Established in March 1933, the Dachau
concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the
National Socialist (Nazi) government. Heinrich Himmler, in his capacity as
police president of Munich, officially described the camp as "the first
concentration camp for political prisoners." It was located on the grounds of
an abandoned munitions factory near the northeastern part of the town of
Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich in southern Germany.
During the first year, the camp held about
4,800 prisoners. By 1937 the number was 3,260. Initially the internees
consisted primarily of German Communists, 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. During the
early years relatively few Jews were interned in Dachau and then usually
because they belonged to one of the above groups or had completed prison
sentences after being convicted for violating the Nuremberg Laws of 1935.
In Dachau, as in other Nazi camps, German
physicians performed medical experiments on prisoners, including high-altitude
experiments using a decompression chamber, malaria and tuberculosis
experiments, hypothermia experiments, and experiments testing new medications.
Prisoners were also forced to test methods of making seawater potable and of
halting excessive bleeding. Hundreds of prisoners died or were permanently
disabled as a result of these experiments.
Dachau prisoners were used as forced
laborers. At first, they were employed in the operation of the camp, in
various construction projects, and in small handicraft industries established
in the camp. Prisoners built roads, worked in gravel pits, and drained
marshes. During the war, forced labor utilizing concentration camp prisoners
became increasingly important to German armaments production.
As Allied forces advanced toward Germany,
the Germans began to move prisoners from concentration camps near the front to
prevent the liberation of large numbers of prisoners. Transports from the
evacuated camps arrived continuously at Dachau, resulting in a dramatic
deterioration of conditions. After days of travel, with little or no food or
water, the prisoners arrived weak and exhausted, often near death. Typhus
epidemics became a serious problem due to overcrowding, poor sanitary
conditions, insufficient provisions, and the weakened state of the prisoners.
On April 26, 1945, as American forces
approached, there were 67,665 registered prisoners in Dachau and its subcamps;
more than half of this number were in the main camp.
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Freedom Through Work
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In the Assembly Yard
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A Chart Showing the Various Symbols used in Camp.
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Early Bunks, note how much room prisoners had at this time.
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Later bunks, where prisoners had to cram together to fit. The population of the camp exploded towards the end of the war.
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The first processing room for new prisoners
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a back room for new prisoners
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This was a showering area
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Prisoners were hung in the showers by hooks and left for hours.
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Some propaganda.
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Looking back towards the main camp
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The Work Fields
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