preview

Dachau: The Temporal Concentration Camp In Germany

Decent Essays
Open Document

While sobering, during the beginning years of the Sondergerichte courts they “had a strong deterrent effect” on forms of opposition within the growing Reich. Though the German government worked to create facets of government for the purpose of lessening protest, that did not mean that the creation of labor, concentration and extermination camps were not also considered necessary.
As such, the Nazis in March of 1933, prepared to accommodate 5,000 Communists, Social Democratic lackeys and any person who was seen as a threat and established Dachau, the first camp in Germany. While the inaugural concentration camp within German borders, Dachau was also the first camp founded by the National Socialist Workers' Party, known as the Nazi Party, and the Nationalist People's Party which was dissolved on July 6, 1933. Heinrich Himmler, who at that point was only the Chief of Police in the city of Munich, described …show more content…

A systematic sweep across Germany gathered members from virtually every community with media sources endlessly reporting "the removal of the enemies of the Reich to concentration camps". This continued to foster fear and apprehension among the general population. As early as 1934 and 1935, media outlets were spreading jingles saying, "Dear God, make me dumb, that I may not come to Dachau." Only a portion of those held or killed in camps created by the Nazi regime where there for politically related reasons. Approximately 3.5 million Germans were held against their will in concentration camps and prisons alike, between 1933 and Germany’s defeat in 1945. An additional 80,000 German citizens were killed for their resistance to the new Nazi government, even after having served in the military,

Get Access