Visiting Dachau Concentration Camp

March 6, 2025

Basic Information for Visiting Dachau Concentration Camp

Location: Dachau, Germany

Cost: Free, no ticket or reservation required

Hours: Daily from 9 am to 5 pm, closed December 24

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Dachau Concentration Camp and the Holocaust

Opened in 1933, Dachau was one of the first in what was to become an elaborate and extensive network of concentration camps operated by the Nazis. Initially, the camp was created to house political prisoners, primarily German communists, democrats, and other political “enemies” of the Nazi party. Eventually the camp was expanded to inter Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and convicted criminal offenders.

The camp was expanded in the late 1930s and began to hold Jewish prisoners following Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) in November 1938, in which the Nazi persecution of the Jews reached a more public level. Throughout its existence, the camp served as a model for subsequent concentration camps. It functioned as a training center for SS guards who would eventually be relocated to more notorious camps, including Rudolf Höss, the future commandant of Auschwitz. It also served as a launching point for some of the most heinous crimes committed by the Nazis. Examples of these crimes include the conducting of medical experiments on inmates, the reliance on forced labor and early forays into the use of gas chambers and crematoriums. While the inmates at Dachau were never subjected to mass executions, the horrors perpetrated at Auschwitz and similar camps were first “perfected” at Dachau.

Dachau was liberated by American forces on April 29, 1945. During its existence, the camp housed over 200,000 inmates and saw the death of at least 40,000. The site was opened as a memorial in 1965 and today remains one of the most visited concentration camps, due in part to its close proximity to Munich, Germany.

A Visit to Dachau Concentration Camp

A visit to Dachau begins by stepping through iron gates embellished with the phrase Abreit macht frei, “work sets you free.” This phrase would notoriously go on to greet millions of Jews and other “undesirables” as they entered the grounds of Auschwitz, never to leave again, but was displayed across many concentration camps as a chilling reminder of the “work” being carried out by the Nazi regime.

Visiting more of Europe? Check out this Ultimate Guide to WWII Sites in Europe.

After entering the gates, the camp lays sprawling ahead. The site contains a mixture of reconstructed, original and repurposed elements from the original camp. The bulk of the site consists of a large roll call area as well as the outline of former prisoner barracks (two of which have been reconstructed). The main exhibit is housed in the former maintenance building and includes information on the history of Dachau, prisoner archives and a library. Other areas to visit within the site include the main guardhouse, the crematorium and various monuments and memorials representing specific subsects of victims and various faiths. Allow at least three hours to visit the site without a tour. Guided tours are offered in English and German daily and last approximately 2.5 hours.

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For me, a journey through the various exhibits of Dachau was a journey through silent horror. As I weaved in and out of barracks, guard buildings and memorials, I was constantly aware of the utter lack of sound apart from the crunch of gravel beneath my feet. Of course this was occasionally broken up by a disrespectful group of students or a random rowdy tourist attempting to take the perfect selfie with the crematorium ovens (true story.) The site has done a good job of integrating the reconstructed elements with the original aspects of the camp in order to provide the visitor an authentic view of the camp as it once was. Obviously, it is a greatly sanitized version free of guards and suffering, but the layout provides an opportunity to truly appreciate the scope of the concentration camp system.

It has taken me so long to sit down and write about my trip to Dachau. I am not Jewish. I did not lose family members in the Holocaust. I have never even come close to experiencing the hardships of war or genocide. I never want my words to cause harm, discomfort or disrespect and when it comes to commenting on events so far outside of my realm of comprehension I practice extra caution. So why discuss it now? Time and time again I am reminded of the rallying cry of the post-Holocaust world, “never again.” If we hope to uphold this promise, we must continuously retell these stories. We must visit these sites. We must expose ourselves to the uncomfortable, the tragic and the unimaginable. We must never take selfies in front of crematorium ovens.

Everyone who is able should make a point to visit a concentration camp at some point. I cannot guarantee your experience will be easy or pleasant, but I can guarantee it will change you. It will make you reimagine the horrors that are possible in this world and find gratitude for the freedoms so many of us take for granted. Hopefully, it will inspire you to uphold a promise made long ago to those who suffered within sites such as Dachau to share their story and continue to uphold the vow of “never again.”