The First Official
Concentration Camp
 Purpose
= lock up political enemies
 “KZ” = “Konzentrationslager”
 March 1933 = first permanent camp
• Dachau
 1936
= Sachsenhausen
 1937 = Buchenwald
 1938 = Flossenburg, Mauthausen,
Ravensbrück
• 1938 = 24,000 prisoners
• 1944 = over 700,000 prisoners
 Locking
up political prisoners
 Locking
up political prisoners
 By 1937, locking up “asocials”
 Eventually, slave labor
 Total prison population, 1933-1945:
• 206,206
 “Arbeit
Macht Frei”
 22
March 1933 = opened
 10 April 1933 = SS take over
 Killings
• 12 April 1933
 22
March 1933 = opened
 10 April 1933 = SS take over
 Killings
• 12 April 1933
• Alfred Strauss
 June
1933 = Theodor Eicke, Commandant
 July 1933 = “Sterilization Law” passed
• “Degenerates” sent to Dachau
 What
were Germans told?
• KZs = temporary!
• KZs = “reeducation”
 Dachau
= built to hold 5000
• July 1938 = from 3,410 – 6,166
• By Nov. 1938 = 14,432
 Loads
of publicity
 September
1939 = Dachau cleared of
prisoners
• Coincides with the invasion of Poland
• Over 13,000 Poles sent to Dachau
 Until
Feb. 1940, used for SS training
 February 1940 = political prisoners
return
 December
1940 – May 1941 = ca. 25% die
 Racial hierarchy among prisoners
• Jews were treated the worst
 Punishments
for “crimes”
• Beatings & “pole hangings”
 December
1940 – May 1941 = ca. 25% die
 Racial hierarchy among prisoners
• Jews were treated the worst
 Punishments for “crimes”
• Beatings & “pole hangings”
 Medical experiments
• “doctors” learned surgery at
Dachau
• Josef Heiden
• Air pressure experiments
 December
1940 – May 1941 = ca. 25% die
 Racial hierarchy among prisoners
• Jews were treated the worst
 Punishments for “crimes”
• Beatings & “pole hangings”
 Medical experiments
• “doctors” learned surgery at
Dachau
• Josef Heiden
• Air pressure experiments
• Hypothermia experiments
 1945
= 32,000 inmates
• 500 crammed into barracks built for 50
 1945
= 32,000 inmates
• 500 crammed into barracks built for 50
 Nov. 1944
typhus
– March 1945 = 11,000 die of
 1945
= 32,000 inmates
• 500 crammed into barracks built for 50
 Nov. 1944
– March 1945 = 11,000 die of
typhus
 February 1945 = coal supply ran out
• Crematorium could not keep up
 26
April = 10,000 forced on death march
 29
April 1945 = American soldiers enter
 29
April 1945 = American soldiers enter
 50 SS men killed on the spot
 35,000 prisoners discovered alive . . .
• . . . But 125 die every day
 First
inmates = political prisoners
 Stated intention = “reeducate”
 Criminals added to make things worse
 Slave labor increased as KZ system
expanded
 Cruel medical experiments were done to
benefit German soldiers