| Original Caption: “Prisoners look out from behind a barbed wire enclosure at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, shortly after the camp was liberated on April 29, 1945.” Survivors look out the barbed wire covered windows of barracks in the newly liberated Dachau concentration camp. As part of the expansions made to the camp in 1937/38, the Schutzstaffel (SS) had a complex of 34 barracks built; comprised of 4 administrative/supply and 30 accommodation barracks. Each of the prisoner barracks, also known as “blocks” in the language of the camp, was divided into 4 “rooms.” Each of these “rooms” was in turn made up of day quarters furnished with tables, stools, and lockers, as well as sleeping quarters with wooden bunk beds. The prisoners were defenseless against the brutal despotism of the SS block leaders who bullied them with strict and minute regulations on the cleanliness of the floors, how things were to be arranged in the lockers, or how the beds were to be made. Even the slightest of deviations from the draconian standards was severely punished. Each of the accommodation barracks was designed to hold 200 persons; towards the end of the war, the barracks were full to overflowing, however, with up to 2,000 prisoners crammed into a barrack. Located in the 1st barrack on the left of the camp road were the canteen, the camp orderly room, the library, and the SS museum, as well as instruction rooms for the prisoner personnel. On the right of the camp road was the sickbay, which was continually extended to include more barracks given the disastrous state of the prisoners’ health. Behind the sickbay were the punishment blocks and quarantine barracks for the newly arrived prisoners. The so-called camp road formed the main axis of the camp; it still runs from the former roll call square in a northward direction towards the “Mortal Agony of Christ” chapel. The 34 barracks were located on the right and left of the camp road. The concentration camp was initially planned to hold 6,000 prisoners, but was continually overcrowded in later years. In particular from 1944 onwards the situation confronting the prisoners was an utter disaster; the interiors of the barracks were altered to jam in as many persons as possible. Living conditions worsened drastically, with disease and hunger rife. On April 29, 1945, the day the camp was liberated by American troops; by then, over 30,000 completely enfeebled persons were imprisoned at Dachau. The barracks complex was demolished in 1964/65. The 2 structures today located where the former camp road began are replicas erected in 1965. The reconstructed barrack on the eastern side features an exhibition on the accommodation and living conditions of the prisoners. Concrete foundations cast in 1965 mark the positions of the other 32 barracks. The barrack on the right-hand side houses a small exhibition featuring a reconstruction of how the interior was arranged in 1933-34, 1937-38, and 1944-45. The position of these barracks is marked by the concrete contours laid out retrospectively, while the 2 barracks at the beginning of the camp road were reconstructed as part of the Memorial Site. Still recognizable today, the ground plan of the camp with its symmetrical arrangement and allocation of functions was implemented in almost all concentration camps. The current appearance of the area fails to convey the sense of confinement and density of the original barracks complex. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0593.jpg |
| Image Size | 547.88 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2000 x 1913 |
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| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | May 1, 1945 |
| Location | Konzentrationslager Dachau |
| City | Dachau |
| State or Province | Bavaria |
| Country | Germany |
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| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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