Dachau concentration camp United States Army", Vol. 3, page 382. Authorities worked night and day to alleviate conditions at the camp immediately following the liberation as an epidemic of black typhus swept through the prisoner population. Two thousand cases had already been reported by that 3 May. By October of the same year the camp was being used by the U.S. Army as a place of confinement for war criminals, the SS and important witnesses. It was also the site of the Dachau Trials for German war criminals, a site chosen for its symbolism. In 1948 the Bavarian government established housing for refugees
Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp of Dachau and was erected by Polish priest survivors. Austrian survivors donated the memorial bell, inscribed: "In faithful memory of our dead comrades of all nations, dedicated by Dachau priests and laymen from Austria." A Carmelite Convent is situated by the North Guard Tower at Dachau, where nuns offer prayers for atonement. The convent houses the "Madonna of Dachau", a statue of Mary from the Priests' Barracks. Former prisoners are also buried at the convent. Among the priest-martyrs who died at Dachau were many of the 108 Polish Martyrs of World War II. The Blessed Gerhard Hirschfelder died of hunger