Dachau

Dachau, the first Nazi Germany concentration camp, is completed. The Dachau concentration camp was a Nazi concentration camp near the city of Dachau, north of Munich, in Bavaria (southern Germany) and 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.

Dachau 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.

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