Dachau, a town north of Munich, was the site of the first concentration camp. It was established on March 10, 1933 and became the model as well as the training ground for all other camps when they were taken over by the SS in April, 1933. Dachau was also well known for "medical" experiments, holding prominent prisoners, and conducting postwar trials.

Originally opened as a "protective custody camp" for political prisoners, Dachau's first commander was Theodor Eicke, who later went on to become inspector general of all concentration camps. The main camp consisted of 32 huts in two rows surrounded by an electric fence. During World War II. approximately 150 branches of the main camp established in southern Germany and Austria were also called Dachau. The camp trained commandants for other concentration camps, including Rudolf Hoss, who became commandant of Auschwitz in 1940.

Dachau's inmate population rose from 2,000 to 2,600 by the end of 1933 with Jews being a distinct minority of the camp prisoners. Two new categories of prisoners and the March 1938 annexation of Austria raised the number of inmates to 3,500 by July 1938. The following November, Kristallnacht pogroms added 11,000 Jewish inmates, though nearly all of them were released if they were able to leave the country. No Jews were released after World War II began. Later in the war, the number increased greatly as 160,000 prisoners were registered in the main camps, and 90,000 in the other branches. Although a gas chamber and crematories were built in 1942 - 1943, there is no evidence that the gas chamber was used for systematic mass murder. By 1945, at least 32,000 died of starvation and disease due to the typhus epidemic and the extreme overcrowding.

Dachau used many prisoners for labor and to contribute to the war effort. External sub-camps were set up to utilize their labor at distant locations. German doctors and scientists also conducted the first human experiments of the Holocaust on Jewish prisoners. Experiments included infecting prisoners with malaria, subjecting them to low air pressure, freezing others in ice baths, and forcing some to drink seawater. Many prisoners died or were maimed for life as a result of these experiments. There were also "selections" every so often in which the weak and crippled were sent to the gas chambers in other camps. Many Jews went through Dachau on their way to death camps in Poland to be gassed after "the Final Solution" became operational in 1942. The total number of prisoners killed in Dachau is not known.

The SS evacuated Dachau by beginning a march of 7,000 prisoners on April 26, 1945. The US army's 42nd and 45th divisions caught up to and liberated the prisoners on April 29. In July, 1945, the camp's compound was used to hold up to 30,000 German prisoners of war and war criminals to be tried in the town of Dachau. Eleven concentration camp and atrocity trials were conducted between November, 1945 and December, 1947. Later, Dachau became a transit camp for refugees and foreign citizens liberated from concentration camps. Today, sections of the camp have been preserved as memorials.

Blumental, Nachman and Michael Berenbaum. "Dachau." Encyclopedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. Vol 5. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 375-376. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale Holocaust Documentation & Educ Ctr. 14 May 2008 <http:go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=holl3302>

"Dachau." The Holocaust Encyclopedia. Ed. Walter Laqueur. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001.


"Dachau." Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction. Ed. John Merriman and
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