On March 21,1933 Heinrich Himmler made it known that the concentration camp in Dachau was established. Dachau was the first German concentration camp. In June 1933 Theodor Eicke became commandant of the concentration camp. Later, Eicke was appointed inspector of all the concentration camps. He made Dachau the ''Murder School'' for the members of the SS. 

     The first prisoners were political opponents, communists, social democrats, members of trade unions, and conversitive and liberal parties.The first Jewish prisoners were imprisoned
in Dachau because of their political beliefs. After the November Programs in 1983, the so-called ''Crystal Night'' more than 10,000 Jews were brought to Dachau. From 1983 on, the prisoners in the concentration camp in Dachau reflected the National Socialist Aggression. In
March 1939 Czech prisoners were brought to Dachau, and after being of the war prisoners from Poland, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. All together there were more
than 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries imprisoned in Dachau.

     From 1942 a network of subsidairy camps and work detachments were established in which over 30,000 prisoners worked. The nazis decided to produce huge underground factories. During the war Dachau became a place of mass murder. In October 1941 thousands
of Soviet prisoners were brought to Dachau and shot. Prisoners were misused by SS doctors for medical experiments. An unknown number of prisoners died. In January 1942 more than 3000 prisoners were murdered with carbon monoxide at Hartheim castle near Linz. Prisoners died of starvation,  sickness, exhaustion, degradation, beating, and torture. They were shot, hanged, and killed with injections. In 1944 a gas chamber was built in Dachau concentration camp, but was not used. On April 27,1945 approximately 7,000 prisoners from the main camp were sent on a march towards the Alps. A few days before the liberation there were more than 6,7000 Dachau concentration camp prisoners. Half of them were in the main
camp.

     Jewish meant being killed, and Christian meant being protected. Germans often hid Jews,
and changed their names to German names. They did this to protect them. The Jews were disappointed in their god for not protecting them. Germans who tried to hide Jews could be arrested or even killed.
 
 

Researched by
Michelle Loehr