Rev. Richard A. Seaton, Sr.
Welcome to my vacation and travel pages
In March of 2008 I spent several days in Munich, Germany and a couple of days visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp about 12 miles out of Munich. It was started in 1933 in the buildings of a former WWI gunpowder and munitions plant as the first concentration camp and used as a model for others.
March 22, 1933 -- Opening of Concentration Camp
for Political Prisoners at Dachau. 		1933 -- Adolf Hitler becomes Reich Chancellor,
Establishment of Nationalist Socialist Dictatorship
1935 -- Delivery of new prisoners,
for example Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, emigrants. 		1935 -- The Nuremberg Laws institutionalizing
racial discrimination
1936 -- Terror in the camp is intensified
by the SS. 		Heinrich Himmler who received his training
at Dachau becomes German Police Chief.
Creation of Concentration Camp System.
1937 -- Construction of more buildings
for a capacity of 6,000 prisoners. 		1937 -- Mass arrests bring thousands into
"Protective custody" at the camp.
1938 -- Committal of Political opponents from
the annexed territories as well as over 11,000,
German and Austrian Jews. 		1938 -- Annexation of Austria and the
Sudetenland and in November, "The Night
of the Broken Glass."
1939 -- Deportation of hundreds of Sinti and
Roma (Gypsy) to the Dachau Camp. 		Invasion of Poland, beginning of the
Second World War.
1940 -- Over 13,000 prisoners are sent
from Poland to Dachau 		1940 -- French, Dutch and Belgium territory
has been occupied and Luxemburg annexed
1941 --Start of the mass execution of over
4,000 Soviet prisoners of war. 		1941 -- Germany attacks Soviet Union
1942 -- "invalid transports" -- more than 2,500
prisoners are killed by poison gas near Linz. 		1942 -- "Wannsee Conference" on the final solution
to the Jewish Question - Extermination
1943 -- Construction of over 150 sub-camps for forced labor
for armaments industry. 		"Total war": radicalization of forced labor to ensure German victory.
1944 -- 10,000 Jewish prisoners are killed in the sub-camps "through work".
By the end of this year there were over 63,000 prisoners in the Dachau Camp. 		1944 -- Western Allies land in Normandy and Russian
troops reach the Eastern Border of Germany
1945 -- Thousands die in camp from Typhus or malnutrition.
April 29 - Liberation of Dachau by US Army 		May 8, 1945 -- Unconditional Surrender and
occupation and division of Germany.

The entry gate bears the sign, "Work makes Free", but there was no freedom to those who entered.
The 34 barracks buildings were demolished in 1945 but two were reconstructed to show what conditions were like. They were designed to hold 3,000 prisoners but actually held over 30,000 at one time.



Several guard towers still stand. Prisoners who entered the grass area were to be shot.

The new cremation ovens built in 1942
to handle the increasing problem of
disposal of the dead 		The Bunker housed special prisoners in solitary
confinement cells with doors like the one above


In 1938 the camp was surrounded by a second
perimeter fence designed to make escape impossible.
SS men kept watch from 7 guard towers.
The instant a prisoner entered the grassy forbidden zone
he was fired upon. Some ran into the border strip
on purpose to put an end to their suffering.

The wooden bunks were used with persons head to foot because of overcrowding.






The Photos below were taken on April 29, 1945 as the 42nd US Army Infantry liberated the camp
The toilet facilities were designed for a few hundredf inmates but were used by over a thousand.

On the right is a photo of the handwashing sinks for a barracks.
Website hosting and domain registration powered by DomainNameSanity.com