Dachau, (http://www.dachau.info/) is a city with about 40,000 citizens in Bavaria, Germany and has a history of more than 1,200 years. In former times Dachau had always been a retreat for Bavarian kings, dukes and nobility, the castle and the surrounding gardens offering a staggering view on the Alps and Munich weather permitting. Dachau became a town famous for its impressionist painters from the second half of the 19th century on. With the advent of the Nazi regime, Dachau was chosen in 1933 as site for their very first concentration camp. This has cast a pall over the rest of this small and pleasant town on the outskirts of Munich. Dachau served as a camp for political prisoners mainly and finally ended up being a staging ground to ship prisoners to Eastern death camps in Poland and elsewhere, though approximately 42,000 people were killed at the camp itself and its 169 sub-camps. Today Dachau has a big cultural scene as well as a still impressive picture-perfect old town and castle. The concentration camp remains as a memorial to its dark history is maintained and visited by thousands every year.
