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Dachau
Nazi concentration camp
KZDachau1945.jpg
U.S. soldiers guarding the main entrance to Dachau just after liberation, 1945
Other names German: Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau
Location Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany
Built by Germany
Operated by Schutzstaffel (SS)
Commandant List of commandants
Original use Political prison
Operational March 1933 – April 1945
Inmates Political prisoners, Poles, Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholic priests, Communists, Romani
Number of inmates Over 188,000 (estimated)
Killed 41,500 (per Dachau website)
Liberated by U.S. Army
Survivors liberation dachau
Dachau survivors in 1945

Dachau concentration camp 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.

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. Countless thousands of Jews died were executed or died of starvation, disease or overwork. 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. 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. Complete records of how many died at Dachau do not exist. Three weeks before the United States Army reached the camp, most of the important records were removed or burned. A few days before the Americans arrived, Germans began evacuating prisoners. But poor organization prevented all from being removed. 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. Between 1933 and the liberation by Americans in 1945, about 228,930 prisoners had been sent to Dachau. This includes about 7,000 who had just arrived from Buchenwald. This number is close to that given by a US Seventh Army report of 229,000.

Dachau-wachturm
Watch tower

Images for kids

  • Concentration camp dachau aerial view

    Aerial photo of the Dachau complex with the actual concentration camp on the left

  • Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R96361, Dachau, Konzentrationslager

    The camp commander gives a speech to prisoners about to be released as part of a pardoning action near Christmas 1933.

  • Bundesarchiv Bild 152-11-12, Dachau, Konzentrationslager, Besuch Himmlers

    Heinrich Himmler (front right, beside prisoner) inspecting Dachau Concentration Camp on 8 May 1936.

  • 1941 German camps in Polish White Book, German Occupation of Poland

    German concentration camps: Auschwitz, Oranienburg, Mauthausen and Dachau in "The Polish White Book", New York (1941).

  • Arbeit Macht Frei Dachau 8235

    The gate at the Jourhaus building through which the prisoners' camp was entered contains the slogan, Arbeit macht frei, or 'Work Sets You Free.'

  • Bundesarchiv Bild 152-27-13A, Dachau Konzentrationslager, Häftlinge beim Appell

    Roll-call of Jewish prisoners (wearing Star of David badges), 20 July 1938

  • Prisoner's barracks dachau

    Prisoners' barracks in 1945

  • Toasting Polish Dachau

    Polish prisoners in Dachau toast their liberation from the camp. Poles constituted the largest ethnic group in the camp during the war, followed by Russians, French, Yugoslavs, Jews, and Czechs.

  • Friedrich Hoffmann priest

    Priest Friedrich Hoffman testifies at the trial of former camp personnel and prisoners from Dachau. In his hand he holds records showing that hundreds of priests died at the camp after being exposed to malaria during Nazi medical experiments.

  • Bundesarchiv Bild 152-01-16, KZ Dachau, SS-Wachmannschaft

    SS Guards arriving at the Dachau "Protective Custody" Camp 27 May 1933 (Photo: Friedrich Franz Bauer)

  • Kz dachau liberation person

    SS men confer with General Henning Linden (man with helmet, looking to his right) during the camp's liberation (29 April 1945)

  • Female Dachau Waving

    Female prisoners at Dachau wave to their liberators

  • Dachau execution coalyard 1945-04-29

    Photograph allegedly showing an unauthorized execution of SS troops in a coal yard in the area of the Dachau concentration camp during its liberation—part of the Dachau liberation reprisals. 29 April 1945 (U.S. Army photograph)

  • Prisoners liberation dachau

    Liberated Dachau camp prisoners cheer U.S. troops

  • Adolf Eichmann at Trial1961

    Adolf Eichmann on trial in 1961

  • Hans Kurt Eisele

    Dr. Hans Eisele in American internment

  • Campo de concentración de Dachau, Alemania, 2016-03-05, DD 04

    Memorial sculpture by Nandor Glid erected in 1968

  • Capilla ortodoxa, campo de concentración de Dachau, Alemania, 2016-03-05, DD 27

    Orthodox chapel in the memorial.

  • Dachau Gedenkstätte Aerial

    Aerial photo of the memorial in 2012

  • Dachau Concentration Camp - bunk beds

    Reconstructed shack with bunk beds (October 2011)

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Campo de concentración de Dachau para niños

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