Dachau concentration camp
Dachau concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau, IPA: [ˈdaxaʊ]) was the first World War II Nazi concentration camp. It was built in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler. The original purpose was to hold political prisoners. Dachau camp was located on the grounds of an old munitions factory. It was southeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany.[1]
The camp's purpose was enlarged to include forced labor and housed ordinary German and Austrian criminals. Eventually foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded were sent here. It became a death camp for Jews.[2] Countless thousands of Jews died were executed or died of starvation, disease or overwork.[2] The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps. These were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria.[3] The camps were liberated by U.S. forces in the spring of 1945.
Camp statistics
Estimates of the number of people who died here vary widely.[4] Complete records of how many died at Dachau do not exist.[5] Three weeks before the United States Army reached the camp, most of the important records were removed or burned.[6] A few days before the Americans arrived, Germans began evacuating prisoners. But poor organization prevented all from being removed.[6] Prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp had been sent to Dachau. When the last train was found, 2,000 of the 4,000 prisoners on it were dead.[7] Between 1933 and the liberation by Americans in 1945, about 228,930 prisoners had been sent to Dachau.[8] This includes about 7,000 who had just arrived from Buchenwald.[8] This number is close to that given by a US Seventh Army report of 229,000.[4] Dachau used high altitude medical experiments on prisoners.[9]
Dachau Concentration Camp Media
Aerial photo of the Dachau complex with the actual concentration camp on the left
The camp commander gives a speech to prisoners about to be released as part of a pardoning action near Christmas 1933.
The Dachau concentration camp was the first large-scale concentration camp of the SS in Nazi Germany. It was located east of the southern German city of Dachau, about 20 km northwest of Munich.
A gas chamber at Dachau. The "Brausebad" sign means "Shower Bath".
Inside the gas chamber (2011)
The wall of a prison cell at Dachau Concentration Camp
Heinrich Himmler (front right, beside prisoner) inspecting Dachau Concentration Camp on 8 May 1936.
German concentration camps: Auschwitz, Oranienburg, Mauthausen and Dachau in "The Polish White Book", New York (1941).
The gate at the Jourhaus building through which the prisoners' camp was entered contains the slogan, Arbeit macht frei, or 'Work Sets You Free.'
Footage from after liberation
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References
- ↑ "Ein Konzentrationslager für politische Gefangene In der Nähe von Dachau". Münchner Neueste Nachrichten ("The Munich Latest News") (in Deutsch). The Holocaust History Project. 21 March 1933. Archived from the original on 29 November 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Dachau". History/A&E Television Networks, LLC. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- ↑ Concentration Camp Dachau Entry Registers (Zugangsbuecher) 1933-1945. https://www.archives.gov/research/captured-german-records/microfilm/m1938.pdf retrieved 13 November 2014
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Dachau Death Statistics". Scrapbookpages.com. Archived from the original on 10 February 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- ↑ Robert L. Wise, The Bitter Road to Dachau (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), p. ix
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Dachau Liberated, ed. Michael W. Perry (Seattle, WA: Inkling Books, 2000), p. 44
- ↑ The End of the Holocaust, ed. Michael Robert Marrus (Westport: Meckler, 1989), p. 505
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Dachau Liberated, ed. Michael W. Perry (Seattle, WA: Inkling Books, 2000), p. 103
- ↑ "Dachau High Altitude Medical Experiments". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2022-11-04.