Dachau concentration camp Dachau administration registered 12,596 deaths from typhus at the camp over the same period. Dachau was the third concentration camp to be liberated by British or American Allied forces. After the takeover of Bavaria on 9 March 1933, Heinrich Himmler, then Chief of Police in Munich, began to speak with the administration of an unused gunpowder and munitions factory. He toured the site to see if it could be used for quartering protective-custody prisoners. The Concentration Camp at Dachau was opened 22 March 1933, with the arrival of about 200 prisoners from Stadelheim Prison in Munich and the Landsberg fortress
Kapo (concentration camp) killing fellow prisoners. One non-criminal functionary was , a notorious Austrian political prisoner. Feared and hated, he was known as a sadist and was responsible for several deaths. He was released from Dachau in 1942 and became a member of the Waffen SS. Some guards were personally involved in the mass murder of other prisoners. Beginning in October 1944, criminal functionaries from among the German "Reichsdeutsche" were sought out for transfer to the Dirlewanger Brigade. The important functionary positions inside the camp were "Lagerältester" (camp leader or camp senior), "Blockältester" (block or barracks leader or senior) and "Stubenältester" (room leader).