Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.

The Dachau Concentration Camp, established in March 1933, was the first regular concentration camp set up by the Nazi regime in Germany. Located near the town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich, it initially served as a detention center for political opponents like Communists, Social Democrats, and trade unionists. However, as Nazi policies radicalized, Dachau evolved into a prototype and training center for the broader camp system across Europe, eventually imprisoning Jews, Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other groups deemed “undesirable.” Conditions in the camp were brutal—prisoners endured forced labor, inhumane medical experiments, malnutrition, psychological torture, and systematic violence. By the time Dachau was liberated by American forces on April 29, 1945, it had become a symbol of Nazi cruelty, with an estimated 41,500 deaths recorded among the tens of thousands who passed through its gates. Today, Dachau remains a memorial site, serving as a solemn reminder of the atrocities of the Holocaust and the consequences of unchecked hatred and authoritarianism.