Dachau concentration camp facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Dachau |
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U.S. soldiers guarding the main entrance to Dachau just after liberation, 1945
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| Other names | German: Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau |
| Location | Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany |
| Built by | Nazi Germany |
| Operated by | Schutzstaffel (SS) |
| Commandant | Theodor Eicke |
| Original use | Political prison |
| Operational | March 1933 – April 1945 |
| Inmates | Political prisoners, Poles, Romani, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholic priests, Communists, and other groups targeted by the Nazis |
| Number of inmates | Over 188,000 (estimated) |
| Killed | 41,500 (per Dachau website) |
| Liberated by | U.S. Army |
Dachau was one of the first and longest-operating concentration camps created by Nazi Germany. It opened on March 22, 1933, and ran for 12 years until it was freed in April 1945. The camp is located near the town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich, Germany.
Initially, the camp was built to hold political opponents of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. These were people who disagreed with the government, such as communists and social democrats. Later, the Nazis used it to imprison many other groups, including Jewish people, people from Poland and other countries, and priests who spoke out against the government. Prisoners were forced to work under terrible conditions.
Life in the camp was very difficult. Prisoners lived in constant fear and faced harsh punishments and poor living conditions. Records show that at least 32,000 people died at the camp, but the true number is likely much higher. Many died from disease, starvation, and being overworked.
The main camp was liberated by American soldiers on April 29, 1945. After the war, the site was used for different purposes before it was turned into a memorial. Today, the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site is open to the public to teach visitors about its history and honor the victims.
Contents
What Was the Dachau Camp?
Dachau was the first concentration camp opened by the Nazis and served as a model for all the camps that came later. The camp's leader, Theodor Eicke, designed its layout and rules, which were then copied across Germany. The complex was large and included the prisoner camp as well as a training school for the SS guards who ran the camps.
The entrance gate to the prisoner area has a sign that reads "Arbeit macht frei," which means "Work sets you free." This was a false promise. While prisoners were forced to do hard labor, the work was a form of punishment and did not lead to freedom.
Dachau was located close to Munich, which was the headquarters of the Nazi Party. This made it a convenient place to send people the Nazis considered enemies. At first, most prisoners were German. After 1938, many Jewish people were sent to Dachau. As Germany invaded other countries during World War II, people from all over Europe were imprisoned there.
Over its 12 years, more than 200,000 prisoners from over 30 countries were held at Dachau. Many thousands of people died in the camp and its many sub-camps. The main causes of death were disease, poor nutrition, and exhaustion. Near the end of the war, a typhus epidemic broke out due to overcrowding and bad sanitation, which caused many more deaths.
History of the Camp
How It Started
The Dachau camp opened in March 1933, just a few weeks after Adolf Hitler came to power. Heinrich Himmler, who was the chief of police in Munich, announced that it would be a camp for political prisoners. The first prisoners were people who opposed the Nazi party.
In 1937, the SS used prisoners as forced labor to rebuild and expand the camp, making it much larger. After Germany took control of Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia in 1938, thousands of Jewish people and other political opponents from those countries were sent to Dachau. Later, people from Poland, Romani people (sometimes called Gypsies), and others were also imprisoned there.
Forced Labor
Prisoners at Dachau were forced to work. At first, they worked on expanding the camp itself. Later, many were sent to work in factories that made weapons and other materials for Germany's war effort.
The conditions for this forced labor were extremely harsh. The work was difficult, the hours were long, and the prisoners were given very little food. This was part of the Nazis' plan to use work as a way to punish and weaken the prisoners.
The camp was surrounded by fences, a ditch, and guard towers to prevent anyone from escaping. The guards treated the prisoners cruelly, and any attempt to escape was met with severe punishment.
The Final Months
As American and Allied forces got closer to Germany in 1944 and 1945, the Nazis began moving prisoners from camps near the front lines to camps deeper inside Germany, like Dachau. This caused extreme overcrowding.
The camp became filled with prisoners who had traveled for days with little food or water. The conditions grew even worse, and diseases like typhus spread quickly. In the last few months of the war, thousands of people died.
On April 26, 1945, just days before the camp was liberated, the SS forced about 7,000 prisoners on a "death march." They were made to walk south toward the mountains. Many who were too weak to keep up died or were shot by the guards.
Life Inside the Camp
Organization of the Camp
The camp was divided into two main parts: the prisoner area and the SS area. The prisoner area had 32 barracks, or long wooden buildings where the prisoners slept. One barrack was for priests and other religious leaders, and another was used for horrible medical experiments.
The camp was designed to hold thousands of people in crowded and unhealthy conditions. The barracks were cold, dirty, and did not have enough space for everyone. This made it easy for diseases to spread.
Prisoner Groups
Prisoners at Dachau were from many different backgrounds. They were identified by colored badges sewn onto their uniforms.
- Red triangles were for political prisoners, like communists or people who resisted the Nazis.
- Green triangles were for people the Nazis called "criminals."
- Black triangles were for people the Nazis called "asocials," which included Romani people.
- Pink triangles were for men accused of being homosexual.
- Purple triangles were for Jehovah's Witnesses, a religious group.
- Yellow stars were for Jewish prisoners. Sometimes, a Jewish prisoner would have a star made of two triangles, one yellow and one of another color, to show they also belonged to another group.
Poles were the largest national group in the camp for much of the war, followed by Russians, French, and others.
Clergy in Dachau
Dachau was the main camp where the Nazis sent priests and other religious leaders who they saw as a threat. Over 2,700 clergy, most of them Catholic priests from Poland, were imprisoned here.
They were held in special barracks. While German priests were sometimes given slightly better treatment, Polish priests faced especially harsh conditions. Many died from starvation, disease, or cruel punishments. Some were also used in the terrible medical experiments conducted at the camp.
Medical Experiments
Doctors at Dachau performed dangerous and painful experiments on hundreds of prisoners without their consent. These experiments were disguised as scientific research but were a form of torture.
For example, doctors tested how the human body reacted to high altitudes or freezing temperatures. Many prisoners died during these experiments, and those who survived often suffered for the rest of their lives. These actions were a major crime against humanity.
Sub-camps
The Dachau camp system was huge. It included nearly 100 smaller camps called sub-camps, or satellite camps. These were spread across southern Germany and Austria.
Over 30,000 prisoners were forced to work in these sub-camps. Most of them worked in factories producing weapons, airplanes, and other war supplies. The conditions in the sub-camps were often just as bad, or even worse, than in the main camp. One group of sub-camps, called Kaufering, was built to make jet fighter planes in underground factories.
Liberation of the Camp
On April 29, 1945, soldiers from the United States Army arrived at Dachau. They were shocked by what they found. Inside the camp, they discovered over 30,000 survivors, many of whom were extremely sick and close to death.
The American soldiers freed the prisoners and began providing medical care and food. However, the prisoners were so weak that many continued to die in the days and weeks after liberation. Army doctors and nurses worked hard to fight the typhus epidemic and save as many lives as possible.
The liberation of Dachau was a powerful moment. For the prisoners, it was the end of years of suffering. For the soldiers, it was a horrifying look at the crimes committed by the Nazis. The news and pictures from Dachau helped show the world the true nature of the Nazi regime.
Dachau After the War
After its liberation, the Dachau site was used as a prison for former SS members who were awaiting trial for their crimes. Later, from 1948 until the 1960s, part of the area was used to house German refugees who had been forced to leave their homes in Eastern Europe.
In the 1960s, at the request of survivors, the site was turned into a memorial. The original barracks were torn down because they were in poor condition, but two have been rebuilt to show visitors what they looked like. Today, the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site serves as a museum and a place of remembrance. It teaches thousands of visitors each year about the history of the camp and the importance of protecting human rights.
The Memorial Site Today
The memorial site at Dachau is a quiet and powerful place. Visitors can walk through the grounds, see the rebuilt barracks, and visit the former crematorium area. There are also several religious memorials, including a Catholic chapel, a Protestant church, a Jewish memorial, and a Russian Orthodox chapel.
The main museum is located in the former maintenance building. Its exhibits tell the story of the prisoners of Dachau through photographs, personal items, and historical documents. The goal of the memorial is to educate future generations and to honor the memory of all the people who suffered and died there.
Images for kids
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Liberated prisoners at Dachau cheer the arrival of U.S. troops.
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A memorial sculpture by Nandor Glid was placed at the site in 1968.
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A reconstruction of the bunk beds inside a prisoner barrack.
See also
In Spanish: Campo de concentración de Dachau para niños
