As the Second World War came to an end, the Allies came across a number of concentration camps that had been established, and within the barbed wire fences, the true horrors of the Third Reich were uncovered.
Because of this, a number of war crimes trials were held after the conflict to bring the perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice.
One of the largest concentration camps and one of the most infamous was Dachau, which opened in 1933.
The prisoners of Dachau lived in constant fear of their imminent deaths, with executions being common.
Torture and also other barbaric practices occurred at the camp to strike fear into the hearts of those inmates.
When it was liberated, the sights of Dachau shocked many of the liberators, and after the war, the Dachau trials took place to bring those responsible for the estimated forty thousand deaths to justice.
Dachau was first opened on the 22nd of March 1933 and acted as a prototype camp within Germany.
It was used firstly to hold prisoners, but as the persecution of the Jews continued and became more severe, many other prisoners found themselves inside of Dachau.
It was firstly opened by Heinrich Himmler and was established as a place of forced labour.
Over its time, it grew to become a huge camp, having around 100 subcamps serving Dachau.
During its first year, it had around 5,000 prisoners, and these were mostly made up of German communists and those who were considered political opponents of Hitler’s Nazi party.
However, other groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, gypsies, and Jews were deported there.
Following Kristalnacht, around 11,000 Jewish men were imprisoned at Dachau.
They were forced to work in the munitions factory, and as the camp got bigger, the forced labor element grew too.
The prisoners were kept a very close eye on, and the guards treated them awfully.
In some cases, they actively goaded the prisoners, stealing their caps and throwing them near to the perimeter fence.
When they went to retrieve them, the guards in the towers would often shoot the prisoners, thinking they were trying to escape.
Some prisoners even decided to end their lives, walking near to the fence to be shot dead by the guards.
Beatings were also very common, and prisoners were beaten to death in cold blood.
Torture was also used a lot, with the SS guards stringing the prisoners up to the trees by their arms, which were then held behind their backs, making them suffer their manacles like a medieval torture device.
Executions also occurred in public, with the guards hanging any prisoner who committed an indiscretion, and these often took place in the roll call courtyard for everyone to see.
Prisoners were forced to stand there for hours, and the crematory was also established in 1942.
These ovens were used to hide the evidence of many of the deaths that occurred at Dachau, and gas chambers were also present.
There was a firing range where many were executed who were not fit enough to work or had even stolen just a small amount of food to save their lives.
As the Second World War was turning against the Germans, the conditions inside of the camp began to deteriorate massively.
Many camps within Germany began to become overcrowded as prisoners from camps closer to the front lines were force-marched on death marches back towards other camps.
This caused a huge strain on resources, and this happened at Dachau.
There was a severe lack of food there, and disease was becoming a huge issue as the overcrowding helped to spread typhus epidemics that caused a huge number of deaths.
In the final days of the camp, there was often no space to sleep, and in the final six months before liberation, it’s estimated that 15,000 prisoners died at Dachau because of the conditions, and also 500 Soviet POWs were shot dead.
The prisoners kept coming, and the final group was sent on the 19th of April 1945.
In this month, the U.S. Army was driving deep into Germany and to Bavaria.
With this, it was proposed to Himmler that he should pass over the camp to the Allies in an attempt to save more lives.
He refused, saying no prisoner shall be allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy alive.
Refusing to hand over Dachau just before the Allies arrived there, the commandant and the SS guards sent seven thousand prisoners on a death march, with anyone unable to keep up being shot.
Many died from exhaustion, and mass graves housing hundreds of prisoners were found, with the SS shooting them.
By April 1945, 200 were dying a day, but on the 29th of April, soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment in the 45th Infantry Division approached Dachau.
What they found was hell on earth, as even before entering the camp, they found 29 railway boxcars which had bodies dumped inside them, around two thousand corpses.
They were greeted by death everywhere, and the sight of emaciated bodies and desperation filled the air.
Many of the corpses had been left and were dead for days, and some huts and houses had bodies piled from floor to ceiling.
One liberator commented that the stench of death was overpowering.
At the time of liberation, the camp’s commandant, Martin Weiss, had fled the camp along with many of the SS guards responsible for the crimes, and an SS Untersturmführer, Heinrich Wickert, was placed in charge with over 500 personnel.
Whilst inside of the camp, it was also claimed that many of the SS guards still had their weapons, and despite a large number of guards being seized, there was further bloodshed.
There was a Swiss Red Cross representative who met the U.S. Army, and they planned to liberate the camp.
Some American soldiers, disgusted by what they saw, decided to take justice into their own hands, and instead, they executed many of the guards there and then, carrying out instant bloody reprisals.
This resulted in the shooting of dozens of guards.
However, following the cleanup operation, post-war trials with regards to the crimes at Dachau were carried out.
The Dachau camp trials took place from the 15th of November to the 15th of December 1945 with the purpose of bringing justice for those crimes committed.
40 people were charged with war crimes specifically relating to Dachau and the subcamps.
The official name of the trial was the United States of America versus Martin Gottfried Weiss et al.
Investigations had taken place to find those responsible, and many of the guards and leadership of Dachau were captured.
The charges were war crimes committed against Allied civilians and prisoners of war in Dachau, and they were accused of participating in the mistreatment and killing of civilians and prisoners of war.
The court opened on the 15th of November at 10 am, with the prosecution outlining the allegations against those accused.
The judges then outlined the lawfulness of the court and what would occur.
There were motions issued by the defense to challenge the legality of the court, but this was dismissed.
When the defendants were asked how they pleaded, they all answered not guilty.
Evidence was heard from both sides, and the prosecution used many images and artifacts obtained from the camp, including the book documenting those who had died.
They also used former prisoners to testify against the guards, and what they told was truly horrific.
The courtroom heard countless stories of beatings, disease, poor sanitation, and a lack of food, public executions, killings, and medical experiments.
The defense replied with 93 witnesses, including those who stood trial, and cross-examination took place.
Those who worked at the camp were accused of mistreatment and killing prisoners, and others were accused of taking part in executions.
The camp doctors were charged with taking part in executions by declaring the death of the condemned and also in taking part in selections which would result in the killing of prisoners.
Those who worked with the commandant were accused of overall being responsible for the conditions and the crimes that occurred at the camp.
The 40 who were on trial varied in their roles at Dachau.
The most senior figure was the camp’s commandant, Martin Weiss, who oversaw the conditions there.
Joined with him was his adjutant and many other guards and members of staff who worked at Dachau.
There were the leaders of other subcamps also, and one intriguing defendant was Claus Schilling, an elderly 74-year-old doctor who tried to justify his human experiments to the courtroom, saying it was done as a matter of scientific interest.
This was, of course, dismissed.
Also, other guards and Kapos who worked in the crematorium were on trial.
With the verdicts in the Dachau trial, there were a large number of death sentences issued.
36 death sentences were handed out for those who worked at Dachau, with them due to being executed for their crimes.
A number of these death sentences were for the less senior members of the staff that also worked there.
Amongst those executed were Claus Schilling, Otto Moll, who participated in the death marches, Friedrich Ruppert, and the commandant, Martin Weiss.
All of the condemned who did not have their sentences changed were transported to Landsberg prison, which was the site of their executions.
These were carried out on the 28th and 29th of May 1946.
So many people were condemned to death that two days were needed to carry out the punishments.
In the courtyard of the prison, a gallows had been created, and it was staffed by members of the U.S. military who would be the ones who would carry out the executions.
There were many other officials there to oversee the proceedings.
Each of the condemned were brought out from their cells by a number of guards before they made their way up to the gallows.
They had their identity confirmed, and the death sentence was also read out at the bottom of the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs, there were a large amount of guards flanked around them.
A priest was also provided who was there to attend on the condemned until their final moments.
They were asked for any final words, and then these were recorded.
Each of the men were then handed over to the executioner, who then placed a black hood over their heads.
They were then faced by the priest, who remained with them, and then the executioner fastened the noose tightly around their necks.
The knots were then checked, and they were left standing there with the noose around their necks for a number of seconds whilst everything was prepared.
The priest said a final few words before the trapdoor was released by the executioner, and the men were executed.
A short while later, the bodies of the men were then cut down and were placed into a coffin which had their names written on it, along with a wooden cross.
The doctors underneath the trapdoor confirmed death rather quickly, and morosely, the condemned would have seen their coffins as they walked to the steps of the gallows with their names etched on the wooden boxes.
Many of the executions were performed in front of a small crowd of U.S. Army soldiers and officials inside the courtyard.
After each execution, the officials would collect the next prisoner, with only the executioner remaining on the scaffold.
The executions of the Dachau camp trials were huge in their number.
28 of the former guards and staff that worked there were executed at the gallows, but the trials resulted in many more court trials that took place, bringing other guards to justice.
It was followed by 121 side proceedings, with around 500 others placed in front of a judge with other death sentences and prison sentences given out to those who worked at Dachau.
The executions at Landsberg prison continued for those who worked at Dachau until 1951, six years after the initial ones were carried out.
For those victims of the camp and for those who suffered at the hands of the staff and guards, these death sentences acted as some sort of penance for the horror that was carried out there.
