| Jourhaus was the name of the entrance building to the prisoners’ camp at Dachau Konzentrationslager (KZ, “Concentration Camp”). It housed administrative and command offices and was the location for disciplinary hearings of prisoners. The Jourhaus was the only access to the new prisoners’ camp. New prisoners came through here for the registration process. The Nazi press was allowed to visit Dachau till 1938 and often described the door with the words, “Arbeit macht frei.” The Dachau Jourhaus was the only entrance from the Schutzstaffel (SS) grounds to the prisoner’s area. The Jourhaus was the entrance and exit of the prisoner camp, which the SS officially called the “protective custody camp.” Located in the Jourhaus were the duty rooms of the camp SS and the staff of the political department. Prisoners were forced to construct the building in 1936 as part of the rebuilding of the camp. The Jourhaus had guard rooms from which the entrance was guarded. Other rooms were used for camp administration, such as the camp Gestapo, the commandant’s offices and a room for Funktionshäftlinge (“prisoner functionary”) use. At night, the guards were in the towers and in the Jourhaus. Installed and controlled by the SS, and hence dependent on them, the “prisoner functionaries” assumed a series of guard, supervisory, and administrative tasks. These prisoners were forced to carry out the orders issued by the SS, even if these orders threatened the health or life of their fellow prisoners – otherwise they could expect to be punished. Many of them used and abused their position to protect, abuse, and control their fellow prisoners. Deploying prisoner functionaries was an instrument of the SS to control Dachau with less SS officers and men – the prisoners policed themselves at the threat of death. The prisoners who worked at the crematorium had to pass through the Jourhaus to bring the dead from the prisoners’ area to the crematorium, which was in the SS area. When Dachau was liberated on April 29, 1945, American troops 1st entered the SS area. They entered the Jourhaus and fired at it. “Jourhaus” is a military term. “Jour” is French for “day.” Hence, the Jourhaus was where the officer of the day and his staff were stationed. From here, they organized the prisoner work details, controlled the barracks, wrote applications for imposing punishments, and arranged the guarding of the prisoners. From the perspective of their prisoners, the Jourhaus was the center of SS power. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0594.jpg |
| Image Size | 362.50 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1582 x 1298 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 1, 1949 |
| Location | Konzentrationslager Dachau |
| City | Dachau |
| State or Province | Bavaria |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database