Dachau Concentration Camp
Dachau, Germany
1933-1945
The Camp Itself
Dachau operated for 12 years. Over those 12 years, 188,000 people went through that camp. They took in Jews, Roma & Sinti, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and POW’s. A total of 50,000 people died in Dachau.
Experiments on Prisoners
Many different ways of killing prisoners were used in Dachau. Leaders put prisoners in pressure chambers to subject them to high altitude experiments. Freezing experiments were also used to see their reactions to hypothermia. Many other prisoners were forced to drink saltwater to test its drinkability. Starvation played a big role in the death of prisoners.
Over a thousand prisoners were injected with malaria and tuberculosis to try and find a cure.
Death marches (walking till death) were also a common way to kill many prisoners. 7,000 people went on a death march at Dachau most of them resulted in death.
12
Years
31,951
Deaths
188,000
Total Prisoners
Camp Leaders
SS Official Hilmar Wacherle was the first leader. He got charged for killing a prisoner and he was replaced. Second commandant Theodor Eicke took over after Warcherle left. Eicke soon was promoted to SS. Gruppenfuhrer and Chief Inspector. Eicke later was replaced by Alexander Reiner.
Why and How?
Exploitation of sentiments of Germans on the basis of reviving nationalism was a part of effective politics during the time Hitler prevailed. He had witnessed that politicians utilized the Jews for political gain. He imitated the policy to empower his own political career. Jews made up less than 1% of the German population at that time. However, despite smaller share in population, they had dominated certain relevant fields such as scientific research where Jews even got Noble Prizes; they controlled the finance, arts and literature. Hitler exploited traditional religious antipathy toward the Jews and used them as perfect scapegoat for all of Germany’s problems.
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By. Rosi Guzman and Olivia Thorn.