The First Nazi Concentration Camp

The Nazi Concentration Camps were one of the worst things to have ever happened in human history. In my opinion, they come only second to the nuclear weapon that was used on the Japanese City of Hiroshima. These are ‘incidents’ that will never be forgotten (or be allowed to be forgotten) within the “History Book” of humankind.

When I first started to do research in this subject, I was shocked by how little I knew!

The Nazis operated more than a thousand concentration camps between 1933 and 1945. The first camps started when Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. At one point around 1.65 million people were registered as prisoners in these camps. Around one million died during their imprisonment. There is so much evidence, even many photographs, that these camps cannot be denied!

It is said that the Nazis used concentration camps to “suppress the tens of thousands of Nazi opponents” who were in Germany. The first camp was Nohra, which was established on 3rd March, 1933, in a school. Arrests increased after the election of 5th March. Hitler now had the power over Germany, and because he was a spellbinding speaker, many looked at him as a kind of ‘Saviour’ for the nation. They had no idea of the horrors awaiting mankind!

Dachau = initially this camp was set up to hold political prisoners in 1933. It was located in an abandoned munitions factory. This camp imprisoned Jews, German and Austrian criminals and foreign nationals. This camp grew to have 100 sub-camps.

The prisoners were treated with extreme violence, which included flogging, the so-called tree hanging, and standing for attention for long periods of time.

The Dachau camp served as a ‘prototype’ and model for the other concentration camps. There was a saying: “Dear God, make me dumb (silent). That I may not go to Dachau come”. The newspapers of the time reported “the removal of the enemies of the ‘Reich’ to concentration camps”.

The Dachau concentration camp was the longest in operation, being used from March 1933 to April 1945 (nearly all twelve years of the Nazi regime). It was in a convenient location as it was near to the official headquarters of Hitler and the Nazi party. This camp was used for prisoners of all sorts, from every nation occupied by the forces of the Third Reich.

The “recorded” intake of prisoners was 206,206 and 31,951 deaths. Crematoria were constructed to get rid of the dead (and it is said that some were not dead ‘yet’). The prisoners came from every walk of life = Catholic priests, gypsys, homosexuals, emigrants, Jews — in fact anyone Hitler considered unfit for the ‘New Germany’, even the physically and mentally disabled. At this camp, some of the prisoners were subjected to brutal medical experiments.

Hilmer Wackerle (1899-1941) was an official of the ‘SS’, and he was the first commandant of Dachau.

The prisoners were treated harshly from the very beginning of the camp. A school teacher, Sebastian Nefzger, was beaten to death. The SS administrators ‘claimed’ that this prisoner committed suicide but the evidence proves that he was killed. Under the new regime, Hitler deemed that the German Law didn’t apply to the concentration camps, and allowed SS administrators to run the camps and ‘hand out punishment’ as they saw fit.

A set of regulations was set up for Dachau’s daily operation, and any prisoners breaking them were severely beaten. Any prisoners who tried to escape or spoke out on political laws were executed on the spot. These prisoners did not stand a chance and had no way of protecting or defending themselves, or protesting at the terrible treatment they received. These ‘Regulations’ served as a blueprint for the other concentration camps.

In 1938, the persecution of the Jews (within Germany) exploded and over 30,000 Jews were arrested, 11,000 of these ending up in Dachau. In 1939, this camp was used as a training ground for members of the newly established “Waffen-SS” who were an elite SS combat unit.

The camp had been designed to ‘house’ 6,000 prisoners but by 1944, there were (roughly) 30,000 prisoners tightly packed into it. The ‘able-bodied’ prisoners (if they could possibly be called that) were used to manufacture weapons and other materials to be used during World War Two.

Between 1941 and 1944, several thousand sick and handicapped Dachau prisoners were sent to a Nazi “euthanasia” center in Austria, where they were put to death by exposing them to lethal gas. This is horrendous!

Many Catholic clergy members were incarcerated at Dachau, many being put to death by lethal injection. Thousands of prisoners (again, from all walks of life) died from disease, malnutrition and overwork. Thousands were executed for ‘infractions of camp rules’. In 1941, Soviet prisoners were shot to death at a nearby rifle range. In 1942, construction was started on four ‘sizeable’ ovens used to incinerate corpses.

In this camp, Hitler used some of the prisoners as subjects in brutal medical experiments. One example was using the prisoners as guinea pigs in a series of tests to determine the feasibility (or convenient way) of reviving individuals immersed in freezing water. This was a terrible experiment as the prisoners were forcibly submerged in tanks filled with ice water and, naturally, many died.

The ‘forced labour’ eventually turned into torture and murder. It was at this camp that the words “Work Will Make You Free” was on the iron gates as the prisoners walked through them into the camp.

In the last months of the War, Dachau, as a concentration camp, started to deteriorate. Typhus became a big problem because of the overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions and the already very weak physical conditions of the prisoners. Many were now executed by firing squad.

Himmler ordered “that no prisoner shall be allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy alive”. In 1945, around 7,000 prisoners were forced to march from Dachau south. Any who could not keep up were shot, others died of exhaustion, hunger and exposure. A mass grave was found with 1,071 dead prisoners within it.

On April 29th, 1945, Dachau was liberated by the US military. These soldiers were the first to see the horrendous condition of the prisoners, where they also found several dozen train cars loaded with rotting corpses.

During the entire time that Hitler used the Dachau concentration camp, over 200,000 prisoners have been ‘catalogued’ to have passed through its gates. We know now that thousands more were not ‘catalogued’. Even today, we still do not know the accurate number of prisoners or deaths that were seen at this camp, Dachau.

The Dachau Concentration Camp is now a Memorial site which can be visited by the public. This is one good way to learn and remember and show respect for those who were in this camp.

Think about how the prisoners must have felt when they were liberated. Good conquered evil and we have learnt from this ‘chapter’ of history.