Prisoners working in Dachau camp
The photo above was included in the original Dachau Museum that was set up in 1965, but it is not shown in the present Museum. It shows two prisoners who had been put into the Dachau concentration camp because they were either homeless or didn’t have a job — or both.
In Nazi Germany, there was a law that required everyone to have an address. This law was aimed at the Gypsies who traveled around in covered wagons and did not have a permanent address. There were a few “Bohemians” who liked to live like Gypsies and they were also discriminated against under this law. The “asocials” and the “work-shy” didn’t fit into Hitler’s ideal of Gleichschaltung.
Hitler, who never worked a day in his life, wanted everyone in Germany to have a job. People who didn’t work were categorized as “work-shy.” Beggars were taken off the streets of Germany and put to work in Dachau. The older man in the photo seems to be very unhappy about this revolting development. Why couldn’t the Nazis just leave people alone and let everyone do whatever they wanted to?
