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Dachau concentration camp facts for kids

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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

The Dachau concentration camp was the first World War II Nazi concentration camp. It was built in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler. The main goal was to hold political prisoners. These were people who disagreed with the Nazi government.

Dachau camp was located where an old munitions (weapons) factory used to be. It was about 16 kilometers (10 miles) northwest of Munich in Bavaria, southern Germany.

Over time, the camp's purpose grew. It became a place for forced labor, where people were made to work without pay. It also held ordinary German and Austrian people accused of crimes. Later, people from other countries that Germany had taken over were sent there. It became a place where many Jews and others suffered greatly, with many losing their lives due to harsh conditions.

Thousands of people died from starvation, disease, or being overworked. The Dachau camp system became very large. It included nearly 100 smaller camps, mostly work camps. These were spread across southern Germany and Austria. U.S. forces freed the camps in the spring of 1945.

How Many People Were Held at Dachau?

Dachau-wachturm
Watch tower

It is hard to know exactly how many people died at Dachau. Many records were removed or burned by the Germans. This happened just weeks before the United States Army arrived.

A few days before the Americans came, Germans started moving prisoners. But they could not move everyone. Some prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp had been sent to Dachau. When the last train carrying them was found, 2,000 of the 4,000 prisoners on it had died.

Between 1933 and the camp's liberation in 1945, about 228,930 prisoners were sent to Dachau. This number includes about 7,000 who had just arrived from Buchenwald. A report from the U.S. Seventh Army also stated a similar number of 229,000 prisoners.

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See also

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

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