Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial

Memorial Site On The Grounds Of The First Nazi Concentration Camp, Opened 1933 And The Model For Those That Followed; The Memorial Was Established In 1965 And Entry Is Free · Dachau, Bavaria

Dachau, about 20 km north-west of central Munich, was the first Nazi concentration camp. It opened in March 1933, within weeks of Hitler taking power, and became the model and the training ground for the camps that followed. Over twelve years roughly 200,000 people from across Europe were imprisoned here - political opponents first, then Jews, Roma, Sinti, clergy, Soviet prisoners of war, homosexual men and many others - and tens of thousands died of starvation, disease, forced labour, medical experiments and murder. American troops reached the camp on 29 April 1945. Survivors campaigned for the ground to be kept rather than cleared, and the memorial was established in 1965. It is a cemetery as much as an exhibition: the gatehouse, the camp road, the barrack foundations, the prison bunker, the crematorium area and the religious memorials all stand where people died, and human ashes are buried here. Entry is free. This is not a sight to fit into a sightseeing day, and the exhibition alone is long and demanding; most people need two and a half to three hours.

Alte Roemerstrasse 75, Dachau, about 20 km north-west of central Munich, Dachau, Bavaria, Germany

Open daily all year, usually from about 9 am to 5 pm, including most public holidays, which is unusual for a German institution - confirm the current times and whether it closes on 24 December. There is no ticket and no admission charge. The audio-guide desk, the bookshop and the cafe at the visitor centre keep shorter hours than the grounds and stop lending roughly an hour before closing, and the last showing of the documentary film in the exhibition building is well before the gate shuts. Public guided tours in German and English run daily at fixed times; groups must book ahead. Allow two and a half to three hours inside, and note that the grounds begin closing before the published time.

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