Dachau: The Beginning of Hitler’s Concentration Camps Kristal Smith Argosy University Abstract Dachau death camp was the one and only that existed throughout the twelve-year time of National Socialist autocracy. Throughout this time, the amount and structure of the camp detainees fluctuated as completely as the states of their life and shots of their survival.in the time of time between the opening of the camp March 22, 1933 and the Anschluss of Austria in February 1938 Dachau held just German natives. Basically they were political adversaries of the National Socialists, yet too camp held Jehovah's Witnesses who rejected military administration, Jews, "languid" (who decline to work), and wrongdoers sentenced to discipline in reformatory
Dachau Dachau was built on March 20, 1933. It was built on the remnants of an old World War I munitions factory in the northeastern part of the German town Dachau. It was the first concentration camp built. Dachau was meant to hold political prisoners of the Third Reich, but it soon grew to hold a diverse population of people targeted by the Nazis. At the beginning, Nazi Theodore Eicke was in charge of the camp.
Caught in the act, the two men were beaten by Nazi guards and then assigned to Auschwitz's Sonderkommando, a group of inmates forced to work at corpse disposal through burial or, much more commonly, cremation. From May, 1942, until the evacuation of Auschwitz Muller worked as a Sonderkommando. An eyewitness to the operations at Auschwitz, Muller witnessed the mass executions of perhaps as many as a quarter of a million people and was present in the camp for the mass executions of over one million people. In January, 1945, Muller and others were
By the age of twenty-two he joined the SS. He became the commander at Plaszow labor camp. Goeth was a psychotic killer all in all. Life at Plaszow was made dreadful by Amon Goeth. Everyone was at his discretion.
The Decree Excluding Jews from German Economic Life prevented Jews from running businesses. Also, decrees excluding Jews from public places were made, with all Jewish pupils becoming ecpelled (15th Nov 1938). Also, a collective fine of 1 billion marks was levied on the Jewish community for the Paris murder, meaning 30000 Jewish men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. The Consequences of 'Anschluss' The levels of violence in Austria against the Jews were far worse than in Germany. Vienna's 180000 Jews were the targets of regular attacks.
Hitler deliberately expressed his hate toward Jews and gave ample warnings, as it was all written down in his autobiography “Mein Kampf”. In 1935, the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews of their citizenship and civil rights. Jewish rights were steadily restricted, as in many cases Jewish political and intellectual leaders were the first to be sent to concentration camps. The Night of Broken Glass, on November 9, 1938 lead to the death of approximately 100 Jews, while other 30,000 were sent to concentration camps. Jewish businesses along with almost every synagogue in Germany were damaged or completely destroyed.
When the Russians were getting closer, the Nazi’s were ordered to kill all of the prisoners that were left, but luckily for Levi, they were terrified and fled instead. (“Primo Levi, Chemist and Writer,” 1) At that time, Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army eleven months after Levi entered the camp. Levi survived the concentration camp as one of twenty to leave the camp alive that started out with six hundred and fifty Italian Jews. (“Primo Levi.” http://en.wilipedia.org, 1) After getting out of Auschwitz, Levi spent eight months in Russia as a refuge before heading home. (“Primo Levi, Chemist and Writer,”
Ilse Koch was born in Dresden, Germany in 1906. A secretary by profession, Koch joined the Nazi party in 1932. Four years later, she married Karl Otto Koch (1897-1945), head of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, who in 1937 was assigned to build a new concentration camp in Buchenwald. Ilsa went with him and became a SS-Aufseherin (overseer) at the camp. While Karl Otto was known for his personal greed in the camps he worked in, Ilse was known as the “Bitch of Buchenwald” for her bestial cruelty and sadistic behavior.
On April 15, 1945, British troops entered Bergen Belsen. They liberated some 60,000 prisoners, many of whom were close to death. During the first weeks after liberation, close to 500 people in Bergen Belsen died every day by starvation and Typhus. From liberation day until June 20, an estimated 14,000 people died from the terrible conditions that had been inflicted on them by the Nazis during the war. Between April 18 and April 28, the dead were buried.
In 1933, the Jewish population of Europe stood at over nine million. Most European Jews lived in countries that Nazi Germany would occupy or influence during World War II. By 1945, the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the "Final Solution," the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe. During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted