German Killing & Atrocity Centers

"Dachau before WWII, was only a small town outside of Munich; used in WWI as a munitions dump. By 1933 it became one of the many formidable "re-education" or detainment centers for Political Prisoners, Dissidents and Jews. Dachau grew into one of the most dreaded concentration camps or killing centers: the slaughter and ill conditions were so remarkable, that when American troops walked in , they were in disbelief. When American and allied troops came to the edge of Dachau on the Day of its Liberation, they were weary and sick, thinking to wait till the next day to enter and take the camp. On the periphery of the Camp, they found boxcars frozen shut. As they opened the doors, starved corpses fell out; frozen in the subzero temperatures: new arrivals who were left and not processed. One soldier reported that the events were so grusome, that the weary soldiers marched in rage on the KZ, taking it quickly.⁵ Dachau stands today as a monument of Man's Inhumanity to Man; and to the degree of Cruelty found in every heart left to itself.

Dachau was one of the first 4 German Concentration camps founded in 1933 and staffed by the SS Death headers. It was known for such cruelty, that even Eichmann admitted that it was seen as a punishment to even be on the staff, although the camp was used to train many Nazi officers who went on to man or head other camps. Dachau existed in 1933, rudimentarily. It was originally set for political dissidents & Jews; dissidents included Jehovah's Witnesses,Evangelical Christians, 'Oppositionists'and homosexuals and early , some Soviet P.O.Ws.

In 1933, established as a prison and 're-education' center, the camp's population was 4800 rising by 1937 to 13,260. By the end of the war, the population list read 67,665, but the total for the time the gates were opened was approximately 188,000. Over 43,000 of these were political or religious dissidents including Niemoller. The number towards the end of the war a slightly misleading, because in the weeks before liberation, Dachau prisoners like others were set on a Death march, and as many as 16,000 were 'settled' in a makeshift forest camp, although many died enroute. Only 7000 were 'listed' as on the march, but the forest camp denoted the higher number. Twenty-eight to Thirty-five thousand deaths occurred, primarily between 1940 and 1945. There was a krema at Dachau with 4 incinerators, and a gas chamber which inmates report in use.