A Day in Dachau
"Arbeit Macht Frei"
Background
- Dachau was known as "Auschwitz 2"
- Established in 1933 as a concentration camp not a death camp
- All political prisoners or people who were arrested for their beliefs, were kept here
- It was only until after WW2 began when life became unbelievably hard for the Jews
- Two sections: Camp area and Crematoria
Overview
"Work sets you free" is the quote on the gate above. The difference between a concentration camp and a death camp was that the prisoners were either going to work to death in the concentration camps or sent away to the gas chambers in the death camps. Workers were given little to nothing to eat and worked until they starved or froze to death. A man named Max Mannheimer was sent to Dachau at age 29 in August, 1944. Mr. Mannheimer weighed just 103 pounds and suffered from Typhus. He was only there for nine months but it was enough to cause him damage.