photo #9446580

in 1933, the first prisoners arrived at Dachau Concentration Camp, the only Concentration Camp to operate throughout the entire Nazi regime, opening just weeks after the Nazis came to power. In those early years, the camp held political opponents in so-called “protective custody,” isolating them from society and sending a clear message to anyone who might resist. Dachau became the model for all later Concentration Camps, setting the standard for how the SS would run these camps across Nazi-occupied Europe. Pictured: A view of the electrified barbed wire fence, the moat, and the watch tower in Dachau, courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.