Dachau Was the Foundation for SS Death Factories

Contrary to a common misconception (and to the song by Sabaton), Dachau was not a death camp. However, it became the foundation for the system of KL (SS concentration camps) that produced dedicated death factories in Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka and built killing centers in Auschwitz and Majdanek.

And thus, a major step in the Road to Holocaust – and a major slab in the “stack of slabs” that launched the “Holocaust Avalanche” that killed four million Jews.

Contrary to another popular misconception, concentration camps were invented in 1860s by the Spanish who used it in their colonial war in Cuba to detain Cuban civilians in camps in order to more easily combat guerrilla forces. It did not help much – the Ten Years’ War ended in a draw in 1878.

Over the following decades the British during the Second Boer War and the Americans during the Philippine–American War also used concentration camps. This time successfully – both the British and the Americans won. The Bolsheviks created their version of KL during the Civil War of 1918-22 – and these concentration camps became the starting point for Dachau and other SS KL.

Dachau was the first “official” Nazi (SS) concentration camp – it was opened on March 22, 1933 (one day prior to passing of the Enabling Act) and was liberated by U.S. Army on April 29, 1945. In the postwar years, the Dachau facility served to hold SS personnel awaiting trial.

Initially, Dachau was a “classic” KL – it was intended to intern Hitler’s political opponents, which consisted of communists, social democrats, and other dissidents. However, not only to detain, but to “reprogram” into ardent Nazis. The latter part brought mixed results.

Dachau was located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany.

Subsequently, it was transformed into a labor camp; its network grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and neighboring Austria.

Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other German concentration camps (including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek). This model was created by (in)famous Theodor Eicke – the second commandant of the Dachau concentration camp from June 1933 to July 1934. He continued to expand and develop the concentration camp system as the first Concentration Camps Inspector.

Specifically, he created the (in)famous SS-Totenkopfverb;nde (SS-TV) responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps and SS death factories. The SS-TV was an independent unit within the SS, with its own command structure. It ran the camps throughout Germany and later in occupied Europe.

Eicke established draconian guarding provisions, which included rigid discipline, total obedience to orders, and tightening disciplinary and punishment regulations for detainees. He issued the Postenpflicht order which required guards to shoot prisoners who engaged in resistance or escape attempts, without warning.

Uniforms were issued for prisoners and guards alike, and it was Eicke who introduced the infamous blue and white striped pajamas that came to symbolize the Nazi concentration camps across Europe. All regulations for SS-run camps, both for guards and prisoners, followed the model established by Eicke at the Dachau camp.

Shortly after the Night of the Long Knives (Eicke personally shot SA commander Ernst R;hm); on July 4, 1934, Himmler officially named Eicke chief of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI).

Except for the admittance and release of concentration camp prisoners, which the Gestapo handled (later as department of the RSHA), the CCI had sole control over the prisoners.

The CCI made all decisions regarding internal camp matters. The CCI also coordinated the operations for systematic murder in other SS divisions, for example Aktion T4 and Action 14f13. Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek concentration camps were under the CCI (including their killing centers).