4 SS camp

The earlier SS grounds, which made up the largest section of the Dachau concentration camp, are not accessible to the public. The Bavarian Riot Police use this area. The demolishing of sections of the embankment wall allows visitors to view important sections of the topography of the former concentration camp.

A section of the former commandant’s headquarters, once located directly adjacent to the prisoner camp, can be seen. Still standing today are the former camp bakery (left) and the commandant’s headquarters (right). From this office, the commandant issued orders for the guard troops and presided over the main administrative and organizational unit of the concentration camp, the headquarters staff. These leadership ranks were mainly responsible for the crimes committed in the concentration camp. Also located in the area of the commandant’s headquarters were the living quarters of the armed SS men who manned the towers and kept guard over the prisoner work details, so too, from 1940, the crematorium grounds.

The SS training camp was behind the commandant’s headquarters. Stationed here were SS units sent to Dachau for basic and advanced military and ideological training. The Nazi regime developed the SS into an elite organization and military strike force. The grounds were home to a diverse array of facilities for instruction and indoctrination, residential and administrative buildings, as well as maintenance and provision operations. Concentration camp prisoners were forced to work on the building sites and in the various company workshops located in the SS camp.