Dachau+Concentration+camp

By Kristian Anderson

Overview
Dachau concentration camp was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany, located in a small town called Dachau. It opened on 22 March 1933 and was controlled by the Nazi party in Germany. It was described as the first concentration camp for political prisoners. The Nazis used it as a prototype for the camps that would soon follow. Kommandant Theodor Eicke designed the whole camp and all of its operations. There was a separate camp close by that had living quarters for the guards of the camp. The camp was in use from 1933 to 1960. From 1933 to 1938 the prisoners were mainly German nationals detained for political reasons. From 1945 through 1948 the camp was used as a prison for SS officers awaiting trial. It held a total of 200,000 prisoners and two-thirds were political prisoners and nearly one-third were Jews. Around 30,000 were estimated to have died in the camp.



Main camp
Once Hitler came to power he did all that he could to oppress his opposition and Dachau was one of the main plans to do this. This camp scared the opposition and quickly backed off in fear of being imprisoned or executed. Between the years 1933 and 1945 more than 3.5 million Germans would be forced to spend time in these concentration camps or prison for political reasons. The camp was divided into two sections, the camp area and the crematorium. The camp area consisted of 69 barracks which were used for various prisoners. The camp was surrounded by an electrified barbed-wire gate, a ditch, and a wall with seven guard towers. This made escape almost impossible. In early 1937 the prisoners in this camp were used to build a large group of buildings within the main camp. Dachau was the longest lasting concentration camp in the Third Reich. The camp was originally designed for holding German political prisoners and Jews, but in 1935 it also began to hold ordinary criminals. Throughout the war it was used to keep prisoners from others countries such as Poles, Russians, French, Yugoslavs, and Czechs. Political prisoners wore red tags and normal prisoners wore green tags. This made it easy for the guards to tell the difference between prisoners. In August 1944 a women's camp opened inside Dachau. The camp is now used for tours and it shows the true horror of the holocaust. .

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