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Dachau concentration camp (Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau, ) was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany. It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. . After the takeover of Bavaria on 9 March, Heinrich Himmler’s Munich police began to speak with the administration of an unused gunpowder and munitions factory and toured the future concentration camp site to see if it could be used for quartering protective custody prisoners. The Concentration Camp at Dachau was opened Wednesday, March 22, 1933, bringing in about 200 prisoners from Stadelheim prison in Munich and the Landsberg fortress (where Hitler wrote Mein Kampf during his imprisonment). An announcement made by Heinrich Himmler in the Munchner Neuesten Nachrichten paper, stated that the concentration camp could hold up to 5,000 people and its purpose was to restore calm to Germany and that having a concentration camp was in the best interest of the people. After this announcement, the first concentration camp of the Third Reich was officially established. It became the first regular concentration camp established by the coalition government of the National Socialist Party (Nazi Party) and the German Nationalist People's Party (dissolved on 6 July 1933). Heinrich Himmler, then Chief of Police of Munich, officially described the camp as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners." The main priority of the Dachau concentration camp was to serve as a munition factory along with forced labor working to expand the camp. The Dachau concentration camp was also the training center for SS guards and was a model for other concentration camps The camp was about 990 feet wide and 1,980 feet long in rectangular shape. The camp entrance was secured by a large iron gate that had the inscription: “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work makes you free”). As of 1938, the procedure for new arrivals occurred at the Schubraum, where prisoners were to hand over their clothing and possessions The camp residence included an administration building that contained offices for the Gestapo trial commissioner, SS-authorities, the camp leader and his deputies; administration offices that consisted of large storage rooms for the personal belongings of prisoners; the bunker; roll-call square where guards would inflict punishment on prisoners, especially those who tried to escape; the canteen where prisoners would serve SS men cigarettes and food; the museum containing plaster images of prisoners who suffered from bodily defects; the camp office; the library; the barracks; and the infirmary, which was staffed by prisoners who had previously held occupations such as physicians or army surgeons. While Heinrich Himmler mentioned that the camp could hold up to 5,000 people, after 1942, the number of prisoners continued to exceed over 12,000 detainees. Dachau originally arrested Communists, leading Socialists and other “enemies of the state” in 1933, but eventually overtime German Jews began to also arrive at the camp. Jews, however, were given the opportunity in the beginning years of imprisonment to receive permission to go overseas if they “voluntarily” gave their property to enhance Hitler’s public treasury. Once Austria was annexed and Czechoslovakia was defeated, the citizens of both countries became the next victims of imprisonment at the concentration camp at Dachau. In 1940, Dachau became filled with Polish prisoners, which constituted for the majority of the prisoner population until Dachau was officially liberated. Prisoners were divided into categories. At first, categories were divided based on the type of crime one had committed, but eventually the meaning of the categories changed from the type of crime committed to the specific authority-type under whose command a man had been sent to camp. Political prisoners that were arrested by the Gestapo wore a red badge, professional criminals sent by the Criminal Courts wore a green badge, Cri-Po prisoners arrested by the criminal police wore a brown badge, work-shy and asocial sent by the welfare authorities or the Gestapo wore a black badge, Jehovah’s Witnesses arrested by the Gestapo wore a violet badge, homosexuals sent by the criminal courts wore a prink badge, emigrants arrested by the Gestapo wore a blue badge, race polluters arrested by the criminal court or Gestapo had a black outline, second-termers arrested by the Gestapo wore a bar matching the color of their badge, idiots wore a white armband with the imprint “Blod” meaning “idiot,” and Jews, whose incarceration in the Dachau concentration camp dramatically increased after the event Kristallnacht, wore a yellow badge, combined with another color. The Dachau Concentration camp was not only heavily occupied, but was also heavily precautious and secure to ensure that no prisoners escaped. A ten feet wide area of ground called “the neutral zone” was around each camp building. Its intention was to keep prisoners aware of where not to trespass. A four feet deep and eight feet broad ditch laid behind the “neutral-zone.” The whole camp was surrounded by electrically charged barbed wire and a wall, which on the west side of the wire, contained a deep canal filled with water that connected with the Amper river.