Concentration Camps

Dachau

March 20, 1933 Heinrich Himmler announces the establishment of the first concentration camp

Theodor Eicke – chief inspector of the camps

Dachau, Germany 9 miles NW of Munich

Dachau March 22, 1933 first group of prisoners

arrive Surrounded by electrified fence Planned to hold 5,000 prisoners at a time

Held 12,000 by 1942 30,000 at liberation 206,206 prisoners were registered Estimated 50,000 death took place

First Prisoners Primarily political prisoners, habitual criminals,

homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witness, and others considered “problematic”

Dachau

Registration tags worn

Dachau

Types of Concentration Camp - generic term for the prison camps Extermination camps - six in

Poland mass murder took place•Auschwitz

Labor Camps - maintained for the purpose of exploiting slave labor•Dachau•Krakow

Dachau

Dachau

Dachau

Dachau

1938 10,000 Jews arrive

Main gate sign “Arbeit Macht Frei”

Dachau

Two crematoria 1942 gas

chamber is built Used?

Medical experiments conducted

Dachau April 29, 1945 liberated by the

US 7th Army 27,400 prisoners left alive in

camp

Vocabulary Final Solution

The systematic murder of all the Jews in Europe First used at the Wannsee Conference in Berlin in

1942 Carried out by the SS “Shutzstaffel” – protection

units• Leader Heinrich Himmler

Holocaust Refers to the period from Jan 1933 to May 8, 1945 6 millions is the figure accepted Non-Jews another 6 million

Vocabulary continue Jew

Anyone with 3 Jewish grandparents Anyone with 2 Jewish grandparents who

belonged to the Jewish community Anyone married to a Jew/Jewess Anyone who was the offspring of a liaison with

a Jew Righteous among the Nations

Refers to those non-Jews who aided Jews Judenrat

Council of Jews appointed by the Nazi in the ghettos

Who knew? Was known by most of the European

gov. before WWII started 1942 US knew

Decision was made not use air power to bomb camps or RR into these camps

Authenticity was not discovered until 1945 at the time of liberation

Would the bombing of the camps been effective? 15,000 camps all over E. Europe