The Dachau Concentration Camp 1933 to 1945

by Barbara Distel

Softcover book is the history of the Dachau concentration camp. Many illustrations, some disturbing.

Genres: History, Holocaust, Nonfiction, War, Germany, World War II, Biography

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like another reviewer said, this is very well put together. I don't think many people would really be interested in this specific book unless they already had an intense, a very intense, interest in the Holocaust in general. Readers who devour anything on the subject and/or who are interested in actual pictures, posters, decrees, etc. from the time period will get the most from this I think.
I'm extremely thrilled to own this and it won't be leaving my collection. I was amazed at most of the posters, the wording in the posters and other documents, and with hindsight just that these were actually looked up as they were.
There are some pretty graphic pictures and even the pictures that maybe can't be called "graphic" are still brutal because one knows what was going on. When I first opened the book I flipped right to a page with a picture of an empty gas chamber room and it was such a harsh shock I started crying, something unlike me to say the least. For days I imagined that one room and the people whose lives ended there.
In the front of the book there is a "map" of the death camps and concentration camps in relation to cities which is helpful because it contains some of the lesser known camps along with the ones we've all heard of.
I hope to visit Dachau along with some others in the next year or two. After all of the reading I've done and after all the reading I still will do, it's something I want to do very much.

[Josiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book at Dachau some years ago. It is very good resource on not just Dachau, but the whole concentration camp system. It is not only educational, but emotional. Individual stories and photos are included.

[booklady]

Bought this book at Dachau in 1985 when we visited. I can't give it a rating although it contains a history of concentration camps in general and Dachau specifically, including many photographs, letters, documentation throughout the camp's twelve year existence.

Concentration camp Dachau, 1933-1945 is well put together. Dachau was one of the most awful trips I'm glad I made. I'll never forget it. I don't think my husband and I said twenty words to each other during the entire two hours we spent there. The place had a feeling. The book does too. I've used it many times as a primary reference but I don't like it very much because it reminds me of the place.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought when I was at the camp. Sobering, chilling, horror, there are no words adequate to describe this.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the letters and translated documents in this book are painful to read. The lack of humanity and kindness shocks the reader.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve had this book for 30 years and I’ve never had the guts to sit down and read it. I came across it buried in a box and finally read it cover to cover. It’s short, but well put together. It’s a collection of documents and images that walks one through the horrors surrounding the concentration camps. Like the proverbial frog that ends up getting boiled by the heat being gradually turned up, it does a good job showing how fringe ideas become fact. The suggestions of using prisoners for softball experiments morphed into deliberate death by experimentation, where you actually read that one person tried to intentionally kill a prisoner with three torturous experiments. I still have a brochure in the book from when I went to dachau that asks visitors to hold the city of Dachau equally responsible for the horrors that transpired at the camp- not more, not less. Even the small transcription errors where an und and an odor is mixed in with the English makes the information a little more personal.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains the text and pictures currently exhibited at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. It explains the three periods of the camp, its liberation, aftermath, and the development of turning camp into a memorial. The memorial site was created from the prospective of the prisoners, not the captors. Each chapter is organized by topic, and each topic contains an introductory essay, assorted pictures, each with short captions. They offer a brief, yet intimate history of the camp. In all, this is very sobering read.

[4EVER2Binluv · Rating 5 out of 5]

To read the text and see the pictures makes the horrors of what occurred more disturbing and real. This book will definitely stick with me.

[Bruce Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graphic depictions of horrific conditions in Dachau concentration camp, with a lot of historical data leading up to its use. Not well organized, but important nonetheless.

[Trisha Wojcik · Rating 4 out of 5]

How does one review a book about and bought at the Dachau Concentration Camp? Very well put together to tell the whole history of the site.

[MQR · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably won't ever get to visit these sites, but reading this would be about the same. So many detailed and distinct things in this book.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an instructional book that was available for purchase at the Dachau Museum in Bavaria in the 1980s. According to a note in my edition, it was available for $6, which is a good price for 228 pages including many well-reproduced black and white photos. The binding wasn’t especially good, and my copy is beginning to come apart, but that wasn’t unusual for mass market books at the time. It includes a brief, largely un-controversial Historical Background on the Third Reich and the Concentration Camp system, and sections on many aspects of camp life and administration. A final section covers “Extermination.” It makes the case that the gas chamber at Dachau was never used, but that during the extermination program, prisoners were transferred to the East for “handling.” Apart from that, there are thousands of documented deaths at Dachau which resulted from individual and mass executions, overwork, starvation, disease, and medical experiments. The final section covers end of the war the liberation of the camp, through the trials of Dachau guards and administrators.

In all, this is a pretty nicely-done book, for a museum guide. It doesn’t get into contemporary historical debates or add a lot to what you could find in more readily-accessible sources, but it does include a lot of good photographs that would be hard to find anywhere else. Possibly of interest to some will be the many Dachau-related documents that are reproduced and translated, although these seem to have been chosen and arranged somewhat haphazardly. For example on page 138 in the section on “Exploitation of Prisoners” we find a document concerning the extraction and delivery of prisoners’ gold teeth right next to a document requesting the purchase of alarm clocks for camp guards (?). Still, for people who have never seen an archives, this will give a sense of what historians have to deal with, on a rather smaller scale.

[Shawn Fairweather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this as a gift from my sister in law who visited Dachau on a recent trip to Germany, I must say I am happy to include this into my WWII book collection. I have yet to check out the CD-ROM which is included with this text so I am not sure what contains exactly. What we have here is a look back at various documents and photos of the Dachau camp and sub-camp system from its inception to its turnover to American forces. For the most part the photos and documents including SS propaganda are standard however when used for conducting research this text would be a very powerful source to refer to. Each photo contains detailed captions and explanations of its content and there are plenty of them. The text also includes approximately 5-6 essays written by Dachau survivors which portray a timeline history of the camp. Unfortunately there isn't any scholastic reading or substance other than that which I was a bit disappointed in. For American readers, this was written in English, however in many regards it was written from European English or Translated into English so there are some minor grammar flaws to it, but nothing detrimental by any stretch. I am curious to know as I am aware that any item that has subject matter on WWII and especially Nazism and the Holocaust are somewhat regulated in Europe and especially in Germany so I do wonder if that had any affect on this books content. Either way, very interesting read.

[⚔️Kelanth⚔️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libricino, comperato durante la visita al campo di concentramento di Dachau, vicino a Monaco, usato come guida sul posto e riletto una volta arrivato a casa più approfonditamente.

Ripercorre la storia di questo luogo di immenso dolore e atrocità inenarrabili, attraverso anche l'ausilio di foto e illustrazioni.

Un libro che ha fissato indelebilmente nella mia testa, il ricordo di quella visita e ogni volta che l'occhio cade in quella parte della libreria, rabbrividisco.

Come monumento del ricordo, come ammonimento a ciò che non deve più accadere.

[John P · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book when I went to Dachau last time I went to Germany. I never realized that Dachau was a suburb of Munich and this was at thier backdoor so to speak. There is a neighborhood right across the street from this place, amazing. The book has many pictures of documents that are translated into english, very interesting to read. Quite a painful place to visit.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a book one can write that they "liked" but it is one record and testament to the Holocaust with a collection of photographs and documents that are an excellent place to start research on this camp and the Holocaust. It's made up mostly of primary documents (with accopanying translations) and photographs.

[Efrain Guzman-Rosario · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this during my Junior High School years

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purchased at the camp on my second visit.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very clinical overview of the history and operation of the camp at Dachau. I bought my copy at the camp. It's about what you'd expect in terms of emotional impact.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is painful to review and movingly essential so that we do not repeat this history.

[Alicea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very interesting but at the same time I was horrified of things that went on and happend to people. Some of the faces from the pics say it all

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

A powerful book. Worth reading.

[Jerilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book when I visted Dachau in September 2013. The book is an excellent companion to having been to see the site and the memorial there at Dachau.

[Belle Meade School]

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