My father, U.S. Army Air Forces Lt. Delbert R. Walden, visited the Dachau concentration camp in 1945-46, while he was stationed in the Munich area. When these photos were taken, Dachau was being used by the U.S. Third Army to detain Nazi prisoners. Dachau was the scene of war crimes trials against those members of the camp administration and guard force who had been captured by the Allies, and later for the notorious "Malmedy Massacre" trial of 1st SS Panzer Division members. The cylindrical structure in the photo on the left was a "Moll System" concrete bunker (used as guard positions at Dachau). The buildings shown here were in the SS Kaserne part of the site, which is now used by the Bavarian Police (closed to the public).  (G.R. and G.A. Walden collection)

Gate building to Dachau, 1946 (the so-called Jourhaus Gate, entrance to the prisoner compound). The iron gate bears the infamous motto "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes You Free). (This part of the gate is a reproduction dating from the 1960s.)  (G.R. and G.A. Walden collection)

This gate led into the Appellplatz, or roll call site, of the prisoner compound. The view on the left was taken on 3 May 1945 from the top of the Jourhaus gate building. The building on the right, which served as a kitchen, laundry, and shower building, now houses the Dachau museum. The original prisoner barracks were all torn down after the war, but some have been rebuilt as part of the memorial site.  (U.S. National Archives)

The original Dachau crematorium was a small Fachwerk (half-timbered) building with only one 2-chamber oven. My father took a picture of it in 1946 (left), and it has been preserved as part of the memorial.  (G.R. and G.A. Walden)

A larger crematorium was built in 1943, and has also been preserved.  (left - U.S. Army photo)

Dachau crematorium ovens as seen shortly after the liberation of the camp by the U.S. 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions, on 29 April 1945, and the same view today.  (Dachau-Archiv)

The new crematorium complex included a series of disinfecting chambers. In 1945 it was assumed that these were gas chambers, but there is no evidence that prisoners were gassed here.  (U.S. Army photo)

There was a gas chamber at Dachau, and it may have been tested on prisoners, but there was no large-scale murder of prisoners there as Dachau was not a death camp. (Most of the prisoners who died at Dachau died of disease, malnutrition, and overwork, and the new crematorium was built to dispose of their bodies.)  (U.S. Army photo)

Looking across the Würm river canal toward the camp. On the opposite bank is a concrete machinegun bunker, some of which can still be found at the site today (right). Some of the original camp electrical fencing has also been preserved (below).  (42nd "Rainbow" Infantry Division. Baton Rouge, LA, Army & Navy Publishing Co., 1946)

The Dachau Kommandantur (headquarters). The original building still stands, just outside the Dachau memorial site. The main building of the SS Kaserne can be seen in the left distance.  (Dachau-Archiv; thanks to Prof. Harold Marcuse for info)

Looking out from the Jourhaus Gate, one views the route walked by the prisoners from the rail line into the camp (directly behind this point of view). The current memorial site ends at the end of this cobblestone walk, and beyond it can be seen the Kommandantur building, former factory buildings, and the SS Kaserne, which are all outside the memorial site today. On the right is an aerial view of some of these buildings. The Kommandantur is at the bottom center, with the factory buildings to its left, and the L-shaped SS barracks building beyond.  (Dachau-Archiv)

One of the main entrances to the SS area was on the other side of the compound, near today's John F. Kennedy Platz. The gate is now the main entrance to the Bavarian Police compound, and is not open to the public. On the right, soldiers of the U.S. 42nd Infantry Division guard this gate in April or May 1945. Another "Moll System" concrete bunker (guard position) can be seen at the left.  (period postcard view courtesy Ralf Hornberger; right - U.S. Army photo)

Prisoners worked in these factory buildings during the war. These partially deserted buildings are right outside the prisoner compound near the Jourhaus Gate (#5 in the aerial view above).

When the SS took over the Dachau site in 1933 they used the buildings from a former World War I munitions factory. The buildings seen above had been the headquarters of the munitions factory staff. The wide street was renamed "Avenue of the SS." It is now called "Straße der KZ-Opfer" - Street of the Concentration Camp Victims. Although these buildings are located today inside the Bavarian Police compound, they can be viewed from the street outside.  (period postcard)

One of the outlying sites of the Dachau camp, not located with the main area (although nearby), was the so-called "plantation." In 1938, under the direction of the SS, camp prisoners built an herb garden near the camp. These buildings still exist (as a nursery and greenhouse) on the street appropriately called Am Kräutergarten, northeast of the main camp.  (MapQuest Map Link)

North of Dachau, near the village of Hebertshausen, the SS had a rifle range for firearms training. This site became infamous during Word War II, as the SS executed some 4000 Russian prisoners of war there. The range consisted of two shooting lanes with a concrete bunker at the end for a bullet trap.  (Dachau-Archiv)  (MapQuest Map Link)

A memorial to the murdered Soviet soldiers stands on the site (left). The curious explorer can also find the entrance to the underground room for the target scorers (right).

Nearby was the SS building for range control (sometimes called a guard house). Today it serves as a homeless shelter.