Canteen (Dachau concentration camp)

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Prisoners eating (May 1933), propaganda shot by Friedrich Franz Bauer

The canteen was the name of one of the 32 barracks within the Dachau concentration camp , in which prisoners could buy food partly and at times at increased prices during the twelve years of the camp.

In the early days of 1933 and in the early years of the Dachau camp, prisoners had the opportunity to supplement their food rations in the camp canteen. With their own money they could buy groceries, such as bread, butter, sausage and fruit. The canteen was set up in one of the wooden barracks in the area of ​​the apartment blocks.

Some of the prisoners could not buy anything in the canteen for financial reasons. These were mainly those workers who were unemployed prior to imprisonment and whose families were unable to send them money.

Until about April 1941, prisoners went to the canteen in groups on Sundays, every two to three weeks. For example, with a cup of coffee, prisoners were given a roll or bread with jam. The groups were controlled so that no prisoner could shop twice.

Later, prisoners were no longer allowed to carry money with them, and visits to the canteen ended. Money was deposited into an account. Each block had a canteen man . He managed the money and went shopping in the canteen once a week. The dining room in the canteen was no longer used from that time. People now ate in the apartment blocks on Sundays and weekdays. Bread and flour products were no longer sold to ordinary inmates. Other foods that could be bought by the canteen man were, for example, vegetables spicy with mustard or half-liter glasses with beetroot salad in vinegar. Occasionally, canned food could be bought, such as beet syrup, which was considered valuable by inmates. There were also reports of a canned chicken whose use-by date was well past and whose lid was bent. Tobacco products could be bought through the canteen man, in 1941 it was French cigarettes, later Russian Machorka, which the SS had presumably captured. Bread and tobacco became popular means of exchange.

The purchase of food or tobacco was initially based on the prisoners' solvency. In autumn 1942, the SS lifted the restriction guidelines for food parcels. Depending on the family members' ability, some prisoners received many parcels, few or none at all. A new differentiation developed and exchanges among the prisoners arose.

literature

  • Stanislav Zámečník: (Ed. Comité International de Dachau): That was Dachau. Luxembourg, 2002.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Stanislav Zámečník: (Ed. Comité International de Dachau): That was Dachau. Luxembourg, 2002. p. 54.
  2. ↑ It should be noted here that many workers were called up for military service and that during the war years the harvest yields decreased, even with wheat.
  3. ↑ “As a side dish to a proper dish” this would have been “not bad”, as a main course it used to have bad consequences. See Stanislav Zámečník, p. 146.

Coordinates: 48 ° 16 ′ 9 ″  N , 11 ° 28 ′ 4 ″  E