Entrance gate to the former camp area of the Dachau concentration camp, November 2010. Dachau camp, which opened on 22 March 1933 near Munich, was the first and longest existing concentration camp under the administration of the SS (Schutzstaffel) in the German Reich. The inscription ‘Arbeit macht frei’ [work makes you free] is a cynical message from the SS administration to the prisoners, who were supposed to be re-educated through labour. In fact, the prisoners were physically and psychologically tortured. More than 200,000 people were imprisoned in the main and subcamps, and more than 40,000 died of violent crimes, starvation or exhaustion before liberation on 29 April 1945.
An estimated 2,400 to 2,900 Sinti and Roma of various nationalities were among the prisoners, the vast majority of whom were male.
