Dachau concentration camp facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Dachau |
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Nazi concentration camp | |
![]() 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 | 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 |
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?
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.
Images for kids
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Heinrich Himmler (front right, beside prisoner) inspecting Dachau Concentration Camp on 8 May 1936.
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Roll-call of Jewish prisoners (wearing Star of David badges), 20 July 1938
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Photograph allegedly showing an unauthorized execution of SS troops in a coal yard in the area of the Dachau concentration camp during its liberation. 29 April 1945 (U.S. Army photograph)
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Adolf Eichmann on trial in 1961
See also
In Spanish: Campo de concentración de Dachau para niños