Dachau concentration camp on to KZ Dachau. During April 1945 as U.S. troops drove deeper into Bavaria, the commander of KZ Dachau suggested to Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler that the camp be turned over to the Allies. Himmler, in signed correspondence, prohibited such a move, adding that "No prisoners shall be allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy alive." On 24 April 1945, just days before the U.S. troops arrived at the camp, the commandant and a strong guard forced between 6,000 and 7,000 surviving inmates — on a death march from Dachau south to Eurasburg, then eastwards towards the Tegernsee.
Hinzert concentration camp served in the Dachau, Buchenwald and Ravensbrück concentration camps, was transferred to the Natzweiler concentration camp in Alsace in April 1942 as the camp's Deputy Commandant. He was replaced by the third and last commander of Hinzert, "SS Hauptsturmführer" Paul Sporrenberg. Approximately 13,600 prisoners transited through Hinzert. The first prisoners were German workers who had worked on the Siegfried Line and had demonstrated "anti-social behavior". Shortly afterwards, the camp was used to host forced laborers from occupied countries. Beginning in 1941, large groups of prisoners were sent to Hinzert, mainly political prisoners from Luxembourg and France. Other prisoners, mainly forced