Dachau Concentration Camp was one of the first Nazi concentration camps, located in the small medieval town of Dachau, Germany just after Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Inmates included political prisoners, “asocials,” Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and others. More than 10,000 Jews were imprisoned here after Kristallnacht in November 1938. 

Prisoners were forced to work in extreme weather conditions and under physical and psychological terror. Those too weak to work were targets for execution. Prisoners were also forced to undergo barbaric medical experiments which lead to their death or disfigurement. More than 200,000 passed through Dachau during its twelve years of operation, approximately 20% of whom died in the camp. 

Dachau served as a model camp and training center. 

The Nazi concentration camp system was designed to humiliate, dehumanize, terrorize, brutalize, work to death, torture and murder. Beatings and killings were a daily occurrence.