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Dachau liberation reprisals

1945 in GermanyAC with 0 elementsDachau concentration campExtrajudicial killings in World War IIMass murder in 1945
Massacres committed by the United StatesMassacres in 1945Massacres in GermanyMilitary history of the United States during World War IIMurder in BavariaUse American English from April 2020Use mdy dates from April 2020World War II prisoner of war massacres by the United States
Dachau execution coalyard 1945 04 29
Dachau execution coalyard 1945 04 29

During the Dachau liberation reprisals, German SS troops were killed by U.S. soldiers and concentration camp internees at the Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945, during World War II. It is unclear how many SS men were killed in the incident, but most estimates place the number killed at around 35–50. In the days before the camp's liberation, SS guards at the camp had forced 7,000 inmates on a death march that resulted in the death of many from exposure and shooting. When Allied soldiers liberated Dachau, they were variously shocked, horrified, disturbed, and angered at finding the massed corpses of internees, and by the combativeness of some of the remaining guards who allegedly fired on them.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Dachau liberation reprisals (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Dachau liberation reprisals

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N 48.272055555556 ° E 11.458305555556 °
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85221
Bavaria, Germany
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Dachau execution coalyard 1945 04 29
Dachau execution coalyard 1945 04 29
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Dachau concentration camp
Dachau concentration camp

Dachau () was the first concentration camp built by Nazi Germany, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents which consisted of: communists, social democrats, and other dissidents. It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. After its opening by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and, eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, Romani, German and Austrian criminals, and, finally, foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded. The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria. The main camp was liberated by U.S. forces on 29 April 1945. Prisoners lived in constant fear of brutal treatment and terror detention including standing cells, floggings, the so-called tree or pole hanging, and standing at attention for extremely long periods. There were 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands that are undocumented. Approximately 10,000 of the 30,000 prisoners were sick at the time of liberation.In the postwar years, the Dachau facility served to hold SS soldiers awaiting trial. After 1948, it held ethnic Germans who had been expelled from eastern Europe and were awaiting resettlement, and also was used for a time as a United States military base during the occupation. It was finally closed in 1960. There are several religious memorials within the Memorial Site, which is open to the public.