Dachau

presented by: Allen yordy


Dachau was established in March 1933. Dachau was the first regular concentration camp established by the National Socialist (Nazi) government. Dachau was originally a camp for all the political prisoners of the war. Dachau is located about 10 miles northwest of munich in southern Germany.During the first year Dachau held 4,800 prisoners. By 1937 the population rose to 13,260.Initially the camp held German communist, social democrats,trade unionists, and other political opponents of the Nazi regime. Over time, other groups were also interned at Dachau, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, as well as "asocials" and repeat criminal offenders.The number of Jewish prisoners at Dachau rose with the increased persecution of Jews and on November 10-11, 1938, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, more than 10,000 Jewish men were interned there. (Most of men in this group were released after incarceration of a few weeks to a few months, many after proving they had made arrangements to emigrate from Germany.)

Dachau was also used to train SS guards.he camp was divided into two sections--the camp area and the crematoria area. The camp area consisted of 32 barracks, including one for clergy imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime and one reserved for medical experiments. The camp administration was located in the gatehouse at the main entrance. The camp area had a group of support buildings, containing the kitchen, laundry, showers, and workshops, as well as a prison block (Bunker). The courtyard between the prison and the central kitchen was used for the summary execution of prisoners. An electrified barbed-wire fence, a ditch, and a wall with seven guard towers surrounded the camp.
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Besides maintaining the camp, in the pre-war years the prisoners were forced to work in various companies owned by the SS, in road works, in gravel pits, and the cultivation of the moor. In the war years the prisoner labor force became increasingly important for the German armaments industry. From 1942 a widespread network of subsidiary camps and outside work details was formed, in which well over 30,000 prisoners worked almost exclusively in German armament production

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"On the way to work and on the way back the people dragged themselves along, stumbled, and now and then one of them fell. During work movements became unsteady, many lost grip of their tools - in our group such things were punished with a blow of the rifle butt. Others fells from the scaffolding, carrying sleepers they stumbled over the rails and fell under the wheels of the trains"
(Ladislaus Ervin-Deutsch: Night Shift in Work Camp III in Kaufering, Dachauer Hefte 2)
There is some really awesome historical footage

800px-Dachau_never_again.jpg In the picture on the left never again is written in several different languages

Years after the holocaust , former prisoners banded together to erect a memorial on the site of the camp, finding it unbelievable that there were still persons (refugees) living in the camp under those conditions.The display, which was reworked in 2003, takes the visitor through the path of new arrivals to the camp. Special presentations of some of the notable prisoners are also provided. Two of the barracks have been rebuilt and one shows a cross-section of the entire history of the camp, since the original barracks had to be torn down due to their poor condition when the memorial was built. The other 28 barracks are indicated by concrete foundations. The memorial includes four chapels for the various religions represented among the prisoners.The local government resisted designating the complete site a memorial. The former SS barracks adjacent to the camp are now occupied by the Bavarian rapid response police unit.

To take a virtual tour click on this link:http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/englisch/frame/vr.htm

*Derek H.

  • Dachau was the first regular penetration camp and was built in the year of 1933.
  • Influenced by the national nazi government.
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*Amber B.

  • Dachau opened on March 22, 1933 in a former gunpowder factory, just outside the town of Dachau.
  • it was the first regular camp established by the Nazi government.
  • was a model for other Nazi concentration camps that followed.
  • divided into two sections; the camp area and the crematorium.
  • surrounding the camp there was an electrified barbed-wired fence, a ditch, and a wall with seven guard towersabdachaujpg.jpg











  • Dachau was made of old monitions factories outside the town of Dachau, 12 miles Northwest of Munich.
  • Other prisoners were criminals, vagrants, homosexuals, Jehovah Witness's, Gypsies, dissenting Clergy, and Jews.
  • Dachau was mostly a camp for non-Jewish adult males. Only a few women were brought in 1944, but most of them were transferred to the sub camps to German factories.
  • about 188,000 prisoners were killed in Dachau from 1933 to 1945
  • All clothes and possessions were taken when prisoners first arrived.
  • thousands of prisoners were worked to death
  • German physicians did medical experiments on prisoners like high-altitude experiments, malaria and tuberculosis experiments, and tested new medications
  • hundreds of prisoners died or were permanently disabled from these experiments.
  • They were force to do various construction such as building roads, working in gravel pits, and draining marshes.
  • SS used firing ranges and gallows in crematoria areas for killing sites for killing prisoners.
  • When Germans heard that Americans were liberating camp they forced more than 7,000 prisoners on a death march from Dachau to Tegernsee.
  • Almost half the deaths that occured in Dachau was during the final 4 months before the camp was liberated
  • American Seventh Army arrived to liberate Dachau on April 29, 1945
  • Americans found 30 railroad cars filled with dead bodies as they reached camp
  • American troops were so horrified by the conditions when they liberated the camp that they shot 35 guards and the other 515 were arrested or managed to escape.
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  • The first transported Jews came to Dachau after Kristallnact, also known as "night of broken glass," where it was a terroristic atack on Jewish people, businesses, synagogues, and homes in Germany.
  • There was a courtyard between prison and central kitchen used for summary execution of prisoners.
  • Surrounding the camp was a electrified barbed-wire fence, a ditch, and a wall with seven guard towers.
  • There was two crematoria, and a gas chamber but it was never used.
  • Above the main gate of the camp are the words "arbeit Macht Frei" or (work makes one free)
  • There was 206,206 registered prisoners and recorded 31,591 total deaths.
  • Inmate population was from 22,000 to 30,000, but was only built to hold 8,000-10,000 inmates.
  • Prisoners lived in wooden huts with tightly packed bunks. Prisoners had long work hours and inadequate food and water rations. Most prisoners starved to death and were cremated in the camps ovens.
4,000 imprisoned soviet solders were killed in Itebertshausen, a two lane shooting range.
Dachau
Tyler K.
  • Dachau alone had more than 30 large sub camps in which over 30000 prisoners
  • In the summer and fall of 1944, to increase war prodation, satellite camps under the administration
  • Thousands of prisoners where worked to death
  • 1938 kristallacht programs is synagogves were destroyed
  • On November 9-102,000 jewish men were sent to Bushenwald and Dachau
  • Others were sent to lotz Ghettos
  • 1944 Aushwitz was stopped, prisoners were sent to gas chambers and sent to dachau
  • Established in March 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the National Socialist (Nazi) government.
  • Initially the internees consisted primarily of German Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, and other political opponents
  • Over time, other groups were also interned at Dachau, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma (Gypsies), and homosexuals
  • During the early years relatively few Jews were interned in Dachau and then usually because they belonged to one of the above groups.
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  • The Dachau camp was a training center for SS concentration camp guards, and the camp's organization and routine became the model for all Nazi concentration camps.
  • The camp was divided into two differnet sections--the camp area and the crematoria.
  • The camp area consisted of 32 barracks, including one for clergy imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime and one reserved for medical experiments.
  • The camp area had a group of support buildings, containing the kitchen, laundry, showers, and workshops, as well as a prison block (Bunker).
  • The courtyard between the prison and the central kitchen was used for the summary execution of prisoners.
  • An electrified barbed-wire fence, a ditch, and a wall with seven guard towers surrounded the camp.
  • In 1942, the crematorium area was constructed next to the main camp.
  • Further, the SS used the firing range and the gallows in the crematoria area as killing sites for prisoners.
  • In Dachau, as in other Nazi camps, German physicians performed medical experiments on prisoners.
  • On April 26, 1945, as American forces approached, there were 67,665 registered prisoners in Dachau and its subcamps.
  • And more than half of this number were in the main camp.
  • Of these, 43,350 were categorized as political prisoners, while 22,100 were Jews, with the remainder falling into various other categories.
  • On April 29, 1945, American forces liberated Dachau. As they neared the camp, they found more than 30 railroad cars filled with bodies brought to Dachau, all in an advanced state of decomposition.
  • The number of prisoners incarcerated in Dachau between 1933 and 1945 exceeded 188,000.
  • The number of prisoners who died in the camp and the subcamps between January 1940 and May 1945 was at least 28,000,
  • To which must be added those who perished there between 1933 and the end of 1939, as well as an uncounted number of unregistered prisoners.
  • It is unlikely that the total number of victims who died in Dachau will ever be known.
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