Plate 39: Reconstructed watchtower
The latest estimate103 of the number of deaths within the Dachau Concentration Camp stands at 41,566. This figure is comprised of 32,099 who are confirmed as dead by the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross, and an additional 9,467 persons whose deaths can be ascertained because of documents and other evidence such as mass graves where human remains have been found.104 This figure accounts for at least 4,000 Soviet prisoners killed between 1941 and 1942, and 4,851 other Dachau inmates who were transported from the camp to be killed at Castle Hartheim and Auschwitz.105
These figures do not tell the complete story, because researchers from the Memorial Site are currently working on a ‘book of the dead’, and are investigating the deaths of many as yet unnamed and unidentified persons who were forced onto the death marches in the final chaotic stages as the Nazi regime collapsed. It is anticipated that the number of prisoners who died in Dachau is higher than the existing figure, and it is very likely that the total number of deaths will never, ever be known.
Plate 40: Never Again – Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site