrees there is still something or someone that lives at Dachau.

While I visited, I was told the gas chambers were never used, but that account varies depending on where you get your information. Most of those who died here were shot, beaten, starved, possibly even experimented on, or got sick, many even decided to end their lives and suffering.

I think that’s why so many experience strange feelings like I did, some hearing and even recording disembodied screams, moans and a few even saying they’ve seen something or felt a presence, even though they were alone.

Citadel Hill in Halifax

When work was completed in 1856 on the citadel, it was already the 4th rebuild, not because of war but because of lack of care and decay.

Despite that, there have been thousands who lived here over the years between its original construction (started) in 1748 and today.

The location is fantastic and can see for kilometres in every direction, sitting on top of a hill near the harbour.

The Citadel does not shy away from reports of its haunting, saying there are 36 know reports of apparitions of different kinds, with more being added all the time.

Some of the most famous include the Grey Lady who was first seen by an employee who thought she was a tourist when the man got up to greet her she was gone but has been seen multiple times since.

I remember her story from when I visited, She was set to marry a soldier the next day, but the night before the wedding he got into a fight about it with another soldier, apparently the groom to be was already married, he later killed himself and was found the next morning when his carriage arrives to bring him to the wedding. There are reports that the reason she visits is to try to find him, never believing the carriage driver and many believe the chair the employee was sitting in once resided in the church she was to marry her fiancée in. There are many who says when she passes, the whole hall or room will smell of roses.

I was also told about a man who walks around in a military uniform not matching any of the ones worn at the citadel, as well as a little girl who seemingly follows tour groups

Hockey hall of fame

This one may seem funny, but there are so many reports of the Hockey Hall of Fame being haunted it’s a little ridiculous.

When the museum moved to its current location, an old Bank of Montreal Branch location in downtown Toronto, people started seeing a woman, first seen on the second floor by a harpist named Joana Jordan in the early ’90s. She said the apparition was just staring down at her from the second floor while she was playing at an event.

Many thought she had seen a young Teller who was known as Dorothy, who had sadly killed herself at the bank sometime between 1900 and the 1960s. Well in 2009 it was revealed that she was most likely Dorothea Mae Elliott, a 19-year-old teller who had shot herself Wednesday, March 11, 1953, dying 22 hours later in hospital, according to the Toronto Star.

People have reported everything from disembodied moans, screams, eerie sounds, she even likes to open and close doors and play with the lights, some even report hearing footsteps when working alone at night as well as phantom touches on legs and shoulders.

There’s even one story of a little boy visiting the Hall screaming “don’t you see her! Don’t you see her!” describing a woman with long black hair going in and out of walls. He is one of the only people to ever see her, despite all these reports.

I would like to mention that the family of Dorothea Mae Elliott have objected to people seeing her as an object of fun, and do not publicly speak about her.

Dorchester Square

So many tourists and students love Dorchester Square park. It’s right downtown, but slightly off the main streets, and they have trees, benches and little squirrels running around. The recently renovated park also sits on the graves of approximately 70,000 Cholera Victims. While most were dead, some were given heavy doses or opium and buried in the mass graves, and some believe they come back after night falls to haunt the square, even though that epidemic happened in 1832. People sometimes hear prayers being mumbled, orbs floating around and general feelings of unease.

Oak Alley

When you first pull up to Oak Alley, you’ll probably be stunned. It is so beautiful, and the size of the property is mind-blowing, but the events that took place here were devastating and cruel.

For the most part, people feel cold spots or disembodied touched, catch glimpses of something out of the corner of their eye or hear voices as well as actually see people in a certain place, if only for a second. There have also been at least two instances of things moving inexplicably, like a candlestick flying at a guide and harnesses of construction crews being strewn across the floor.

One of the things I found most horrific though, was how little they talked about the slaves that made the plantation run. This article from HuffPost articulates it better than I could ever hope to, and since it was written 2 years after I visited, it seems not much has changed. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/visiting-a-plantation-but_b_8492104

Lalaurie Mansion

This last one probably has the most confusing history of any place still used as it was when the events took place. The Lalaurie Mansion was a literal house of horrors, according to rumours, the Mistress of the house, Delphine Lalaurie, was incredibly cruel to the slaves in her home. She did everything from chain them to walls to perform surgeries on them without anesthetic, all of this leading to untold numbers dying in her care.

Her cruelty both to her slaves really took off after the constant fighting with her husband apparently ended when he moved out. She was even investigated and lost all slaves in her home after a woman rumoured to be named Nina (others say her name was Leia), she later fell to her death and was later buried in the backyard, only to be caught by the authorities, sadly she was able to buy them back and it was only a year later that a fire ravaged a portion of the house, which was reportedly started by a slave woman who was chained to the stove as a form of punishment, exposing starved, beaten and tortured slaves.

The people started to gather, some reports say 2,000 showed up, enraged at the terrible conditions and waited for the sheriff to arrest Mrs. Lalaurie, but they never did. The people grew angrier and eventually attacked the empty house, stripping it of its valuables, and by the next morning, the once stunning home was nearly demolished.

Most of the stories that you may have heard previously, have not been confirmed and are possibly (likely, in some cases) sensationalized, and this is becoming more of an urban legend than a historical account, though horrific abuse did happen at 1140 Royal Street. The home is now reportedly owned by an Oily Tycoon, and there are no tours of the interior, and that’s probably for the best.

The death of the slave woman was in 1833, the fire in 1834, and ever since there have been reports of people seeing figures in windows, hearing moans and screams, as well as footsteps and most commonly negative energy for those who dare get too close to the rebuilt home.

There are even accounts of young black girls, aged 6 to 8, primary school students who lived in the home in the mid-19th century, going to teachers crying with scratches and bruises on their forearms. When asked who did that to them, their reply was always simply “That Woman”.

Another place that I wanted to mention is not one that I visited, per se, but I found out about it while researching for this video. The UpStairs Lounge was a gay club in New Orleans, Louisiana, up until it was destroyed by a fire set by a Molotov cocktail, the person who started it has never been officially identified, 32 people died after being accidentally locked in the second floor of the club, one of the most tragic that I found was that of George Mitchell who escaped to the roof with about 20 other people, but returned to try to save his boyfriend Louis Horace Broussard, with many reports saying that they were found holding each other.

Now I said earlier that I didn’t get to visit this place, nor did I know it was there when I visited New Orleans and stayed just around the corner at the Marriott in the French Quarter. I even SPECIFICALLY remarking what a beautiful Fleur de Lis hung off that very building, never seeing a sign or placard remarking what happened there in 1973. Today, some witnesses claim to have seen black apparitions resembling charred bodies, the occasional smell of smoke in the spot the blaze began, as well as bloodcurdling screams and terrifying moans, causing some employees to refuse to step foot upstairs, and others to fell an immense sense of unease if they do, which is understandable when you find out the gates that were there when the fire happened are still there, and they still have burn marks on them.

Thank you again so much for joining me today, I know this one was darker than my usual posts, and I really enjoyed going deeper into the history of the places I’ve visited even if they can get creepy and sad at times.