member_of_political_party hans loritz
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps ( KZ or KL ) throughout the territories it controlled before and during the Second World War . The first Nazi camps were erected in Germany in March 1933 immediately after Hitler became Chancellor and his ___MASK42___ was given control over the police through Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick and Prussian Acting Interior Minister Hermann Göring . Used to hold and torture political opponents and union organizers , the camps initially held around 45 , 000 prisoners . Munich ( also in British English ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria , on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps . Munich is the third largest city in Germany , after Berlin and Hamburg , and the 12th biggest city of the European ___MASK4___ , with a population of above 1 . 5 million . The Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5 . 8 million people . Germany , officially the Federal ___MASK66___ of Germany , is a federal parliamentary ___MASK66___ in central - western Europe . It includes 16 constituent states , covers an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate . With about 82 million inhabitants , Germany is the most populous member state of the European ___MASK4___ . After the United States , it is the second most popular immigration destination in the world . Germany ' s capital and largest metropolis is Berlin . Other major cities include Hamburg , Munich , Cologne , Frankfurt , Stuttgart and Düsseldorf . Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( 7 October 1900  23 May 1945 ) was " Reichsführer " of the " Schutzstaffel " ( Protection Squadron ; SS ), and a leading member of the ___MASK42___ ( NSDAP ) of Nazi Germany . Nazi leader Adolf Hitler briefly appointed him a military commander and later Commander of the Replacement ( Home ) Army and General Plenipotentiary for the administration of the entire Third Reich (" Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung "). Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and one of the people most directly responsible for the Holocaust . Dachau concentration camp was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany , intended to hold political prisoners . It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau , about northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria , in southern Germany . Opened in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler , its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor , and eventually , the imprisonment of Jews , German and Austrian criminals , and eventually foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded . The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub - camps , which were mostly work camps or " Arbeitskommandos ," and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria . The camps were liberated by U . S . forces on 29 April 1945 . The National Socialist German ___MASK91___ ( abbreviated NSDAP ), commonly referred to in English as the ___MASK42___ , was a political party in Germany that was active between 1920 and 1945 and practised the ideology of Nazism . Its precursor , the German ___MASK91___ (" Deutsche Arbeiterpartei "; DAP ), existed from 1919 to 1920 . Oberführer ( Senior Colonel ) Hans Loritz ( 12 December 1895 , Augsburg -- 31 January 1946 ) joined the SS in September , 1930 and the NSDAP in August , 1930 . In 1933 , he formed and commanded the Austrian SS Standarte at the Dachau concentration camp . From mid - December , 1933 to July , 1934 , he was the only commander of the camp at Papenburg and when that camp was closed in late July , 1934 , he was transferred to KZ Esterwegen where he was the Commandant for two years before being transferred back to serve as Commandant of Dachau until 1939 . He was dismissed in July , 1939 by Hitler for being too harsh . He became a section leader of the General SS in Klagenfurt . In 1940 Himmler posted him to Sachsenhausen , to replace Walter Eisfeld . That lasted until 1942 , when he was removed by the suggestion of Oswald Pohl , leader of the SS - WVHA . He was then sent to oversee a camp in Norway . After the war , he was arrested and imprisoned at the internment camp in Neumünster to await trial by the Soviets ; he committed suicide , however , in January 1946 . Oberführer was an early paramilitary rank of the ___MASK42___ dating back to 1921 . Translated as " senior leader ", an " Oberführer " was typically a ___MASK42___ member in charge of a group of paramilitary units in a particular geographical region . From 1921 to 1925 , the phrase " Oberführer " was used as a title in the " Sturmabteilung " ( SA ), but became an actual SA rank after 1926 . The Sturmabteilung ( SA ), literally Storm Detachment , functioned as the original paramilitary wing of the ___MASK42___ ( NSDAP ).