Prisoners on death march from Dachau (#48296)

Date: April 29, 1945

Photo credit: KZ Gedenkstatte Dachau, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives

Photographer: Fritz Melbach

Photo description

Prisoners on a death march from Dachau  move towards the south along the Noerdlichen Muenchner street in Gruenwald.  German civilians secretly photographed several death marches from the Dachau concentration camp as the prisoners moved slowly through the Bavarian town of Gruenwald, Wolfrathshausen, and Herbertshausen.  Few civilians gave aid to the prisoners on the death marches. 

As the guideline suggests, it is important to frame your approach to specific events and acts of complicity or defiance by considering when and where an act took place.  The death marches were led through civilian areas in the last months of the war.  This context is important when teaching students about the consequences individuals would have faced if they had chosen to assist victims during this period at the end of the war.