Never before seen photographs show the liberation of Dachau, the first of the Nazis' concentration camps
By Sam Webb and Daniel Miller
Mail Online
PUBLISHED: 03:04 EST, 26 March 2013
UPDATED: 11:49 EST, 26 March 2013
Confused, exhausted and vulnerable, they may have somehow survived and are about to be free, but these chilling colour photographs show that for victims of the Nazis' concentration camps there seemed little to celebrate as the Allies arrived.
The never before seen images show the liberation of Dachau, the first of the thousands of concentration camps that sprang up across Germany after the Nazis swept into power.
Established in March 1933, just two months after Hitler became Chancellor, Dachau was built to house political prisoners and by the end of the year around 4,800 mainly communists, social democrats and union officials, had been incarcerated there.
Over the years that followed, the number of inmates was swelled as other 'undesirables', such as homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gypsies, criminals and of course Jews were sent there.
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| Persecuted: These colour photos show the liberation of Dachau. The first of the thousands of concentration camps that sprang up across Germany after the Nazis rose to power |
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| 'Undesirables': When Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1933 he quickly incarcerated those he saw as a threat. As his power grew, so did the number of concentration camps, reaching 40,000 by the end of the war |
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| Shock and disbelief: Prisoners are seen milling around the grounds of Dachau after its liberation by American forces on April 29, 1945 |
Dachau would become the prototype for the thousands of concentration camps that sprang up across Germany during the Nazi era. The camp layout and daily routine was widely copied. It was also a training centre for SS concentration camp guards.
Dachau was liberated by American troops on April 29, 1945. By that time over 200,000 people from all over Europe had been imprisoned there. An estimated 41,500 of these were murdered.
The new pictures were posted on the Vintage Everyday website, but little was known about when and where they were taken.
However after comparing the photographs with existing records, an expert was able to confirm the pictures were of Dachau.
He said: 'The prisoners appear quite relaxed and unregimented, as if they are just hanging about.
'French and Yugoslav flags can also be seen and it is highly unlikely the Nazis would have adorned their camp with the flags of other nations.
'Some of the men are wearing caps with stars on them, suggesting they are from Russia there are red and white badges for Poles.
'The pictures appear to be quite similar to others taken by the US forces who liberated the camp.'
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| Dachau would become the prototype for the thousands of concentration camps that sprang up across Germany during the Nazi era. The camp layout and daily routine was widely copied. It was also a training centre for SS concentration camp guards. |
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| Some of the men are in uniform and those that aren't appear bedraggled and unkempt |
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| This image shows an exhausted prisoner asleep against a wall. The camps were a vital terror tool wielded by the SS and SA |
In Berlin itself, the Columbia Haus facility held prisoners under investigation by the Gestapo (the German secret state police) until 1936.
The first concentration camps were set up in early 1933 and their numbers expanded rapidly after the Reichstag Fire.
In 1934 Hitler authorised SS leader, Heinrich Himmler, to formalise the administration of the concentration camps into a system.
Himmler chose SS Lieutenant General Theodor Eicke for this task as he had been the commandant of the SS concentration camp at Dachau since June 1933. Himmler appointed him Inspector of Concentration Camps, a new section of the SS.
While Dachau was not an extermination camp, such as Auschwitz, Treblinka or Sobibor - prisoners were still forced to live under the most appalling conditions and would face the prospect of death on a daily basis.
The expert added: 'One should not get the impression these were not as bad as the extermination camps. Hundreds of thousands of people died inside concentration camps.
'The prison guards could kill anybody they wanted. If they felt like it they would shoot you on sight. Inmates faced the imminent possibility of dying at any minute.
'Although people were shipped in to work they were still completely expendable.'
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| German authorities established camps all over Germany to handle the masses of people arrested as alleged subversives |
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| Rations: Bread is doled out among the prisoners. Starvation was itself a weapon used on the inmates |
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| SS Lieutenant General Theodor Eicke was appointed to oversee the Concentration Camps by Himmler in 1933 |
Among his early trainees at Dachau was Rudolf Höss, who later commanded the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp. It is not known who took the pictures, which offer a candid and insightful look at the murderous system's earliest victims.
A system of triangle badges was used to identify the inmates. Political prisoners wore a red triangle, criminals green, homosexuals pink and Jehovah’s Witnesses purple. Jewish prisoners were forced to wear an additional yellow Star of David under their classification triangle.
By the time the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, unleashing World War II, there were six concentration camps in the so-called Greater German Reich: Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Flossenbürg, Mauthausen in Austria and Ravensbrück, the women's camp.
As the war raged the concentration camps increasingly became sites where the SS authorities could kill targeted groups of real or perceived enemies of Nazi Germany.
They also came to serve as holding centers for a growing pool of forced laborers deployed on construction projects, industrial sites, and, by 1942, in the production of armaments and weapons for the German war effort.
German authorities established camps all over Germany to handle the masses of people arrested as alleged subversives
Between 1939 and 1942 the Nazis were rounding up more and more prisoners in the camps, including those they deemed racially inferior, such as Roma gypsies and Jews.
Constructed gas chambers to efficiently murder people at several of the concentration camps. Gas chambers were constructed at Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz, and other camps. A gas chamber was constructed later at Dachau, but never used.
By the close of the Second World War there was a network of over 40,000 facilities in Germany and German-occupied territory.
An estimated six million Jews and millions more Poles, Russian soldiers, gypsies, homosexuals and other 'undesirables' lost their lives in the camps.
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| Merciless: The dead are loaded onto a train for disposal |
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| Spartan: The austere accommodation the prisoners were forced to live in can be seen on the right, while the barbed wire fence can be seen on the left |
WATCH VIDEO: Colour footage shows the liberation of Dachau concentration camp
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