Dachau Camp
First Nazi concentration camp; established for political prisoners.
- March 20, 1933 Heinrich Himmler announced established
- Located in Dachau, Germany (approximately 9 miles, or 15 kilometers, northwest of Munich)
- March 22, 1933 first group of prisoners arrive
- Surrounded by electrified fence
- Originally planned to hold 5,000 prisoners at a time
- Held 12,000 prisoners after 1942; 30,000 at liberation
- Throughout the camp's history, 206,206 prisoners were registered
- Throughout the camp's history 31,591 deaths registered, but it is estimated that 50,000 died in Dachau
- Prisoners included Jehovah's Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jews, POWs
- Sub-camps
- Commandants
- Theodor Eicke
- Martin Gotfried Weiss
- Hans Loritz
- Became a training location for SS
- 1937 to August 15, 1938 a new camp at Dachau was built
- 34 barracks
- 951 feet by 2018 feet (290 meters by 615 meters)
- Above the main gate are the words "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Makes One Free")
- November 1938 approximately 10,000 Jews arrived after having been arrested during Kristallnacht
- Two crematoria
- 1942 a gas chamber is built but it is never used
- Medical experiments conducted
- High-altitude experiments
- Freezing experiments
- Malaria experiments
- Tuberculosis experiments
- Drinkable seawater experiments
- Famous prisoners
- Pastor Martin Niemöller
- Miklos Kallay
- Dr. Hjalmar Schacht
- Bruno Bettelheim
- Kurt von Schuschnigg
- April 26, 1945 7,000 prisoners evacuated in a death march
- April 29, 1945 Dachau liberated by the U.S. 7th Army; 27,400 prisoners left alive in the camp
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A section of the Dachau concentration camp. |
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Survivors in Dachau. |
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Prisoners working in a munitions factory in Dachau. |
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Corpses of prisoners of Dachau during an inspection of the camp. |
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Two ovens inside the crematorium at the Dachau concentration camp. |
