Dachau concentration camp

Dachau (UK: /ˈdæxaʊ/, /-kaʊ/; US: /ˈdɑːxaʊ/, /-kaʊ/; German: [ˈdaxaʊ] ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern the Nazi Party's political opponents, which consisted of communists, social democrats, and other dissidents. It was located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria, in Southern Germany. After its opening by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, Romani, Germans, and Austrians that the Nazi Party regarded as criminals, and, finally, foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded. The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria. The main camp was liberated by U.S. forces on 29 April 1945. Dachau was the third concentration camp to be liberated by British or American Allied forces.

Prisoners lived in constant fear of brutal treatment and torture including standing cells, floggings, tree or pole hanging, and being forced to stand at attention for extremely long periods. At least 25,613 prisoners are believed to have been murdered in the camp and almost another 10,000 in its subcamps, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide. The Dachau Memorial Site archive has documented 32,000 deaths at the camp, but thousands more are undocumented. Crematoria were constructed to dispose of the deceased. Approximately 10,000 of the 30,000 prisoners were sick at the time of liberation.