Object: Map of the Dachau Internment Camp, 1946
This audio track deals with the Map of the Dachau Internment Camp, which can be seen in the special exhibition on the “Dachau Trials”. The object is on loan from the 6th Riot Police Division in Dachau. The plan measures 119 cm in height and 84 cm in width. It thus corresponds to the common A0 format. The sketch shows, on a scale of 1:2,000, the complete grounds of the former concentration camp, which included the “protective custody camp”, which is now the memorial site, and the attached SS camp. The two areas are separated by the river Würm, which is visible on the sketch as a thick blue stripe.
Map of the Dachau Internment Camp, October 1946 – Bavarian Riot Police Dachau
Created by the Camp Utilities Office and dated 9 October 1946, the plan served the primary purpose of documenting the exposed and underground power supply. Today, the plan offers an insight into the after-use of the former concentration camp site.
From July 1945 to August 1948, a camp for prisoners of war, internees and persons suspected of committing war crimes existed on the grounds of the former protective custody camp and parts of the SS camp.
The four camp areas, also known as “cages”, are recognisable, each of which was intended for one internment category.
To the west of “Cage 3” is building 9241, the former tailoring workshop, which served as the main court building for the Dachau trials from November 1945. The main trials of the Dachau, Mauthausen and Buchenwald concentration camps took place in the large courtroom in the south wing of the building. The Flossenbürg main trial took place in a smaller courtroom in the north wing.
Map of the Dachau Internment Camp, October 1946 – Bavarian Riot Police Dachau
The main trial on the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp was held partly in the “Old Tailoring Workshop”, but also partly in a smaller courtroom in nearby building 9240, which previously housed the SS camp’s weapons training school.
Although the grounds of the former SS camp were handed over to the Bavarian riot police as early as 1972, little changed in the general location of the power grid. The technicians of the riot police followed this plan until 2020.