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68-550: Danneberg is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: Robert Danneberg (1882–1942), Austrian politician Thomas Danneberg (1942–2023), German actor Sports [ edit ] Jochen Danneberg (born 1953), East German ski jumper Rolf Danneberg (born 1953), German athlete in field events Tim Danneberg (born 1986), German footballer See also [ edit ] Dannenberg (disambiguation) [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with

136-577: A courtesy. The killings at Dachau suddenly stopped (temporarily), Wäckerle was transferred to Stuttgart and replaced by Theodor Eicke . The indictment and related evidence reached the office of Hans Frank, the Bavarian Justice Minister, but was intercepted by Gauleiter Adolf Wagner and locked away in a desk only to be discovered by the US Army. In 1934, both Hartinger and Wintersberger were transferred to provincial positions. Flamm

204-409: A freight train from Buchenwald with nearly 4,500 was diverted to Nammering. SS troops and police confiscated food and water that local townspeople tried to give to the prisoners. Nearly three hundred dead bodies were ordered removed from the train and carried to a ravine over 400 metres ( 1 ⁄ 4  mi) away. The 524 prisoners who had been forced to carry the dead to this site were then shot by

272-481: A large complex capable of holding 6,000 prisoners. The construction was officially completed in mid-August 1938. More political opponents, and over 11,000 German and Austrian Jews were sent to the camp after the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938. Sinti and Roma in the hundreds were sent to the camp in 1939, and over 13,000 prisoners were sent to the camp from Poland in 1940. Representatives of

340-720: A military base for the United States, which maintained forces in the country. It was closed in 1960. At the insistence of survivors, various memorials have been constructed and installed here. Demographic statistics vary but they are in the same general range. History will likely never know how many people were interned or murdered there, due to periods of disruption. One source gives a general estimate of over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries during Nazi rule, of whom two-thirds were political prisoners, including many Catholic priests, and nearly one-third were Jews. At least 25,613 prisoners are believed to have been murdered in

408-559: A munition factory, and to expand the camp. It was used as a training center for the SS-Totenkopfverbände guards and was a model for other concentration camps. The camp was about 300 m × 600 m (1,000 ft × 2,000 ft) in rectangular shape. The prisoners' entrance was secured by an iron gate with the motto " Arbeit macht frei " ("Work will make you free"). This reflected Nazi propaganda, which had concentration camps as labor and re-education camps. This

476-633: A racial hierarchy—keeping Poles in harsh conditions, while favoring German priests. 697 Poles arrived in December 1941, and a further 500 of mainly elderly clergy arrived in October the following year. Inadequately clothed for the bitter cold, of this group, only 82 survived. A large number of Polish priests were chosen for Nazi medical experiments. In November 1942, 20 were given phlegmons . 120 were used by Dr Schilling for malaria experiments between July 1942 and May 1944. Several Poles met their deaths with

544-490: A separate, secure camp near the command center, which consisted of living quarters, administration and army camps. Eicke became the chief inspector for all concentration camps, responsible for organizing others according to his model. The Dachau complex included the prisoners' camp which occupied approximately 5 acres, and the much larger area of SS training school including barracks, factories plus other facilities of around 20 acres. The entrance gate used by prisoners carries

612-470: Is claimed that in 1942, more than 3,166 prisoners in weakened condition were transported to Hartheim Castle near Linz , and were executed by poison gas because they were deemed unfit. Between January and April 1945 11,560 detainees died at KZ Dachau according to a U.S. Army report of 1945 , though the Dachau administration registered 12,596 deaths from typhus at the camp over the same period. Dachau

680-673: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Robert Danneberg Danneburg was born in Vienna on 23 July 1885 into an intellectual Jewish family. He joined SDAPÖ and the Workers Youth Association in 1903. Danneberg was active in the international youth movement, and became the Secretary of the International Federation of Socialist Young People's Organizations in 1908, however when

748-715: Is open to the public. Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other German concentration camps that followed. Almost every community in Germany had members taken away to these camps. Newspapers continually reported "the removal of the enemies of the Reich to concentration camps." As early as 1935, a jingle went around: "Lieber Herr Gott, mach mich stumm, Das ich nicht nach Dachau komm'" ("Dear Lord God, make me dumb [silent], That I may not to Dachau come"). The camp's layout and building plans were developed by Commandant Theodor Eicke and were applied to all later camps. He had

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816-629: The First World War , Danneberg belonged to the 'Anti-War left' inside SDAPÖ. Nevertheless, he opposed division of the party and the launching of the Communist Party of Austria . Danneberg married Gertrud Schröbler in 1918. They had two children together. Danneberg was a parliamentarian between 1919 and 1934. Moreover, he became the president of the Vienna Provincial Assembly. Danneberg was also influential in

884-751: The International Committee of the Red Cross inspected the camp in 1935 and 1938 and documented the harsh conditions. Shortly after the SS was commissioned to supplement the Bavarian police overseeing the Dachau camp, the first reports of prisoner deaths at Dachau began to emerge. In April 1933, Josef Hartinger , an official from the Bavarian Justice Ministry and physician Moritz Flamm , part-time medical examiner, arrived at

952-447: The surname Danneberg . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Danneberg&oldid=1215027998 " Categories : Surnames German-language surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description

1020-669: The "invalid trains" sent out from the camp, others were liquidated in the camp and given bogus death certificates. Some died of cruel punishment for misdemeanors—beaten to death or run to exhaustion. The camp staff consisted mostly of male SS, although 19 female guards served at Dachau as well, most of them until liberation. Sixteen have been identified including 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 Miesl. Female guards were also assigned to

1088-624: The Augsburg Michelwerke, Burgau, Kaufering , Mühldorf, and Munich Agfa Camera Werke subcamps. In mid-April 1945, female subcamps at Kaufering, Augsburg, and Munich were closed, and the SS stationed the women at Dachau. Several Norwegians worked as guards at the Dachau camp. In the major Dachau war crimes case ( United States of America v. Martin Gottfried Weiss et.al. ), forty-two officials of Dachau were tried from November to December 1945. All were found guilty—thirty-six of

1156-606: The Dachau concentration camp dramatically increased after Kristallnacht , wore a yellow badge, combined with another color. The average number of Germans in the camp during the war was 3,000. Just before the liberation many German prisoners were evacuated, but 2,000 of these Germans died during the evacuation transport. Evacuated prisoners included such prominent political and religious figures as Martin Niemöller , Kurt von Schuschnigg , Édouard Daladier , Léon Blum , Franz Halder , and Hjalmar Schacht . In an effort to counter

1224-731: The German military occupied other European states, citizens from across Europe were sent to concentration camps. Subsequently, the camp was used for prisoners of all sorts, from every nation occupied by the forces of the Third Reich. In the postwar years, the camp continued in use. From 1945 through 1948, the camp was used by the Allies as a prison for SS officers awaiting trial. After 1948, when hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans were expelled from eastern Europe, it held Germans from Czechoslovakia until they could be resettled. It also served as

1292-502: The Gestapo wore a violet badge, homosexuals sent by the criminal courts wore a pink badge, emigrants arrested by the Gestapo wore a blue badge, "race polluters" arrested by the criminal court or Gestapo wore badges with a black outline, second-termers arrested by the Gestapo wore a bar matching the color of their badge, "idiots" wore a white armband with the label Blöd (Stupid), Romani wore a black triangle, and Jews, whose incarceration in

1360-619: The Nazi regime. Dachau's close proximity to Munich, where Hitler came to power and where the Nazi Party had its official headquarters, made Dachau a convenient location. From 1933 to 1938, the prisoners were mainly German nationals detained for political reasons. After the Reichspogromnacht or Kristallnacht , 30,000 male Jewish citizens were deported to concentration camps. More than 10,000 of them were interned in Dachau alone. As

1428-661: The SS and the harsh conditions, people died from typhus epidemics and starvation. The number of inmates had peaked in 1944 with transports from evacuated camps in the east (such as Auschwitz), and the resulting overcrowding led to an increase in the death rate. Dachau was opened in March 1933. The press statement given at the opening stated: On Wednesday the first concentration camp is to be opened in Dachau with an accommodation for 5000 people. 'All Communists and—where necessary— Reichsbanner and Social Democratic functionaries who endanger state security are to be concentrated here, as in

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1496-644: The SS shooting range located at Hebertshausen , two kilometers from the main camp, in the years 1941/1943. These murders were a clear violation of the provisions laid down in the Geneva Convention for prisoners of war. The SS used the cynical term Sonderbehandlung ("special treatment") for these criminal executions. The first executions of the Soviet prisoners of war at the Hebertshausen shooting range took place on 25 November 1941. After 1942,

1564-424: The area of the entire complex. Hundreds of prisoners suffered and died, or were executed, in medical experiments conducted at KZ Dachau, of which Sigmund Rascher was in charge. Hypothermia experiments involved exposure to vats of icy water or being strapped down naked outdoors in freezing temperatures. Attempts at reviving the subjects included scalding baths, and forcing naked women to have sexual intercourse with

1632-404: The blood of comrades, he does not belong and had better leave. The more of these pig dogs we strike down, the fewer we need to feed. Between the years 1933 and 1945, more than 3.5 million Germans were imprisoned in such concentration camps or prison for political reasons. Approximately 77,000 Germans were killed for one or another form of resistance by Special Courts , courts-martial , and

1700-490: The camp and almost another 10,000 in its subcamps, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide. In late 1944, a typhus epidemic occurred in the camp caused by poor sanitation and overcrowding, which caused more than 15,000 deaths. It was followed by an evacuation, in which large numbers of the prisoners died. Toward the end of the war, death marches to and from the camp caused the deaths of numerous unrecorded prisoners. After liberation, prisoners weakened beyond recovery by

1768-420: The camp to investigate the deaths in accordance with the Bavarian penal code. They noted many inconsistencies between the injuries on the corpses and the camp guards' accounts of the deaths. Over a number of months, Hartinger and Flamm uncovered clear evidence of murder and compiled a dossier of charges against Hilmar Wäckerle , the SS commandant of Dachau, Werner Nürnbergk , the camp doctor, and Josef Mutzbauer,

1836-540: The camp's chief administrator ( Kanzleiobersekretär ). In June 1933, Hartinger presented the case to his superior, Bavarian State Prosecutor Karl Wintersberger . Initially supportive of the investigation, Wintersberger became reluctant to submit the resulting indictment to the Justice Ministry, increasingly under the influence of the SS. Hartinger reduced the scope of the dossier to the four clearest cases and Wintersberger signed it, after first notifying Himmler as

1904-408: The canteen where prisoners served SS men with cigarettes and food, the museum containing plaster images of prisoners who suffered from bodily defects, the camp office, the library, the barracks, and the infirmary, which was staffed by prisoners who had previously held occupations such as physicians or army surgeons. Over 4,000 Soviet prisoners of war were murdered by the Dachau commandant's guard at

1972-508: The civil justice system. Many of these Germans had served in government, the military, or in civil positions, which were considered to enable them to engage in subversion and conspiracy against the Nazis. The camp was divided into two sections: the camp area and the crematorium . The camp area consisted of 32 barracks, including one for clergy imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime and one reserved for medical experiments. The courtyard between

2040-422: The clergy listed, with 692 noted as deceased and 336 sent out on "invalid trainloads" and therefore presumed dead. Over 400 German priests were sent to Dachau. Total numbers incarcerated are nonetheless difficult to assert, for some clergy were not recognised as such by the camp authorities, and some—particularly Poles—did not wish to be identified as such, fearing they would be mistreated. The Nazis introduced

2108-531: The deaths of innumerable prisoners at Dachau main and subcamps, according to the War Crimes Commission official trial transcript. He testified about hangings, shootings and lethal injections, but did not admit to direct responsibility for any individual deaths. An anonymous Dutch prisoner contended that British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent Noor Inayat Khan was cruelly beaten by SS officer Wilhelm Ruppert before being shot from behind;

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2176-627: The defendants were sentenced to death on 13 December 1945, of whom 23 were hanged on 28–29 May 1946, including the commandant, SS- Obersturmbannführer Martin Gottfried Weiss , SS- Obersturmführer Freidrich Wilhelm Ruppert and camp doctors Karl Schilling and Fritz Hintermeyer. Camp commandant Weiss admitted in affidavit testimony that most of the deaths at Dachau during his administration were due to "typhus, TB, dysentery, pneumonia, pleurisy, and body weakness brought about by lack of food." His testimony also admitted to deaths by shootings, hangings and medical experiments. Ruppert ordered and supervised

2244-674: The first regular concentration camp established by the coalition government of the National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi Party) and the German National People's Party (dissolved on 6 July 1933). Jehovah's Witnesses , homosexuals and emigrants were sent to Dachau after the 1935 passage of the Nuremberg Laws which institutionalized racial discrimination. In early 1937, the SS, using prisoner labor, initiated construction of

2312-729: The following year. After the Anschluss , Danneberg tried to flee to Prague by train, but was arrested again. He was interned in three different concentration camps ; Dachau , Buchenwald and Auschwitz . He was killed in Auschwitz c.  12 December 1942 . An empty urn at Feuerhalle Simmering serves as his cenotaph in Vienna. Dachau concentration camp 48°16′08″N 11°28′07″E  /  48.26889°N 11.46861°E  / 48.26889; 11.46861 Dachau ( UK : / ˈ d æ x aʊ / , /- k aʊ / ; US : / ˈ d ɑː x aʊ / , /- k aʊ / )

2380-418: The front to more centrally located camps. They hoped to prevent the liberation of large numbers of prisoners. Transports from the evacuated camps arrived continuously at Dachau. After days of travel with little or no food or water, the prisoners arrived weak and exhausted, often near death. Typhus epidemics became a serious problem as a result of overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, insufficient provisions, and

2448-476: The guards, and buried along with those who had died on the train. Nearly 800 bodies went into this mass grave . The train continued on to KZ Dachau. During April 1945 as U.S. troops drove deeper into Bavaria, the commander of KZ Dachau suggested to Himmler that the camp be turned over to the Allies. Himmler, in signed correspondence, prohibited such a move, adding that "No prisoners shall be allowed to fall into

2516-472: The hands of the enemy alive." On 24 April 1945, just days before the U.S. troops arrived at the camp, the commandant and a strong guard forced between 6,000 and 7,000 surviving inmates on a death march from Dachau south to Eurasburg , then eastwards towards the Tegernsee; liberated two days after Hitler's death by a Nisei -ethnicity U.S. Army artillery battalion . Any prisoners who could not keep up on

2584-440: The long run it is not possible to keep individual functionaries in the state prisons without overburdening these prisons, and on the other hand these people cannot be released because attempts have shown that they persist in their efforts to agitate and organize as soon as they are released. Whatever the publicly stated purpose of the camp, the SS men who arrived there on 11 May 1933 were left in no illusion as to its real purpose by

2652-719: The municipal government of Vienna. As the author of the housing policy of the Vienna SDAPÖ and a co-author of its municipal and taxation policies, he played a pivotal role in shaping ' Red Vienna '. He represented the SDAPÖ in the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International between October 1931 and December 1935. Danneberg was arrested and jailed after the Austrian Civil War in 1934. He was, however, released

2720-415: The number of prisoners being held at the camp continued to exceed 12,000. Dachau originally held communists, leading socialists and other "enemies of the state" in 1933 but, over time, the Nazis began to send German Jews to the camp. In the early years of imprisonment, Jews were offered permission to emigrate overseas if they "voluntarily" gave their property to enhance Hitler's public treasury. Once Austria

2788-430: The other illnesses. There were 227 documented deaths among the 2,252 patients cared for by the 127th. Over the 12 years of use as a concentration camp, the Dachau administration recorded the intake of 206,206 prisoners and deaths of 31,951. Crematoria were constructed to dispose of the deceased. Visitors may now walk through the buildings and view the ovens used to cremate bodies, which hid the evidence of many deaths. It

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2856-461: The overwhelming majority, some 2,579 (or 94.88%) were Catholic. Among the other denominations, there were 109 Protestants, 22 Greek Orthodox, 8 Old Catholics and Mariavites and 2 Muslims. In his Dachau: The Official History 1933–1945 , Paul Berben noted that R. Schnabel's 1966 investigation, Die Frommen in der Hölle ("The Pious Ones in Hell") found an alternative total of 2,771 and included the fate all

2924-416: The phrase "Arbeit macht frei" ( lit.   ' "Work makes free" ' , or "Work makes [one] free"; contextual English translation: "Work shall set you free"). This phrase was also used in several other concentration camps such as Theresienstadt , near Prague , and Auschwitz I . Dachau was the concentration camp that was in operation the longest, from March 1933 to April 1945, nearly all twelve years of

2992-484: The prison and the central kitchen was used for the summary execution of prisoners. The camp was surrounded by an electrified barbed-wire fence, a ditch, and a wall with seven guard towers. In early 1937, the SS, using prisoner labor, initiated construction of a large complex of buildings on the grounds of the original camp. The construction was officially completed in mid-August 1938 and the camp remained essentially unchanged and in operation until 1945. A crematorium that

3060-508: The regime to concentrate clergy at one camp and obtained permission to build a chapel, for the priests to live communally and for time to be allotted to them for their religious and intellectual activity. Priests Barracks at Dachau were established in Blocks 26, 28 and 30, though only temporarily. 26 became the international block and 28 was reserved for Poles—the most numerous group. Of a total of 2,720 clergy recorded as imprisoned at Dachau,

3128-454: The river Amper , lay on the west side between the "neutral-zone" and the electrically charged, and barbed wire fence which surrounded the entire prisoner enclosure. In August 1944 a women's camp opened inside Dachau. In the last months of the war, the conditions at Dachau deteriorated. As Allied forces advanced toward Germany, the Germans began to move prisoners from concentration camps near

3196-406: The six-day march were shot. Many others died of exhaustion, hunger and exposure. Months later a mass grave containing 1,071 prisoners was found along the route. Though at the time of liberation the death rate had peaked at 200 per day, after the liberation by U.S. forces the rate eventually fell to between 50 and 80 deaths per day from malnutrition and disease. In addition to the direct abuse of

3264-547: The specific authority-type under whose command a person was sent to camp. Political prisoners who had been arrested by the Gestapo wore a red badge, "professional" criminals sent by the Criminal Courts wore a green badge, Cri-Po prisoners arrested by the criminal police wore a brown badge, "work-shy and asocial" people sent by the welfare authorities or the Gestapo wore a black badge, Jehovah's Witnesses arrested by

3332-600: The speech given on that day by Johann-Erasmus Freiherr von Malsen-Ponickau Comrades of the SS! You all know what the Fuehrer has called us to do. We have not come here for human encounters with those pigs in there. We do not consider them human beings, as we are, but as second-class people. For years they have been able to continue their criminal existence. But now we are in power. If those pigs had come to power, they would have cut off all our heads. Therefore we have no room for sentimentalism. If anyone here cannot bear to see

3400-423: The starvation conditions continued to die. Two thousand cases of "the dread black typhus" had already been identified by 3 May, and the U.S. Seventh Army was "working day and night to alleviate the appalling conditions at the camp". Prisoners with typhus, a louse-borne disease with an incubation period from 12 to 18 days, were treated by the 116th Evacuation Hospital, while the 127th would be the general hospital for

3468-493: The state of 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, German and Austrian 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

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3536-549: The strength and influence of spiritual resistance, Nazi security services monitored clergy very closely. Priests were frequently denounced, arrested and sent to concentration camps, often simply on the basis of being "suspected of activities hostile to the State" or that there was reason to "suppose that his dealings might harm society". Despite SS hostility to religious observance, the Vatican and German bishops successfully lobbied

3604-475: The time of liberation. In the postwar years, the Dachau facility served to hold SS soldiers awaiting trial. After 1948, it held ethnic Germans who had been expelled from eastern Europe and were awaiting resettlement, and also was used for a time as a United States military base during the occupation . It was finally closed in 1960. There are several religious memorials within the Memorial Site, which

3672-545: The unconscious victim. Nearly 100 prisoners died during these experiments. The original records of the experiments were destroyed "in an attempt to conceal the atrocities". Extensive communication between the investigators and Heinrich Himmler , head of the SS, documents the experiments. During 1942, "high altitude" experiments were conducted. Victims were subjected to rapid decompression to pressures found at 4,300 metres (14,100 ft), and experienced spasmodic convulsions, agonal breathing , and eventual death. The camp

3740-545: The war broke out he withdrew from his position because he thought working for the Youth International was pointless during war time so the chairmanship was given to Willi Münzenberg . In the same year, he became responsible for the educational and cultural programmes of the party and took on the editorship of the SDAPÖ educational journal Die Bildungsarbeit . In 1909, Danneberg obtained a doctorate in Law . During

3808-495: The weakened state of the prisoners. Owing to repeated transports from the front, the camp was constantly overcrowded and the hygiene conditions were beneath human dignity. Starting from the end of 1944 up to the day of liberation, 15,000 people died, about half of all the prisoners held at KZ Dachau. Five hundred Soviet POWs were executed by firing squad. The first shipment of women came from Auschwitz-Birkenau. As late as 19 April 1945, prisoners were sent to KZ Dachau; on that date

3876-405: Was annexed and Czechoslovakia was dissolved, the citizens of both countries became the next prisoners at Dachau. In 1940, Dachau became filled with Polish prisoners, who continued to be the majority of the prisoner population until Dachau was officially liberated. The prisoner enclosure at the camp was heavily guarded to ensure that no prisoners escaped. A 3-metre-wide (10 ft) no-man's land

3944-401: Was liberated by U.S. forces on 29 April 1945. Prisoners lived in constant fear of brutal treatment and terror detention including standing cells , floggings , the so-called tree or pole hanging , and standing at attention for extremely long periods. There were 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands that are undocumented. Approximately 10,000 of the 30,000 prisoners were sick at

4012-423: Was next to, but not directly accessible from within the camp, was erected in 1942. KZ Dachau was therefore the longest running concentration camp of the Third Reich. The Dachau complex included other SS facilities beside the concentration camp—a leader school of the economic and civil service, the medical school of the SS, etc. The camp at that time was called a "protective custody camp," and occupied less than half of

4080-655: Was no longer employed as a medical examiner and was to survive two attempts on his life before his suspicious death in the same year. Flamm's thoroughly gathered and documented evidence within Hartiger's indictment ensured that it achieved convictions of senior Nazis at the Nuremberg trials in 1947. Wintersberger's complicit behaviour is documented in his own evidence to the Pohl Trial . The prisoners of Dachau concentration camp originally were to serve as forced labor for

4148-409: Was now stark naked". The camp included an administration building that contained offices for the Gestapo trial commissioner, SS authorities, the camp leader and his deputies. These administration offices consisted of large storage rooms for the personal belongings of prisoners, the bunker, roll-call square where guards would also inflict punishment on prisoners (especially those who tried to escape),

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4216-435: 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 Hitler's political opponents , which consisted of communists , social democrats , and other dissidents. It is 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

4284-679: Was opened 22 March 1933, with the arrival of about 200 prisoners from Stadelheim Prison in Munich and the Landsberg fortress (where Hitler had written Mein Kampf during his imprisonment). Himmler announced in the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten newspaper that the camp could hold up to 5,000 people, and described it as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners" to be used to restore calm to Germany. It became

4352-501: Was originally designed for holding German and Austrian political prisoners and Jews, but in 1935 it began to be used also for ordinary criminals. Inside the camp there was a sharp division between the two groups of prisoners; those who were there for political reasons and therefore wore a red tag, and the criminals, who wore a green tag. The political prisoners who were there because they disagreed with Nazi Party policies, or with Hitler, naturally did not consider themselves criminals. Dachau

4420-420: Was the first marker of confinement for prisoners; an area which, upon entry, would elicit lethal gunfire from guard towers. Guards are known to have tossed inmates' caps into this area, resulting in the death of the prisoners when they attempted to retrieve the caps. Despondent prisoners committed suicide by entering the zone. A four-foot-deep and eight-foot-broad (1.2 × 2.4 m) creek, connected with

4488-399: Was the third concentration camp to be liberated by British or American Allied forces. After the takeover of Bavaria on 9 March 1933, Heinrich Himmler , then Chief of Police in Munich, began to speak with the administration of an unused gunpowder and munitions factory. He toured the site to see if it could be used for quartering protective-custody prisoners. The concentration camp at Dachau

4556-539: Was their original purpose, but the focus was soon shifted to using forced labor as a method of torture and murder . The original slogan was left on the gates. As of 1938, the procedure for new arrivals occurred at the Schubraum , where prisoners were to hand over their clothing and possessions. One former Luxembourgish prisoner, Albert Theis, reflected about the room, "There we were stripped of all our clothes. Everything had to be handed over: money, rings, watches. One

4624-576: Was used as the chief camp for Christian (mainly Catholic) clergy who were imprisoned for not conforming with the Nazi Party line. During the war, other nationals were transferred to it, including French; in 1940 Poles; in 1941 people from the Balkans, Czechs, Yugoslavs; and in 1942, Russians. Prisoners were divided into categories. At first, they were classified by the nature of the crime for which they were accused, but eventually were classified by

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