Dachau
On March 21, 1933 Heinrich Himmler made it known that the concentration camp in Dachau had been established. The terror system in Dachau was unlike any other punishment system ever devised. There were multi-faceted security systems with watch-towers surrounding the prisoners' camp, and the commandant's area with the administration buildings and SS barracks. Dachau became the model for all subsequent camps and was also the "murder school" for members of the SS. Altogether, there were more than 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries imprisoned in Dachau.
During the war Dachau concentration camp became a place of mass murder. Beginning in October 1941, thousands of Soviet prisoners of war were brought to Dachau and shot. Also, others who the Gestapo ordered to be executed, were transported to Dachau and killed.
A large number of prisoners were misused by SS doctors for medical experiments. There were high altitude experiments, cooling and freezing experiments, a series of malaria experiments and others. An unknown number of prisoners died excruciating deaths. There were 30,000 registered deaths in the Dachau concentration camp. Additional thousands who were not registered were murdered in Dachau. The prisoners died of gas poisoning, starvation, sickness, exhaustion, degradation, beating, and torture. They were shot, hanged and killed with injections.
On April 28, 1945 most of the SS abandoned the camp. One day later, on April 29, 1945, Dachau was liberated by units of the US Army.
A few days before the liberation there were more than 67,000 Dachau concentration camp prisoners. Half of them were in the main camp at Dachau, the remainder in the subsidiary camps and work detachments.
Walking into Dachau concentration camp. You can see the main administration building on the left. The building furthest away are the prisoner's sleeping quarters. Straight ahead is one of the guard towers.
The main administration building
Cell doors along a corridor inside the main prison. The prison is were the worst of the punishment and torture took place.
The building that houses the gas chamber and the crematorium.
Inside the gas chamber. The SS would disguise the gas dispensers with shower heads and tell the prisoners to be executed they were going in for showers. This reduced their resistance.
Three of the six of the crematorium furnaces