Dachau concentration camp

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The camp was constructed in a disused gunpowder factory and was completed on March 21, 1933. Together with the much larger Auschwitz extermination camp, Dachau has come to exemplify Nazi concentration camps to the general public.

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1933-1945

Image:Dachau-003.JPGDachau was the first Nazi concentration camp and served as a prototype and model for the others that followed. The basic organization, camp layout as well as the plan for the buildings were developed by Kommandant Theodor Eicke and were applied to all later camps. He had a separate secure camp near the command center, which consisted of living quarters, administration, and army camps. Eicke himself became the chief inspector for all concentration camps, responsible for molding the others according to his model.

In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau. Beginning in 1941, Dachau was also used for extermination purposes. Camp records list 30,000 persons killed in the camp, with thousands more who died due to the conditions in the camp. In early 1945, there was a typhus epidemic in the camp followed by an evacuation, in which large numbers of the weaker prisoners died.

Image:Dachau Ofen.jpgDue to the number of deaths and killings, the cremation facility had to be expanded, as the existing one was unable to keep up with the number of bodies to be disposed of. At the same time, a gas chamber was added to the camp. The gas chamber was rarely if ever used, as the prisoners destined for execution were transferred to the extermination camps in German-occupied Poland. Historians continue to debate if the gas chamber was ever operated, as there is some evidence of small experimental gassings.[1]

Among the most famous inmates of the Dachau concentration camp were Hans Litten, Fred Rabinowitz (aka Fred Roberts), and Alfred Gruenebaum, the father of a prominent US obstetrician, Amos Grunebaum.

Dachau also served as the central camp for Christian religious prisoners. According to records of the Roman Catholic Church, at least 3000 religious, deacons, priests, and bishops were imprisoned there. Particularly notable among the Christian residents are Karl Leisner (Catholic priest ordained while in the camp, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1996) and Martin Niemöller (Protestant theologian and Nazi resistance leader). In August 1944 a women's camp opened inside Dachau. Its first shipment of women came from Auschwitz Birkenau. Only nineteen women guards served at Dachau, most of them until liberation, and only sixty-three served in the Dachau complex. Sources show the names of sixteen of the nineteen women guarding the camp; Fanny Baur, Leopoldine Bittermann, Ernestine Brenner, Anna Buck, Rosa Dolaschko, Maria Eder, Rosa Grassmann, Betty Hanneschaleger, Ruth Elfriede Hildner, Josefa Keller, Berta Kimplinger, Lieselotte Klaudat, Theresia Kopp, Rosalie Leimboeck, and Thea MieslTemplate:Ref. Women guards were also staffed at the Augsburg Michelwerke, Burgau, Kaufering, Muhldorf, and Munich Agfa Camera Werke subcamps. In mid-April 1945 many female subcamps at Kaufering, Augsburg and Munich closed, and the SS women stationed at Dachau. It is reported that female SS guards gave prisoners guns before liberation to save them from postwar prosecution.

The last leader of the camp's prisoners was Oskar Müller (an anti-fascist), who later became minister of labor for Hessia. According to the report of Father Johannes Maria Lenz, Müller sent two prisoners to bring the U.S. army to free the camp, because orders had come in to kill all the prisoners.

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Liberation of the camp, 1945

Image:Dachau-002.JPGThe camp was freed by the 45th Infantry Division of the U.S. Seventh Army on April 29, 1945. These forces were led by Lieutenant Colonel Felix S. Sparks who, under orders to permit no one in or out, refused entry to a brigadier general from another unit. Court-martial charges were drawn up, and Sparks was arrested; the charges were dismissed by General Patton. Dachau was used for many years thereafter as a residence for refugees. It holds a significant place in public memory because it was the second camp to be liberated by British or American forces, and therefore it was one of the first places in which the West was exposed to the reality of Nazi brutality through first-hand journalist accounts and through newsreels. After the camp was surrendered to Allied forces, the troops were so horrified by conditions at the camp that they summarily shot many of the camp guards, in what some call the Dachau massacre. However, according to other versions, only 35 Nazi guards were thus executed. The other 515 presumably were either arrested, or managed to escape. The Americans found 32,000 prisoners, crammed 1,600 to each of 20 barracks, which had been designed to house 250 people each. The US troops also found 39 railroad cars, each filled with one hundred or more corpses.

A few days after the liberation of the camp was the day of Pascha, Orthodox Easter. In a cell block used by Catholic priests to say daily mass, several Greek, Serbian, and Russsian priests and one Serbian deacon, wearing makeshift vestments made from towels of the SS guard, gathered with several hundred Greek, Serbian and Russian prisoners to celebrate the Paschal Matins and Liturgy. A prisoner named Rahr described the scene: "In the entire history of the Orthodox Church there has probably never been an Easter service like the one at Dachau in 1945. Greek and Serbian priests together with a Serbian deacon adorned the make-shift 'vestments' over their blue and gray-striped prisoners uniforms. Then they began to chant, changing from Greek to Slavonic, and then back again to Greek. The Easter Canon, the Easter Sticheras - everything was recited from memory. The Gospel - 'In the beginning was the Word' - also from memory. And finally, the Homily of Saint John - also from memory. A young Greek monk from the Holy Mountain stood up in front of us and recited it with such infectious enthusiasm that we shall never forget him as long as we live. Saint John Chrysostomos himself seemed to speak through him to us and to the rest of the world as well!" There is a Russian Orthodox chapel at the camp today, and it is well know for its exquisite icon of Christ leading the prisoners out of the camp gates.

The U.S. 7th Army's version of the events of the Dachau Liberation are available in Report of Operations of the Seventh United States Army, Vol. 3. page 382. It has been alleged that further photographic evidence was destroyed by General George S. Patton.

Evidence of the alleged U.S. war crime may be found in photographs reprinted in Col. Howard A. Buechner's book, "Dachau - The Hour of the Avenger". Dr. Buechner was the chief medical officer of his division and was present during the liberation of Dachau.

The U.S. troops also forced citizens of the local community to come to the camp, observe the conditions, and help clean the facilities. The local residents were indignant at being treated this way and claimed no knowledge of the activities of the camp.

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The memorial site

Image:Dachau-015.jpgYears later, former prisoners banded together to erect a memorial on the site of the camp, finding it unbelievable that there were still persons (refugees) living in the camp under those conditions.

The display, which was reworked in 2003, takes the visitor through the path of new arrivals to the camp. Special presentations of some of the notable prisoners are also provided. One of the barracks has been rebuilt to show a cross-section of the entire history of the camp, since the original barracks had to be torn down due to their poor condition when the memorial was built. The other 32 barracks are indicated by concrete foundations.

The memorial includes four chapels for the various religions represented among the prisoners.

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Notable prisoners of Dachau

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Jews

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Resistance fighters

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Clergymen

Dachau had a special "priest block". Of the 2720 priests (among them 2579 Catholic) held in Dachau, 1034 did not survive the camp. The majority were Polish (1780), of whom 868 died in Dachau.

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Politicians

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Communists

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Writers

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More images

This is the sign on the gravel road leading to the entrance.

The gate opens to the court yard.

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References

  • All the information on the female overseers was found in the book "THE CAMP WOMEN, The Female Auxiliaries who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System" by Daniel Patrick Brown.
  • Marcuse, Harold, Legacies of Dachau: The Uses and Abuses of a Concentration Camp, 1933-2001, 600 pages, Cambridge University Press, 2001. more information
  • The Fighting Forty-Fifth: the Combat Report of an Infantry Division, compiled and edited by Lt. Col. Leo V. Bishop, Maj. Frank J. Glasgow, and Maj. George A. Fisher. Copyright 1946 by the 45th Infantry Division, printed by Army & Navy Publishing Co., Baton Rouge, LA. LC Control Number: 49051541.
  • Buechner, Howard A., Dachau - The Hour of the Avenger, Thunderbird Press, ©1986, paperback, 159 pages, ISBN 0913159042, first published in 1986. LC Control Number: 87181873.
  • Kozal, Czesli W. Memoir of Fr. Czesli W. (Chester) Kozal, O.M.I. / translated from the Polish original by Paul Ischler. Private printing, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 2004, 175 pp. LC Control Number: 2004400050
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See also

bg:Дахау (концлагер) da:Dachau de:KZ Dachau es:Campo de concentración de Dachau fi:Dachaun keskitysleiri fr:Dachau#Le camp de Dachau he:דכאו it:Campo di concentramento di Dachau nl:Dachau (concentratiekamp) no:Dachau konsentrasjonsleir pl:Dachau (KL) ro:Dachau ru:Дахау (концентрационный лагерь)

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