Dachau concentration camp

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Alte Römerstraße 75, 85221 Dachau, Germany

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N48° 16' 8" E11° 28' 7"   (48.268888888889, 11.468611111111) Start navigation »

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Dachau concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau, IPA: [ˈdaxaʊ]) was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany, intended to hold political prisoners. It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory southeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. Opened in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, ordinary German and Austrian criminals, and eventually 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 camps were liberated by U.S. forces in the spring of 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.
On 14 April 1945, Himmler ordered the evacuation of the camp and the extermination of all inmates at Dachau, writing, "No prisoners shall be allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy alive." Approximately 10,000 of the 30,000 prisoners were sick at 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 for use in 1960.
There are several religious memorials within the Memorial Site, which is open to the public.

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