Video: 'Dachau Concentration Camp'

(Wednesday, March 22, 1933) — Dachau, the first concentration camp built by Nazi Germany, opened today as four police trucks brought in 200 inmates from the Stadelheim Prison and Landsberg Prison.

The camp, built around a former munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany, was initially intended to intern Hitler’s political opponents which consisted of communists, social democrats, and other dissidents.

Video: 'Dachau Concentration Camp'

After its opening by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and, eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, Romani, German and Austrian criminals, and, finally, foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded.

The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria.

The main camp was liberated during World War II by U.S. forces on Apr. 29, 1945.