Dachau Concentration Camp
Teacher version
Task 1: What do you know about the Holocaust? Share your ideas with a partner.
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Task 2: Complete the transcript with information from the audio clip about Dachau.
Source: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_nm.php?MediaId=7825
1. The Dachau concentration camp was established in 1933 and operated until the end of the war in 1945. It was
one of the first concentration camps of the Nazi regime and it is estimated that at least 188,000 prisoners
were held there between 1933 and 1945. The SS, the elite guard of the Nazi Party, established the Dachau
concentration camp in March 1933, on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the town of
Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich in southern Germany.
2. Initially, the SS held primarily German Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, and other political
opponents of the Nazi regime at Dachau. Over time, other groups were held there also, such as Jehovah's
Witnesses, Roma (Gypsies), and homosexuals. In the immediate aftermath of Kristallnacht in November,
1938, more than 10,000 Jewish men were imprisoned at Dachau.
3. In early 1937, the SS initiated construction of a large complex of buildings on the grounds of the original
camp. Under terrible conditions, prisoners were forced to do this work, starting with the destruction of the
old munitions factory.
4. The Dachau camp was a training centre for SS guards, and the camp's organization and routine became the
model for all Nazi concentration camps. The camp was divided into two sections --the camp area and the
crematorium area. The camp area consisted of 32 barracks and a group of support buildings. The courtyard
between the prison and the central kitchen was used for the summary execution of prisoners. An electrified
barbed-wire fence, a ditch, and a wall with seven guard towers surrounded the camp.
5. Several thousand Dachau prisoners who were judged too weak to continue working were sent to the
Hartheim "euthanasia" killing centre near Linz, Austria, where they were killed. In Dachau, SS physicians
performed medical experiments on hundreds of prisoners, who died or were permanently disabled as a
result.
6. Dachau prisoners were also used as forced labourers to build roads, work in gravel pits, and drain marshes. In
the summer and fall of 1944, to increase war production, more than 30 large subcamps under the
administration of Dachau were established near armaments factories throughout southern Germany.
Thousands of prisoners were worked to death. As Allied forces advanced toward Germany, transports from
evacuated camps arrived continuously at Dachau. Typhus epidemics were a serious problem due to
overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions.
7. In April 1945, as American forces approached, there were more than 65,000 registered prisoners in Dachau
and its subcamps, about two-thirds of them political prisoners and one-third Jews. The Germans forced more
than 7,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, on a death march from Dachau to Tegernsee far to the south. During the
march, SS guards shot anyone who could no longer continue; many also died of hunger, cold, or exhaustion.
8. On April 29, 1945, American forces liberated Dachau. They found more than 30 railroad cars filled with
decomposed bodies, as well as corpses laying unburied around the camp and many sick prisoners. The
number of prisoners incarcerated in Dachau between 1933 and 1945 exceeded 188,000. It is unlikely that the
total number of victims who died in Dachau will ever be known.
Task 3: Find words or phrases in the text that correspond to the following meanings.
a type of prison where political prisoners, etc. are kept in extremely bad conditions (para 1): concentration camp
members of organisations responsible to protect the interest of workers (para 2): trade unionists
members of a religious organization based on Christianity, which believes that the end of the world is near and
that only good people will come back to life and live peacefully forever (para 2): Jehovah's Witnesses
a race of people, originally from Asia, who traditionally travel around and live in caravans (para 2): Roma
an incident that occurred in Germany on November 1938, when the Nazis attacked Jewish synagogues, homes,
schools and businesses (para 2): Kristallnacht
large ugly buildings in a camp (para 4): barracks
the practice of painless killing (without pain) a person who is suffering from a disease that cannot be cured
(para 5): euthanasia
the group of countries that fought together against Germany, Italy and Japan (the Axis powers) in World War II
(para 6): Allied forces
Task 4: Answer these questions according to the transcript about Dachau.
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When was the camp established and by whom? In 1933, by the SS
Which big German city is located at about 10 miles from Dachau? Munich
Who were the people held at Dachau? Nazi opponents, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma, homosexuals and Jews
In 1937, who did the expansion works at the camp? Prisoners of the camp
Name the two sections making up the whole camp. The camping area and the crematorium
What security arrangements were put in place at the camp? Electrified fencing, a ditch and guard towers
Give 3 examples of atrocities carried out on the prisoners. Euthanasia, forced labour, medical experiments
What caused epidemics at the camp? Overcrowding and poor sanitation
In April 1945, how were prisoners taken from Dachau to Tegernsee? By a death march
Who liberated the camp and what did they find there? American forces. Countless corpses and sick prisoners
Task 5: Look up the following set of Holocaust terminology and explain each term in your own words.
Communism:
Fascism:
Nazism:
Aryan master race:
scientific racism:
Nazi eugenics:
Final Solution:
Action T4:
ghettos:
concentration camps:
death camps:
extermination:
genocide:
gas chamber:
collaborator:
enemy of the state:
Holocaust deniers:
Nuremberg trials: