the dachau tour

THE 10 BEST Dachau Tours & Excursions

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• Janice T 1 contribution 0 5.0 of 5 bubbles Dachau’s WW 2 tragic history handled sensitively We were just in awe of Adam’s knowledge of Dachau and the sensitive way he gave us the information as it is not an easy topic to cover and repeat time after time. This tour was one of the highlights of our time in Germany. Well done Adam. Read more Review of: Full-Day Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Tour from Munich Written June 3, 2024 This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.

Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Tour

With specially trained guides approved by the Memorial Site

Quick Details

• Hour Glass Duration: 5 hours
• Clock Start Time: 9 AM, 10.15 AM & 12.15 PM (Depending on the month)
• User Ages: Minimum age is 13. There are no exceptions possible
• Book Tour Language: English
• Ticket Cancellation Policy: Free Cancellation 24 hours before tour
• Half day tour
• Original former gas chambers
• Crematorium
• Prisoner barracks
• Nandor Glid Monument
• Dachau is just 20 mins from Munich by S-Bahn public transportation

Dachau Memorial Site Tour from Munich in English

In the spring of 1933, the first Nazi concentration camp in Germany was opened northeast of Dachau. Initially planned to hold political prisoners, it soon became a model for all other concentration camps. It also served as a training center for the SS: the “school of violence.” This tour takes you from the center of Munich to the historic Memorial of the Dachau Concentration Camp . With specially trained guides, you explore a monument to one of history’s cruelest crimes.

More about the history of Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Tour

Over the years, the Dachau concentration camp grew to a system of nearly 100 sub-camps. In its 12 years of existence, more than 200.000 people from all over Europe were imprisoned, and approximately 41.500 are estimated to have been killed. On April 29, 1945 U.S. forces liberated the main concentration camp in Dachau and ended more than a decade of atrocities and brutality. Throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, Allied armies ended the reign of terror and put an end to the barbarism of the Third Reich. The liberation of the concentration camps revealed to the world how unbelievably cruel the concentration camp system of Nazi Germany really was.

In 1965, on the initiative of concentration camp survivors, the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial was constructed on the site of the former Dachau concentration camp. Nearly 800.000 people visit the Memorial each year. Close to the old town of Dachau, it is located only about 12 miles (20 kilometers) northwest of Munich.

• Chevron down Insightful and knowledgeable tour of Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial

Our trained tour guides lead you through the historic site of the former concentration camp. The remaining original buildings and reconstructions give testimony to the cruel history of the place. The guides of our Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Tour provide you with interesting facts and historical background. You can ask our guides any questions during the tour. Our guides have been specially trained by the Memorial Site. They convey this disturbing subject to you with dignity, sensitivity, and with respect for the victims.

Throughout the Dachau Concentration Camp Tour, you learn about the inhumanity of the Nazi regime. such as the human medical experiments, the torture, and mass executions. You visit the roll-call, the bunkers, the barracks, the camp street, and the crematorium. At the international memorial, you can take your time to process the information and impressions. The Dachau Concentration Camp Tour is insightful, knowledgeable, and thought-provoking. It’s a deeply moving experience that you’re not likely to forget.

• Chevron down More about your Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site tour from Munich

With our Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Tour, you get a fully organized day trip to Dachau from Munich. Our guides take care of all travel arrangements and bring you to the Memorial Site and back by train and bus. You get a complete and comprehensive tour of the former concentration camp and the Memorial Site. The entire Dachau Concentration Tour is in English.

The professionalism and integrity we show on our tours have earned us recognition over the years from many interested parties from around the world, including concentration camp survivors and their families, liberators of the U.S. Army, journalists, and academic experts. All of them were very satisfied with our Dachau tour.

The majority of the Dachau Concentration Camp Tour takes place outside and is a walking tour. Therefore, please be sure to wear appropriate footwear and weather-appropriate clothing. We recommend that you bring water. Food may not be purchased or consumed on the grounds of the Memorial Site. Children under 14 years old are not permitted on this tour.

Our guides happily accept tips if you are satisfied with our Dachau Concentration Camp Tour, but we ask you not to tip while within the grounds of the Memorial Site.

• Chevron down Meeting point - Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Tour

Radius Tours Office, Dachauer Straße 4, 80335 Munich

• Chevron down Further information

The times given are departure times. Please be here approximately 15 mins prior to the given departure time.

The minimum age for this tour is 14 years old. Children under 14 are not permitted by the Memorial Site to attend tours.

This tour and the Third Reich Tour are designed to complement each other. Together, they make for a truly fascinating experience.

• Chevron down Tour times - Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Tour

Tour departing daily at 9 AM, 10.15 AM & 12.15 PM (Depending on the month)

• Chevron down Why Radius Tours?

We have been giving tours for a very long time, and we are very good at it! Discover Munich, Germany’s Secret Capital, with us.

• Chevron down Are the tours fully guided?

Yes. Our tour to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site is fully guided.

• Chevron down Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Tour - Is walking involved?

Yes. A fair amount of walking is involved, but nothing too strenuous. There are opportunities to rest if needed, and scooters can be arranged on location (subject to availability).

• Chevron down Where do the tours begin?

All our tours meet in the Radius Tours Office, located at Dachauer Straße 4, 80335 Munich.

• Chevron down When should I be at the meeting point?

Please be at the meeting point 15 minutes before the starting time for our tours? Our tours depart promptly at the advertised time.

• Chevron down What do I need to bring for the tours?

Be sure to wear suitable clothing and comfortable shoes, as our tours mainly take place outside and on foot. For most of the year, Munich has a very pleasant climate, and perfect for tours, but it can be cold in winter, and the warm summer months experience occasional rain showers. Please consult the weather forecast before coming on our tours, and dress accordingly. We advise you to bring water on hot summer days. Our tours go, no matter what the weather.

• Chevron down Should I tip the guide?

Yes, please! It is customary to tip in Munich, and our tour guides certainly appreciate your generosity. They work hard to make our tours perfect, and tips are an important part of their income.

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Dachau Memorial Tour

Visit the grounds of the former concentration camp in Dachau with a qualified guide and learn more about this dark time.

Included in the price:

• five hour guided tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site
• officially qualified and authorized guides by the Dachau Memorial site
• public transport costs from Munich to Dachau and back
• exclusively with us: free city map and 50 % discount on the official city guide
• free cancellation until 24 h before tour start

On this interesting tour, you will get to know a lot about a dark chapter of German history and the first concentration camp of the NS regime. This was built in 1933 in Dachau, which is located only 15 km away from Munich. More than 30 years later, in 1965, a memorial was created for the victims to give visitors the opportunity to learn about the cruel deeds the prisoners had to suffer.

The Dachau tour leads through the cells, barracks and gas chambers. It explains the significance of the pictures and exhibits in the museum with thought-provoking stories about the prisoners' individual experiences from the construction of the camp to their liberation by the US forces in 1945.

Please note: The guides are officially certified and authorised by the Dachau Memorial Site to give guided tours of the site.

Important information

Meeting point: in front of the Tourist Information at Marienplatz , end point at main station

Duration : approx. 4,5 - 5 hours

Attention: The 20-minute documentary film and the website in general is not recommended for children under 12 years old.

Information about your Dachau Memorial Tour: Please show your booking confirmation printed out or on your mobile phone to your tour guide.

You will receive the free City Map and the 50% discount on the official City Guide "simply Munich" upon presentation of your booking confirmation at the Tourist Information at Marienplatz or at main station (please note the current opening hours). There you can also buy tickets.

Accessibility: This tour has limited accessibility – please feel free to contact [email protected] for more information.

Photos: Gedenkstätte Dachau, Stadt Dachau

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Guided tours in dachau.

Gui­ded Tours at your pre­fer­red date

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Guided Tours at your preferred date

Guided tours in foreign languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish) - no extra charge - subject to availability.   Group size max. 25 persons Cancellation fee up to 14 days before: none, up to 3 days before: 50%, after that 100%.

Booking Request

Please note: The Tourist Information acts solely as an agent. The contract is closed between guest and tour guide. For terms of payment, detailed instructions, complaints as well as cancellations or postponements, or other, please contact your tour guide directly. Cancellation fee: Up to 14 days prior free of charge, until 3 days prior 50%, afterwards (0-3days) 100 % payable to the tour guide. Film and sound recordings are not allowed during the tour. By your inquiry with regard to the provision of a guided tour you agree that your data will be collected and processed, as well as be transmitted to our Dachau visitor guides. The privacy policy of the City of Dachau applies.  

Group guided tours at the time of your choice

Get to know Dachau and its surroundings in the friendly company of the tour guides of the Dachauer Gästeführer e.V. Choose from a wide range of topics - the Tourist Information of the city of Dachau is looking forward to your request.

Prices & duration of the city and theme tours:

Tour of Dachau Old Town with short visit to Dachau Palace:  Duration: approx. 1.5 hours Cost: 100.00 €* per group, plus admission to the Palace

Guided tour of Dachau Palace in detail Duration: approx. 1 hour Cost: from 70.00 €* per group, plus admission to the Palace

Guided tour Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Duration: approx. 2.5 hours Costs: 100.00 €* per group (max. 30 persons) Further information on guided tours of the memorial site.

Guided tours on special topics e.g. costume tours Duration: approx. 1.5 hours Cost: from 100.00 €* per group, plus entrance fee if applicable Please contact Tourist-Information for possible theme tours. * VAT may apply in addition. Book your group guided tour on your desired topic and date at the Dachau Tourist Information: Booking request

Gui­ded tour of Dach­au Con­cen­tra­ti­on Camp Me­mo­ri­al Site

Guided tour for visitors aged 14 and over. Maximum of 30 people per group. Cost: 100€ per group. Duration: 2.5 - 3 hours.

Old Town & Palace - "WITTELSBACH SUMMER RESIDENCE"

Guided tour through the former "Dachau market" with a visit to the Wittelsbach summer residence: Dachau Palace. Maximum 25 people per group. Cost: €100 per group plus admission to Dachau Palace. Duration: approx. 1.5 hours.

Old Town & Pain­ting Gal­le­ry - "ARTIST'S COLONY"

Guided tour following the footsteps of the Dachau artists' colony with a short visit to the Dachau Picture Gallery. 25 people maximum per group. Cost: 100€ per group plus admission to the painting gallery. Duration: approx. 1.5 hours

Old Town & NS-Era - "COMMEMORATIVE"

Guided tour of the contemporary historical remains in Dachau's old town. Maximum 25 people per group. Recommended from the age of 14. Cost: 100€ per group. Duration: approx. 1.5 hours.

Ex­pe­ri­ence na­ture

The Dachauer Moos with its unique "true painter's light", the meadows of the Amper with their biodiversity and invite you to guided bike tours, for example on the topic of the robber Kneißl.

Palace - Sum­mer re­si­dence of the Wit­tels­bach dy­nas­ty

Guided tour of Dachau Palace. Maximum 25 people per group. Cost: 70€ per group plus admission. Duration: approx. 1 hour.

Dach­au Palace and Court Gar­den

Accompany us to the time of the Wittelsbach dynasty in Dachau. The palace and court garden tell stories of the ruling dynasty, of Joseph Effner and more than 600 years of the highest garden art.

Spe­ci­al gui­ded tours

In costume or with tasting session on request. Maximum 25 people per group. Cost: from €100 per group. Duration: approx. 1.5 hours.

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Dachau memorial site tour.

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Home » Travel Guides » Germany » 12 Best Dachau Tours

12 Best Dachau Tours

Of all the concentration camps established by the Nazis during World War II, Dachau was the first, and it opened nearly 7 years before the official declaration of war by Germany.

The camp is located just a few kilometers from Munich in the German state of Bavaria, and due to its proximity, most tours of Dachau begin in Munich, so if you’d like to see the camp and spend more than a few days in the area, that’s probably where you’ll stay.

Dachau was liberated by the Allied Forces in April 1945, and according to documents there were more than 30,000 deaths that had taken place in the camp over the years.

Below is a list of 12 of the best tours of Dachau.

1. Munich and Nazi History Combo Day-Tour

This Munich – Dachau combo tour kicks off at the famous Marienplatz central square in downtown Munich.

From there, tour guests, along with their guide, will utilize the public transportation system to get to Dachau, where they’ll get a thorough historic narration as they visit every corner of the camp that was the macabre home to hundreds of thousands of Jews during its 12 year existence.

You’ll have time to strike out on your own too and take extra time at specific areas or exhibits that you find particularly poignant or interesting.

Upon return to Marienplatz at 3:00 PM you and your companions will set off on a walking tour through Munich, where you’ll visit historically significant areas.

2. Dachau Full-Day Tour in English

Though Dachau is just one of many similar camps that were spread over Europe during World War II, it’s one of the most well-known, and was the first of its kind when it opened in early 1933.

This tour includes the services of a local, official guide who’ll be able to answer your questions and add a lot of value to this already amazing site.

You’ll learn why the camp was opened, what the official plans were for those who were forced to live and work here, and what life was like for the soldiers and guards that were stationed here as well.

You’ll get access to the amazing first-hand stories of people who lived and died here, and some from those who were lucky enough to make it out with their lives as well.

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3. Private Tour of Dachau Concentration Camp

Curt’s tours are considered some of the most enlightening and heart-wrenching of all the tours that are available at Dachau.

Though the site itself is a real eye-opener, for those interested in knowing everything there is to know, the service of a professional guide is invaluable.

The tour includes all the areas inside the camp, including admittance and orientation, living, eating, and working areas, and of course the facilities built specifically to extinguish the most amount of lives in as an efficient and inexpensive manner as possible.

Your tour guide Curt is an American, who is licensed as a guide and has been giving tours of the site to visitors for more than 10 years.

4. Dachau Memorial Site and Shooting Range Tour

This Munich-based tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial site also includes a visit to the nearby SS shooting range.

The tour, which lasts approximately 6 ½ hours, includes entry into the museum and a short documentary film that’s a great introduction for first-time visitors.

Visitors will hear the horrific stories of the sadistic experiments that were carried out here, and after seeing all the area’s highlights, guests will have a little free time to process all the things they’ve just seen.

It’s really a once in a life time opportunity, and this tour gives guests plenty of time to take it all in.

Everything is included except food, drink, and gratuities.

5. Dachau Concentration Camp Tour by Train

This 5-hour tour of the Holocaust Memorial Site at Dachau begins in Munich and includes transportation to and from the city to the memorial site.

The tour includes stops at all the important areas of the camp like the prisoner and guard barracks, as well as the medical facilities and the extermination chambers.

Though not all of the site’s structures are original, they’ve been restored to return them to near-original shape, so that guests can get a true feeling of how it must have felt to be an unwilling occupant here.

Many visitors are surprised to learn that in addition to Jews, Poles, homosexuals, and clergy members were also sent here.

6. Dachau Small Group Tour from Munich via Train

For those who’ve got the time to dedicate a full-day to visiting this unique historical site, this tour from Munich would be a great choice.

Your guide will not only explain the sights you’re seeing at the memorial, but you’ll also learn about the conditions that existed in Germany that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and The Third Reich.

It’s a fascinating tale and is really world history, as opposed to just German history.

The global war that ensued as a direct result killed millions and changed the world as we know it.

You’ll have time for a bit of self-guided exploration as well.

7. Walking Tour of Dachau from Munich via Train

Taking the train from Munich is a great way to see the outskirts of the city before entering the concentration camp.

For much of the Nazi’s rise to power, Munich was a city that was central to the aims of The Third Reich, and as such is one of the most historically-relevant cities of the Second World War.

Visitors will get up close and personal with the camp’s barracks, transportation system, cells, and where the inmates were taken for extermination.

The gas chambers are probably the most lurid of all the camp’s areas, and it’s almost unfathomable to put yourself in the shoes of an inmate marching to their certain death.

This tour requires a fair amount of walking and lasts about 5 hours.

Transportation via train to and from the site are included in the tour’s cost.

8. Dachau Concentration Camp Private Tour from Munich

For many visitors to Dachau, a half-day tour is the right amount of time to see all the camp has to offer without overdoing it.

Not surprisingly, Dachau can be an emotionally overwhelming place, so before booking a tour carefully consider how much time you’d like to spend onsite.

Guests will walk through the camp’s eerie gate which claims that, ‘work will set you free.’

Obviously, freedom wasn’t an option for the majority of the inmates sent here, though some lucky souls did make it out alive.

This tour hits all the camps most important areas and give guests a well-rounded overview of the camp’s history in a relatively short amount of time.

9. Frankfurt to Munich City, Dachau Concentration Camp Day Trip

This full-day tour begins in Frankfurt and includes stops at Munich and Dachau as well.

All portions of the tour are guided, and the tour’s first stop is the Dachau Memorial, and includes the barracks, work areas, and gas chambers to name a few highlights.

Following the tour of Dachau, you’ll proceed to historic Munich for another guided tour.

Sights to be seen in Munich include the Old Town Hall, Marienplatz, the Cathedral of our Blessed Lady, and a few of the beer halls made famous as meeting places for Nazi organizers and sympathizers leading up to them taking control of the German government.

Though this tour makes for a long day, it’s perhaps the most well-rounded and value packed of all Dachau tours.

10. Private Round Trip to Dachau Camp from Munich Hotels

If you’d prefer to have someone else worry about the tedious details when traveling, this hassle-free tour of Dachau is a great choice.

Transportation to and from your Munich hotel is included, and once at the camp site you’ll have ample time to give yourself a self-guided tour.

The grounds and museum are laid out well to facilitate guests in seeing all the site has to offer in an efficient way.

Once you’ve had your fill of this unique spot, you’ll meet your driver who’ll zip you and your travel companions back to your Munich hotel.

It’s just a short drive, but it will give you a little time to reflect on the magnitude of what you’ve just seen.

11. Munich World War II Sites: Dachau and Third Reich Walking Tour

This walking tour of Dachau and other sites related to The Third Reich will give guests plenty of access to camp grounds while stretching their legs and getting plenty of fresh air as well.

Guests will enjoy a guided tour of the camp that’ll hit all its most important areas and includes plenty of history leading up to the war as well.

The second portion of the tour includes a walk to some of Munich’s most historic sites, and you’ll learn about their significance and the parts they played in the historical saga that played out in Germany in the ‘30s and ‘40s.

This tour includes transportation from Munich to the site and back but doesn’t include hotel pickup and drop-off.

12. Munich to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, Private Tour

For World War II history buffs, there may be no better place to visit than the concentration camp grounds at Dachau.

It’s been turned into a permanent memorial to remember those who walked through its gates, in the hope that education will prevent such a catastrophe from ever happening again.

On this private guided-tour, guests will get a poignant overview of the camp’s layout, and how it was used in the wholesale extermination of Jews, and anybody else who attempted to stand up to the Nazi State.

Multiple start times are available, and hotel pickup and drop-off is included if they’re requested at the time of booking.

12 Best Dachau Tours:

• Munich and Nazi History Combo Day-Tour
• Dachau Full-Day Tour in English
• Private Tour of Dachau Concentration Camp
• Dachau Memorial Site and Shooting Range Tour
• Dachau Concentration Camp Tour by Train
• Dachau Small Group Tour from Munich via Train
• Walking Tour of Dachau from Munich via Train
• Dachau Concentration Camp Private Tour from Munich
• Frankfurt to Munich City, Dachau Concentration Camp Day Trip
• Private Round Trip to Dachau Camp from Munich Hotels
• Munich World War II Sites: Dachau and Third Reich Walking Tour
• Munich to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, Private Tour

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Dachau Concentration Camp

By: History.com Editors

Updated: November 16, 2022 | Original: November 9, 2009

Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, opened in 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Located in southern Germany, Dachau was initially a camp for political prisoners, but it eventually evolved into a death camp where countless thousands of Jews died from malnutrition, disease and overwork—or were executed. In addition to Jews, the camp’s prisoners included artists, intellectuals, the physically and mentally handicapped, Romani and homosexuals. With the advent of World War II, some able-bodied Dachau prisoners were used as slave labor to manufacture weapons and other materiel for Germany’s war efforts. Additionally, some Dachau detainees were subjected to brutal medical experiments by the Nazis.

WATCH:  Liberators: Why We Fought  on HISTORY Vault 

Nazi Germany’s First Concentration Camp

Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Nazi Germany on January 30, 1933, and in March of that year, Heinrich Himmler announced the first concentration camp , which opened in the town of Dachau, just outside Munich, a medieval city in southern Germany.

The camp initially housed political prisoners, and its first group of detainees consisted primarily of socialists and communists . Hilmar Wäckerle , an official in the “Schutzstaffel” (a Nazi paramilitary organization commonly known as the SS ), served as the first commandant of Dachau.

Did you know? In 1965, a memorial site was created on the grounds of the former Dachau concentration camp. Today, visitors can tour some of the camp's historic buildings and access a library and special exhibits containing materials related to Dachau's history.

From the start, camp detainees were subjected to harsh treatment. On May 25, 1933, Sebastian Nefzger, a Munich schoolteacher, was beaten to death while imprisoned at Dachau. The SS administrators who operated the camp claimed that Nefzger had committed suicide, but an autopsy disclosed that he likely lost his life due to asphyxiation or strangulation.

The Munich public prosecutor summarily indicted Wäckerle and his underlings on a murder charge. The prosecutor was immediately overruled by Hitler, who issued an edict stating that Dachau and all other concentration camps were not subject to German law as it applied to German citizens. SS administrators alone would run the camps and hand out punishment as they saw fit.

That June, Theodor Eicke replaced Wäckerle as Dachau commandant. Eicke immediately released a set of regulations for the camp’s daily operation. Prisoners deemed guilty of rule breaking were to be brutally beaten. Those who plotted to escape or espoused political views were to be executed on the spot.

Prisoners would not be allowed to defend themselves or protest this treatment. Eicke’s regulations served as a blueprint for the operation of all concentration camps in Nazi Germany.

Dachau Expands Operations

In November 1938, the prohibitive measures against German Jews that had been instituted since Hitler came to power took a violent and deadly turn during “ Kristallnacht ” (“Crystal Night” or “Night of Broken Glass”).

On the evening of November 9, synagogues in Germany and Austria were burned and Jewish homes, schools and businesses were vandalized. Over 30,000 Jews were arrested and dispatched to Dachau and the Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. Nearly 11,000 Jews ended up in Dachau.

WATCH VIDEO: The Liberators: Return to Dachau  

In the fall of 1939, at the start of World War II , Dachau’s prisoners were relocated to Buchenwald and the concentration camps at Mauthausen and Flossenbuerg. For the time being, Dachau was used as a training site for members of the newly established “Waffen-SS,” an elite SS combat unit whose troops also helped run concentration camps.

By early 1940, Dachau had been reconverted into a concentration camp. Conditions at the camp were brutal and overcrowded. The facility had been designed to house some 6,000 detainees, but the population continued to rise and by 1944 approximately 30,000 prisoners were packed into the camp.

The main camp eventually expanded to include a series of subcamps, located around southern Germany and Austria, where able-bodied prisoners were used as slave labor to manufacture weapons and other materiel for Germany’s efforts in World War II.

Dachau Detainees

At the dawn of World War II, Hitler came to believe that restricting the daily activities of Jews in Germany and the countries annexed by the Nazis would not resolve what he considered to be his “Jewish problem.” Nor would isolated acts of violence against Jews serve a purpose. Instead, the chancellor determined that the best solution would be the elimination of every European Jew.

Also set for extermination were members of any group considered by Hitler to be ill-equipped to reside in the new Germany. Among them were artists, intellectuals, communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and others who were viewed as sexually deviant, Romani, the physically and mentally handicapped and anyone else considered to be racially or physically impure.

Between 1941 and 1944, several thousand sick and handicapped Dachau prisoners were sent to a Nazi “euthanasia” center in Hartheim, Austria, where they were put to death by exposure to lethal gas).

Religious Leaders at Dachau

Several thousand Catholic clergy members were also incarcerated at Dachau. One was Titus Brandsma, a Carmelite cleric, philosopher, writer, teacher and historian as well as an avowed anti-Nazi. Brandsma arrived at Dachau in June 1942, and died the following month after being given a lethal injection.

In 1985, Brandsma was beatified by Pope John Paul II . Michał Kozal, a Polish priest, arrived at Dachau in 1941, and for two years, he attended to the spiritual needs of his fellow prisoners. In January 1943, Kozal perished from a lethal injection. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1987.

Death and Medical Experiments

Over the years of its operation, from 1933 to 1945, thousands of Dachau prisoners died of disease, malnutrition and overwork. Thousands more were executed for infractions of camp rules.

Starting in 1941, thousands of Soviet prisoners of war were sent to Dachau then shot to death at a nearby rifle range. In 1942, construction began at Dachau on Barrack X, a crematorium that eventually consisted of four sizeable ovens used to incinerate corpses.

With the implementation in 1942 of Hitler’s “ Final Solution ” to systematically eradicate all European Jews, thousands of Dachau detainees were moved to Nazi extermination camps in Poland, where they died in gas chambers.

The Nazis also used Dachau prisoners as subjects in brutal medical experiments. For example, inmates were obligated to be guinea pigs in a series of tests to determine the feasibility of reviving individuals immersed in freezing water. For hours at a time, prisoners were forcibly submerged in tanks filled with ice water. Some prisoners died during the process.

Liberation of Dachau

In April 1945, just prior to the liberation of Dachau by the Allied forces, the SS ordered approximately 7,000 prisoners to embark on a six-day-long death march to Tegernsee, located to the south. Those unable to maintain a steady marching pace were shot by SS guards. Other marchers died from starvation or physical exhaustion.

On April 29, 1945, the United States military entered Dachau, where they found thousands of mostly emaciated prisoners. The U.S. soldiers also discovered several dozen train cars loaded with rotting corpses. The prisoners who survived the Tegernsee death march were freed by American troops on May 2.

During the entire time in which Dachau served as a concentration camp and death camp, over 200,000 prisoners were registered as having passed through its gates. An inestimable number, running into the thousands, were never registered, making it impossible to know exactly how many people were imprisoned at Dachau and how many died there.

Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site

Following the Allied victory that marked the end of World War II , Dachau was used to house SS officers facing trial for war crimes. It was also used temporarily as a U.S. military base. Dachau was finally closed in 1960.

The Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site , which stands on the site of the original camp, opened to the public in 1965. It is free to enter and thousands of people visit Dachau each year to learn about what happened there and remember those who were imprisoned and died during the Holocaust .

READ MORE:  The Horrifying Discovery of Dachau Concentration Camp

Dachau. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . The Last Days of the Dachau Concentration Camp. The National WWII Museum . Scenes From Hell: Pfc. Harold Porter - Atrocities at Dachau Concentration Camp, 1945. The National Archives .

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Dachau, the “model” concentration camp, 1933-39.

In June 2004, while spending a weekend in Munich away from dissertation research at the Austrian National Library, I boarded a train in the city’s Hauptbahnhof  (Central Station) for a short trip.

Top image: View of the moat, barbed wire and one of the guard towers of the concentration camp at Dachau, 1945. US Army Signal Corps Photo, Gift of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, from the Collection of The National WWII Museum, 2009.373.065.

In June 2004, while spending a weekend in Munich away from dissertation research at the Austrian National Library, I boarded a train in the city’s Hauptbahnhof  (Central Station) for a short trip. Accompanying me was my friend, Haitham Ibrahim, a scholar in the field of comparative literature. Our destination—the Dachau concentration camp—was close, shockingly close.

On the way, we talked a bit nervously about what we would see. The day before, Haitham and I stopped by Munich’s Ludwig-Maximilian University to look at the commemorative plaque for Sophie and Hans Scholl, the immensely courageous and tragic figures of the White Rose resistance group, who had been arrested there in February 1943 after leaving anti-Nazi leaflets for students. Now we headed to Dachau, the genesis of the National Socialist concentration-camp system. Just eleven miles or so north of Munich, the site of the camp is not in some remote region, concealed from curious eyes. No, it stands adjacent to the town whose name it bears.

After disembarking from the train, we passed through the entrance gate bearing the wretched, specious slogan Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes You Free), later replicated at Auschwitz (where it attained even greater infamy). Despite knowing what to expect, our tour of Dachau over the next few hours bombarded us with horrors. There in front of us were the barbed wire and guard towers, the perpetual symbols of Nazi carcerality, and the area where the surrounding moat had been. We walked, too, where the prisoners were once barracked. Haitham and I also saw the ghastly “whipping horse” utilized for corporal punishment. The gas chamber and crematorium reminded us that this was not only a place of incarceration, it was a site of mass murder. Of the more than 200,000 human beings held in this camp, more than 41,000 died.

Before we departed, we walked by some of the powerful memorials at Dachau: Fritz Koelle’s statue “to the unknown concentration-camp inmate,” the unforgettable bronze image depicting contorted human arms and legs forming something like barbed wire, and the Jewish memorial building designed by Hermann Guttmann. I barely remember anything of the train ride back into Munich, just the feeling that what I had seen exceeded my understanding.

Educational materials at the camp reinforced so much of what the scholarly literature has long said—that Dachau was the “model” concentration camp. But what does it even mean to say “model” camp? In what ways did Dachau establish a standard for the massive SS-run network of concentration camps?

Konzentrationslager  (Concentration Camp) Dachau was indeed the inception point for what David Rousset, a survivor of Buchenwald, later named the “concentrationary universe.” In operation from March 1933 to April 1945, it lasted almost as long as the Third Reich existed.  The camp’s proximity to Munich, the Bavarian capital, dubbed by Nazis the Hauptstadt der Bewegung  (Capital of the Movement), only underscores Dachau’s centrality to the history of National Socialism.

To be sure, Dachau was not the world’s first concentration camp. Neither Adolf Hitler nor Joseph Stalin invented this institution synonymous with barbarism. Andrea Pitzer’s 2017 One Long Night reflects on the significance of the 1890s and the context of colonialism for grasping the emergence of this scourge for humanity. The Spanish in Cuba, the British during the Boer War in South Africa, and the United States in the Philippines introduced this practice of isolating enemies from the larger civilian population and “concentrating” them outside of the familiar framework of jails and prisons. It is perhaps better to say that the Nazis, who were not unaware of their predecessors in this realm, perfected the concentration camp. As Nikolaus Wachsmann demonstrates, they did so with pride and openness, at least in the early years of the Hitler regime, justifying concentration camps as necessary for the “protection” of German society from internal threats.

In mid-March 1933, shortly after the Nazis took over government in Bavaria, Heinrich Himmler , leader of the SS and head of police in Munich, investigated whether the site of an old munitions factory in Dachau could be modified to house the rapidly expanding number of political prisoners, most of them Social Democrats and Communists, arrested by the Nazis after the Reichstag Fire a few weeks earlier. These men, taken into “protective custody,” were Dachau’s first prisoners. At the beginning regular police guarded the inmates until Himmler replaced them with his own SS personnel.

Initially, Hilmar Wäckerle, one of Himmler’s longtime associates, ran the camp. In the spring of 1933, several prisoners were murdered on his watch. With the camp drawing much unwelcome scrutiny, Himmler removed Wäckerle and designated Theodor Eicke as the new commandant. Harold Marcuse, one of the leading scholars on the long history of the Dachau camp, gives this apposite description of Eicke, the one-time army paymaster:

“The 40-year-old Eicke had been a pioneering SS leader, organizing new formations of SS troops in the region near Heidelberg. By November 1931 he had become a battalion leader commanding more than 1,000 men. Himmler knew that Eicke was a fanatically dedicated Nazi and a gifted organizer, as well as a stubborn, ruthless, and brutal man.”

As commandant of Dachau in 1933-34, Eicke was relentless in both the indoctrination of his men and the demonization of inmates. The latter he always denounced as “enemies of the state.” In October 1933, he codified the guidelines for his men to follow, called “Maintenance of Discipline and Order.” Investing supreme authority to decide and dispense punishments in the camp commandant, Eicke prescribed a range of carefully regimented and administered measures, including temporary loss of mail privileges, hard labor, binding prisoners to stakes or trees (for how long varied), and ordering special, exhausting exercises. Solitary confinement, with only bread and water granted, he encouraged. Corporal punishment, whether with a whip or with the punch, slap, or kick, was ingrained into the hellish existence inmates endured during their time in Dachau.

Theodor Eicke, 1942. Credit: Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1974-160-13A. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Charles Sydnor, Jr., whose Soldiers of Destruction , still repays close reading, delineated the actions which Eicke punished with death: “political agitation, the spreading of propaganda, any acts of sabotage or mutiny, attempted escape or aid in an escape, attacking a sentry or guard tower.” Jewish prisoners, of course, suffered the most degrading treatment and Eicke and his subordinates subjected them and the entire camp population (around 2,000 in the fall of 1933) to  incessant antisemitic tirades. What must be stressed here is that Eicke insisted on rotating who bore responsibility for meting out punishment in the camp. No one evaded participation in the brutality.

Rudolf Höss, later commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau, learned much under the tutelage of Eicke at Dachau. Facing trial and likely execution in Poland for his crimes during World War II, Höss recounted a flogging he beheld in Dachau. It was Eicke’s order, Höss remembered, that at least one company of SS personnel be there when the punishment was carried out:

Two prisoners had stolen cigarettes from the canteen and were sentenced to twenty-five blows of the cane. The soldiers lined up in a U-shaped formation with their weapons. The punishment bench stood in the middle. The two prisoners were presented by the block leaders. The Kommandant put in his appearance. The camp commander and the senior company reported to him. The duty officer read the sentence and the first prisoner, a small, hardened, lazy man, had to lie down across the bench. Two soldiers from the troop held his head and hands firmly while two block leaders carried out the sentence, alternating after each blow. The prisoner didn’t utter a sound. It was different with the second one, a strong, broad-shouldered, political prisoner. After the first blow, he screamed wildly and wanted to tear himself loose. He continued screaming to the last blow, even though the Kommandant told him repeatedly to be quiet.

Höss shed more light on Eicke’s character, on his absolutely unbending conviction that “he could use only hard and determined men who would obey every order, no matter what the cost to themselves. They were not wearing the skull insignia and carrying a weapon for nothing. Eicke said that the SS were the only soldiers in peacetime facing the enemy day and night: the enemy behind the barbed wire.” This belief contributed to a perverse but all too real group ethos in the concentration-camp SS—that they were entrusted with one of the most difficult and demanding missions possible, guarding the Reich against inner subversion. Such an ethos entailed unswerving commitment to the National Socialist master-race ideology, ferocious discipline, total obedience to superiors, and the absolute willingness to utilize violence to intimidate, cow, and, when necessary, destroy adversaries.

Terror of this sort did instill, for some time, docility in the inmates. Hermann Langbein, Auschwitz survivor and historian of resistance in the Nazi camps, raised the example of Karl Röder, arrested in August 1933 and sent to Dachau. Röder recalled witnessing only two cases of resistance in the camp: “a peasant who had just arrived in Dachau struck back when his face was slapped, and he was shot on the spot. Another new arrival, a Jew, was also beaten, but instead of moaning and whining, he promptly displayed to his tormentors a decoration from World War I. That man disappeared from the camp.” Naturally, these results delighted Himmler.

In May 1934, after promoting him to SS Brigadeführer , Himmler instructed Eicke to prepare to assume duties as Inspector of Concentration Camps, a newly created position. Shortly thereafter, Eicke displayed his own total dedication to the Nazi Party by gladly following Himmler’s order to kill SA leader Ernst Röhm (after giving the latter an opportunity to commit suicide) during the Night of the Long Knives. Once his position as Inspector became official in early July 1934, Eicke’s work took him to Berlin.

There Eicke strove to make Dachau the “model” for other concentration camps. Guards at Dachau and elsewhere received pay as full-time SS employees (before this decision these men had volunteered their time) and were designated, beginning in 1936, Totenkopfverbände (Death’s Head Formations). Eicke’s efforts to centralize and coordinate the existing camps resonated with Himmler, who responded to pressure in 1934-35, from Nazi Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, to reduce the number of people in “protective custody.” 

Heinrich Himmler, Head of the SS, inspecting the Dachau concentration camp in May 1936. Credit: Bundesarchiv Bild 152-11-12, Dachau, Konzentrationslager, Besuch Himmlers. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Himmler and Eicke could rely on Hitler’s backing to keep Dachau in operation while other camps in the Berlin area, such as Oranienburg and Columbia House closed. In fact, in 1936-37, Himmler, once he consolidated control over all police forces in Germany, spearheaded a drive to increase the number of inmates by rounding up tens of thousands of Germans. Many of them were not pursued for their politics or race but for criminal acts or as “asocials” or “work-shy” individuals (the latter terms covered vagrancy, panhandling, and drug and alcohol addiction). SS and police forces confined them in Dachau, which, in turn, provided a blueprint for the new concentration camps erected at Sachsenhausen (1936), near Berlin, and Buchenwald (1937), near Weimar. Roma, gay men, and Jehovah’s Witnesses would soon become targets during this phase of expansion in the late 1930s.

As its numbers increased, Dachau physically expanded as well in 1937-38. Funding came directly out of the national budget. More than 30 wooden barracks were built, with one set aside just for anti-Nazi clergy. Due to the renovations, Hans Loritz, the sadistic camp commandant from 1936 to 1939, had recourse to a large square for roll-call. Up to 6,000 men could now be incarcerated at Dachau. The layout of the camp changed very little afterwards. As the oldest and best-known Konzentrationslager , the Nazis readily granted tours of the camp to government functionaries, teachers, and students. They reveled in their persecution of opponents as an unavoidable step for forging a new, racially and politically purified Volksgemeinschaft (national community).

Barracks of the concentration camp at Dachau, 1945. Gift of Vincent Yannetti, from the Collection of The National WWII Museum, 2008.321.230.

Kristallnacht  (Night of Broken Glass) in November 1938, prefigured an even worse future for Dachau’s inmates. In the wake of the pogroms across Germany, the Nazi regime incarcerated more than 11,000 Jews in the camp. Most of them, however, did not stay there long. In 1939, with some exceptions, they were released—with the expectation they would soon leave Germany for good. Still, this huge and rapid, if temporary, influx pointed ahead to what would take place in Dachau during World War II.

As Hitler readied Germany for war in the summer of 1939, Dachau was a fixture of a giant and abominable system of concentration camps spread throughout the entire country. Flossenbürg in northeastern Bavaria, Neuengamme, close to Hamburg, and Mauthausen, near Linz in annexed Austria, had all been established in 1938. Ravensbrück, a camp exclusively for women north of Berlin, was created the following year. After September 1939, life and death in Dachau transformed horrifically due to the Nazi dictatorship’s continent-wide war of conquest, subjugation, and extermination. Dachau in wartime is the subject of my next article.

Part 2: A Shocking Level of Brutality and Degradation: Dachau in Wartime

Wartime reshaped life and death in the Dachau concentration camp in fundamental ways.

Part 3: The Last Days of the Dachau Concentration Camp

For the last several days of its existence, before soldiers of the United States Seventh Army arrived, Dachau was a small, self-enclosed universe of decay and death.

Jason Dawsey, PhD

Jason Dawsey, PhD, is ASU WWII Studies Consultant in the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. 

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Local News | North Bay WWII vet heads to Normandy for D-Day…

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Local News | North Bay WWII vet heads to Normandy for D-Day anniversary

Dougherty — who turned 99 on Thursday — served in World War II and was a part of the liberation of the Dachau and Allach concentration camps. It will be his first time in Normandy since he landed there with an American force in the weeks following the historic Allied invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944.

“The birthday and the trip just happened to coincide,” Dougherty said. “I’ve never seen the American cemeteries and the various beaches at Omaha and the rest. Everyone I know who has been there says it is a moving experience and I expect it will be for me too.”

Dougherty, a Marin resident for nearly 40 years who now lives in Fairfield, will be joined on the trip by his son, Novato resident Phil Dougherty.

“What he endured at such a young age is humbling and impressive,” Phil Dougherty said. “He’s chronicled his experiences thoroughly over the years and is a wonderful storyteller. It will be memorable to see him connect with fellow veterans and a great privilege for me to listen in.”

The event at the American Cemetery in Normandy, France, will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Seventy American WWII veterans have been invited on the tour. President Joe Biden and France President Emmanuel Macron are expected to attend. The event also will feature a joint choir of U.S. military academies at the historic Cathedral Notre Dame Bayeux.

The honor flight group — which includes about 70 World War II veterans — departed on a donated charter from Dallas on Thursday. Sightseeing and a wreath laying event were planned for Paris over the weekend. The group is set to spend several days in Normandy beginning Tuesday. The delegation is due back in the U.S. on Saturday.

The event was organized by American Airlines and the Old Glory Honor Flight, a nonprofit based in Wisconsin.

“We’re honored to play a part in helping this group of heroic veterans return to Normandy,” said David Seymour, an Army veteran who is chief operating officer of American Airlines. “This special journey is not only an expression of our gratitude for these heroes and the sacrifices they made for our freedom, but we hope to help shine a light on their extraordinary stories and preserve their legacies for generations to come.”

The D-Day invasion, code-named Operation Neptune, involved 24,000 American, British and Canadian troops. They landed on 50-mile stretch of coast divided into the beaches of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

An estimated 4,414 Allied soldiers died as a result of the landings, which cleared the way for a foothold against the Nazis in the ensuing months before the end of the war in Europe.

Dougherty landed in Cherbourg, a region of Normandy, in September 1944.

“I was grateful I was not involved in the initial landing because the casualty rate was so high,” he said.

Dougherty was awarded the Legion of Honor by the Consul General of France in 2017. The Legion of Honor is France’s highest order of merit. He plans to wear the medal for the event.

“It feels appropriate,” Dougherty said.

Dougherty said much of his European war tour was spent in France. He said he was excited to return, especially given the conditions he experienced — what he called the “worst European winter in 40 years” in Alsace and the Vosges mountains.

“I look back and think how I ever survived that,” he said.

He also said he plans to visit the grave of his uncle, Francis Dougherty, a West Point graduate killed in action as a captain commanding a 3rd Division battalion in France. His uncle is buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France. He has visited the grave twice.

In recent years, Dougherty has been commended for his role in the liberation of the Dachau and Allach concentration camps. He visited Germany last year to provide an account of his experience.

Dougherty observed the horrors of genocide during his approximately two-day stay at the concentration camps. His recollections are sharp, with detail of the atrocities, but also of the dignity of the people who experienced them.

Dachau, the first of the Nazi concentration camps, was established near Munich in 1933. The fall of the camps came weeks before Victory in Europe Day on May 8, 1945. More than 40,000 people died in the camp.

Dougherty grew up in Austin, Minnesota, and joined the Army just after finishing high school in 1943. He was a staff sergeant and member of C Company, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Division of the 7th Army during the liberation of Dachau.

During his service, he was wounded in fighting along the German border and participated in the capture of Nuremberg. After confronting corpses and other atrocities at Dachau, Dougherty and Army soldiers liberated the Allach-Karlsfeld concentration camp.

Back in the United States after the war, Dougherty worked in the insurance industry and has been a documentarian of his wartime experiences. He has been married to his wife Norma for 72 years and has seven grandchildren.

Sean Stephens, Marin County’s veterans service officer, said there are about 10,000 veterans countywide, and about 1,100 served during World War II.

“The 80th anniversary of D-Day is an important event,” he said. “The D-Day invasion showed American might and willpower to fight, not to mention, at all costs.”

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WWII veteran Dan Dougherty received a warm welcome Thursday morning at the Sacramento International Airport.

The Fairfield resident boarded an Old Glory Honor Flight taking him to France on the same day as his 99th birthday. He'll join a group of 70 American veterans on a tour to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden are expected to attend.

Dougherty is one of the last surviving liberators of the Dachau Concentration Camp. At the airport, he was joined by Vietnam War Veteran and Medal of Honor Recipient James Allen Taylor.

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American veterans depart to be feted in France as part of 80th anniversary of D-Day

ATLANTA (AP) — Hilbert Margol says he didn’t look on himself as a hero when his U.S. Army artillery unit fought its way across Europe during World War II. But he will be feted in France as one of 60 American veterans of that conflict traveling to Normandy to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings .

“I know my brother and I never looked at it as we were any kind of heroes, nothing like that,” Margol said recently of himself and his twin brother Howard, who served with him. “It was just our time. That we were asked to serve. And we did.”

The 100-year-old Margol, who lives in suburban Atlanta, is among the dwindling band of veterans of the conflict leaving Atlanta on Sunday on a chartered flight for Deauville, Normandy. The veterans will take part in parades, school visits and ceremonies — including the official June 6 commemoration of the landings by soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations on five beaches.

Margol didn’t land at D-Day, but the Jacksonville, Florida, native was among those who liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp on April 29, 1945.

The trip also includes high school and college students selected to escort the veterans and learn about their experiences. Charter flights also took veterans from Atlanta to France in 2022 and 2023.

On Sunday, the group of 60 veterans, donning customized jackets commemorating the anniversary, arrived at the Atlanta airport to the clapping and cheering from the flight crew and the Dutchtown High School marching band from Hampton, Georgia. The veterans were then guided through the airport to their terminal in a parade headed by the marching band.

World War II veteran Jake Larson , a 101-year-old American best known on social media under the name “Papa Jake,” said he joined the national guard when he was 15 for the money and landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Reflecting back on the three years he was in Europe, Larson said he is “no hero.”

“I’m just a survivor, but I’m here to honor those people who gave their life so I can be here,” Larson said Sunday before the flight.

He also had a message to world leaders: “”Make peace not war.”

Andy Negra of Helen, Georgia came ashore with the 6th Armored Division at Utah Beach on July 18, 1944, about six weeks after D-Day. It is his second trip back to France after also taking part in last year’s flight.

“Well to me, we fought for freedom, and we fought for peace, and we fought for a good life,” Negra, a native of Avella, Pennsylvania, said in a recent interview.

The trip is being organized by Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, the Best Defense Foundation and the North American branch of French tire maker Michelin.

“It is our privilege to celebrate and honor these heroes by flying them directly to Normandy and recognizing their incredible sacrifices and contributions to the world,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a statement.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Hilbert Margol is a 100-year-old World War II veteran living in Dunwoody, Georgia

DUNWOODY, Ga. — A profile of Hilbert Margol, of Dunwoody, Georgia, one of a dwindling number of veterans took part in the Allies’ European war effort that led to the defeat of Nazi Germany.

PFC HILBERT MARGOL

BORN: Feb. 22, 1924, Jacksonville, Florida.

SERVICE: Army, Battery B, 392nd Field Artillery Battalion, 42nd Infantry Division. Was part of a unit, also including his twin brother, Howard Margol, that liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp on April 29, 1945.

“OUTLIVE THE OFFSPRING OF THE DENIERS”

Victory over Germany was in sight for the Allies on April 29, 1945, as the 42nd Infantry Division stormed toward Munich. Hilbert Margol and his twin brother Howard, now deceased, were part of an artillery convoy heading for the city on a two-lane road through the woods. As Margol remembers it, the convoy was stopped and the Howard brothers were permitted by their sergeant to investigate the source of a stench wafting over the area. After a short walk through the woods they spotted boxcars.

A human leg dangled from one of them.

“So we looked and inside the box car were all deceased bodies, just packed inside the box car,” Margol said.

The 42nd Infantry is among those credited with liberating the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau. The Margol brothers were among the first Americans to discover the lingering horrors at the camp, which was established in 1933 and became a symbol of Nazi atrocities. More than 200,000 people from across Europe were held there and over 40,000 prisoners died there in horrendous conditions.

Hilbert Margol remembers seeing “stacks of dead bodies like cordwood” once they went in the gates. “We couldn’t understand what what was going on. It was almost like a Hollywood movie set.”

The brothers had entered military life together in 1942, joining an ROTC program at the University of Florida — figuring that after Pearl Harbor they would wind up in the military at some point. They joined an Army Reserve unit later, after being told that might enable them to finish college, but they were called to active duty in 1943, Margol said,

They were separated for a while, in training for different missions. But Howard eventually was able to transfer to where his brother was serving with an artillery unit in Oklahoma. Eventually, they deployed to Europe in the aftermath of D-Day.

After seeing combat, death and destruction, Margol came home to find success in business.

“One of the promises I made to myself in combat, that if I was fortunate enough to make it back home, I was going to buy every creature comfort that I could afford,” Margol told the AP.

But success and comfort weren’t the only things driving him. He has spoken at programs about the Holocaust, noting what was found at Dachau.

“I hope and pray that everyone who hears my voice, and their offspring, outlive the offspring of the deniers that say the Holocaust never happened.”

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Home | Historical Site | The Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, 1945 – today

April 1945 – June 1945

The camp grounds are used to house former prisoners who are sick and unable to return to their onetime homeland or are waiting to be repatriated. The U.S. government provides them with food and medicine.

U.S. soldiers look after former prisoners suffering from typhus, April/May 1945 (USHMM)

July 1945 – summer 1948

The U.S. military uses the former SS camp and the former prisoners’ camp for the internment of Nazi party officials and members of the SS. The Dachau Trials take place on the grounds of the former SS camp; 489 trials are held, hearing 672 indictments, before American military courts.

Courtroom during the Dachau Trials, December 1945 (USHMM)

The U.S. military authority returns the grounds of the former prisoners’ camp to the Bavarian state. A reception camp for expelled Germans is built that is later called the “Dachau East residential estate”.

Children playing in the Dachau East residential estate, 1963 (Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site)

The International Camp Committee reforms as the Comité International de Dachau (CID). A supplementary agreement to the Paris Treaties places the graves of victims of the Nazi regime under special protection. This prevents the planned imminent demolishing of the former crematorium from going ahead.

An advisory board, comprising representatives from public institutions and associations whose members almost entirely come from the circle of former victims, joins the CID in demanding the creation of a memorial site.

Johannes Neuhäusler, auxiliary bishop of Munich, has the Mortal Agony of Christ Chapel built on the grounds of the former prisoners’ camp; the chapel is consecrated during the Eucharistic World Congress with 50,000 persons in attendance.

Consecration of the Mortal Agony of Christ Chapel, August 5 1960 (Luftbildverlag Bertram)

The CID and the Bavarian state government agree to create a memorial site on the grounds of the former prisoners’ camp. Demolition work on the barracks – dilapidated and greatly altered by the various uses since 1945 – commences and two replicas are built. In addition, it is planned to repair the walls and guard towers.

Demolition of the barracks, November 2 1964 (Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site)

Johannes Neuhäusler consecrates the Carmelite Precious Blood of Christ Chapel on November 22 1964.

Consecration of the convent church by Johannes Neuhäusler (center), November 22 1964 (archives Karmel Dachau)

On May 9 1965 the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, which includes a new documentary exhibition, is opened.

Address given at the opening of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, May 9 1965 (CID)

The Bavarian Regional Bishop Hermann Dietzfelbinger consecrates the Protestant Church of Reconciliation on April 30 1967. The Jewish memorial is consecrated by Rabbi David Spiro on May 7 1967.

In front of the entrance to the Church of Reconciliation the architect Helmut Striffler hands over the key to Bishop Kurt Scharf (center), chairman of the Council of Evangelical Churches in Germany. (Keystone)

Rabbi David Spiro (center) recites prayers for the dead at the consecration of the Jewish memorial, May 7 1967 (dpa)

On September 8 1968 the International Monument by Nandor Glid is unveiled. The sculptor, persecuted in his homeland Yugoslavia by the Nazis because of his Jewish background, had won an artists’ competition held by the CID.

Consecration of the International Monument by former prisoners, September 8 1968 (Danile Gordana and Gabriel Glid)

The Memorial Site develops more and more into a place of political and civic education. “Forgotten” victim groups – such as Sinti and Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals – make their voices heard. In the spring of 1980 a group of Sinti and Roma go on a hunger strike to demonstrate against ongoing discrimination.

Public interest in the fate of the victims and the work of the Memorial Site increases steadily with the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. A scholarly advisory board is given the task to elaborate a new concept for the Memorial Site. On April 29 1995, the metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, Nikolai Kutepov, consecrates the Russian Orthodox chapel.

A section of the new exhibition is opened in the former camp prison/the “bunker”.

On May 2 2003 the new main exhibition, located in the former maintenance building, is opened. The exhibition follows the leitmotif of the “path of the prisoners”.

The Culture Minister Hans Zehetmair (l.) with the survivor Hans Taschner (r.) at the opening of the main exhibition of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, May 2 2003 (Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site)

To mark the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, the entrance to the Memorial Site is adapted to fit the actual historical circumstances. Visitors can now enter the grounds through the Jourhaus, the entrance gate to the onetime prisoners’ camp.

The new Visitors’ Center is opened on April 29 2009.

Foundation director Karl Freller, Rachel Salamander, owner of the Literaturhandlung bookstore, Minister President Horst Seehofer and Karin Seehofer at the opening of the new Visitors’ Center (from left to right), April 29 2009 (Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site)

On the night of November 1-2 2014, unknown persons steal the historical postern with the inscription “Arbeit macht frei” (“work sets you free”) from the Jourhaus gate. It is replaced by a replica the following year.

Press briefing on the theft of the gate with Dr Gabriele Hammermann, director of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, police director Thomas Rauscher, head of the Dachau police branch, and Dr Ludwig Spaenle, Culture Minister (from left to right), November 2014 (Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site)

On the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, around 130 former prisoners and liberators, accompanied by their families, take part in the commemorative ceremonies. The Federal Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel thanks the survivors for their involvement in education programs as contemporary witnesses and commemorates the dead of the Dachau concentration camp.

Dr Angela Merkel with the survivor Max Mannheimer (Sebastian Freller)

On February 22 2017, the stolen gate with the inscription “Arbeit macht frei” returns to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. The gate was found in a carpark in the Norwegian city of Bergen. It is being restored and will be presented in a display case as part of the main exhibition.

Press briefing on the return of the gate with the CID president Jean Michel Thomas, Foundation director Karl Freller, and Culture Minister Dr Ludwig Spaenle (from left to right), February 22 2017 (Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site)