By: Rebecca Sage  
                                                                
        Dachau was one of the very first concentration camps. Dachau was opened March 22,1933 inside a old gun powder
factory. The factory was just outside the town of Dachau.

                                                                      Life In Dachau

                      The Surroundings
     Dachau was constructed by Nazi Storm Troopers.   Its stockades were surrounded by barbed wire.  Once inside           
 Dachau, the prisoners were to do harsh military drills, beatings and even sometimes torture. 
                               The Housing
     The prisoners live in long wooden huts holding up to 270 people. The hut is divided into 5 rooms. Each room holds 2 bunks, each bunk is stacked 3 high. The bunks sleep up to a total of 54 prisoners.

                           Prisoners of Dachau

        The first prisoners of Dachau, were brought to the old gunpowder factory on march 1933. The prisoners were 200 communists and including members of Reichstag.

Dachau's bunks.
                                    Who Were The Prisoners?
            The first prisoners were political opponents of the regime, communists, social democrats, trade unionists, also
 occasionally members of conservative and political parties. The first Jewish prisoners were sent to the                        
Dachau camp because of their political opposition.
                         Commanders of Dachau
          
                                The First Commander of Dachau
              The first commander of Dachau was Hilmar Wackerle. He was dismissed from his position of being a commander
by Heinrich Himmler. After charges of murder were brought against Hilmar by the Munich court for the deaths of several
prisoners after being punished.
                               The Case of Hilmar Wackerle
                On June 1,1933 Hartinger, a person who makes life difficult for the S.S., files a case against Himlar "because
of the crime, physical injury resulting death."
                              The Second Commander of Dachau
                      The second commander of Dachau was Theodor Eicke. He became commander of Dachau in June 1933. He is
called "father of the Nazi concentration camp system" because of all subsequent camps used the rules and regulations which
he wrote for Dachau.
                         Organizational Plan

Theodor Eicke developed an organizational plan and a set of rules with detailed stipulation. These rules were to be rules of all concentration camps. He also accomplished the Dachau camp as a model for all the other concentration camps and as a murder school for the S.S.

 
      The First Commander.        The Second Commander.
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