What was the daily life at Dachau?

Answer 1

Some Jews were immediently gassed upon arrival. However...

You would wake up and work, for example, carry anvils to make weapons for the war and get turnip soup and potato peels. There was very little room full of many people. You would sleep on bunks next to around 3 or 4 people. It was cold and you would be beaten if you didn't do something right but that's only if you're lucky. The smell of the dead was around, and disgusting.

When Jews were marching and someone stepped out of line they would be shot and then creamated; if you we're a child you would probably go straight to the gas chamber; if you were a woman [often] the same thing would happen; if you were a man you were more lucky if you worked in the end they still would have killed you. It was a devastating time.

Answer 2

Dachau was considered the mildest of all the Nazi concentration camps. It was a Class 1 camp where the prisoners had a good chance of being released after serving a minimum of six months. it is jokingly called the Club Med of the Nazi camp system.

In the last year of the camp, an International Committee of Communists prisoners was formed. The Communists took over the camp from the German criminals who were originally the Kapos who helped the guards. After the camp was liberated, the Committee continued to run the camp; the prisoners had to be kept inside until the typhus epidemic was brought under control.

The International Committee still exists and in 1965, they set up the current Memorial Site at Dachau. The Committee insists that there was a gas chamber at Dachau that was used to kill prisoners, and this is what tourists are told today.

Dachau was the camp where all the Catholic priests were sent after the Pope complained about the priests being treated badly in other camps. A chapel was built for the priests who were allowed to say Mass every day.

Dachau was mainly a camp for political prisoners such as the Communists and Social Democrats who opposed the Nazi Fascists. It was the camp where the partisans and Resistance fighters were sent. The majority of the prisoners in the camp when it was liberated were Polish partisans who were Catholic.

The prominent prisoners, such as the Reverend Martin Niemöller, were housed in the bunker (camp prison) where they had private cells with unlocked doors. They were free to walk around the camp and to receive visitors.

The prisoners at Dachau also included homosexuals who had broken the law called Paragraph 175 which made it a crime to commit homosexual acts. There were also Gypsy men who had broken the law which said that everyone should have a permanent address.

Jehovah's Witnesses were sent to Dachau because they refused to serve in the Germany army or to stop distributing literature that urged others not to join the army. They were mainly employed in the homes of the SS staff at the camp. They were called "volunteer prisoners" because they could leave at any time if they joined the German army.

The prisoners worked in factories that were next door to the prison compound, or on the herb farm a couple of miles from the camp. Some of the prisoners worked in the town of Dachau. All the prisoners were paid in camp money for their work. They could use this money to buy extra food or cigarettes in the camp canteen or to visit the camp brothel.

Not all of the prisoners worked, but those who did got extra food in the form of the traditional German Brotzeit which consisted of bread and a slice of sausage at mid-morning.

The prisoners were allowed to receive packages of food or clothing, as well as money from friends and relatives outside the camp. The money was converted into camp money before it was given to the prisoners. The prisoners also received Red Cross packages, and the people in the town of Dachau also sent packages to the prisoners.

The prisoners were only required to wear one piece of the camp uniform in the early days and later, they were allowed to wear their own clothes. Some were very well dressed when the camp was liberated because they had received clothes in packages from the outside.

The camp had a library with about 15,000 books. The prisoners were allowed to receive newspapers from the outside. The camp had an orchestra and there were concerts on Sundays. The prisoners were allowed to paint or draw and do artwork in the camp.

In the last days of the war, Dachau became overcrowded and life in the camp became more difficult. Starting in December 1944, there was a typhus epidemic in the camp and half of the deaths in the camp were due to the epidemic.

Just before the camp was liberated, some of the sub-camps were closed and the prisoners were brought to the main camp. These prisoners included many Jews who had survived Auschwitz and were brought to work in the Dachau sub-camps. Some of the Jews who were at Dachau the day it was liberated had only been in the main camp for one day.

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What is the source of this prospectus?

Answer 3

At Dachau the philosophy was to keep the prisoners busy, generally with physical labour. Even if there was not a construction project to be worked, the prisoners would be given something to do, like one group would dig a hole and the next group would fill the hole back in.