![Members of the SS (Schutzstaffel; originally Hitler's bodyguard, later the elite guard of the Nazi state) parade during a rally. [LCID: 86520]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/92a51bae-8871-445c-ace8-73f901d84814.jpg "Members of the SS (Schutzstaffel; originally Hitler's bodyguard, later the elite guard of the Nazi state) parade during a rally. [LCID: 86520]")
Members of the SS (Schutzstaffel; originally Hitler's bodyguard, later the elite guard of the Nazi state) parade during a rally. Germany, date uncertain.
Item View![Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, speaks to an inmate of the Dachau concentration camp during an official inspection. [LCID: 10719]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/a05a39c1-e27c-4079-b0bb-7a804df94c03.jpg "Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, speaks to an inmate of the Dachau concentration camp during an official inspection. [LCID: 10719]")
Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, speaks to an inmate of the Dachau concentration camp during an official inspection. Dachau, Germany, May 8, 1936.
Item View![Police search a messenger employed by the Social Democratic newspaper Vorwaerts. [LCID: 45001]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/757683c9-b896-4816-8686-c15f9f70db65.jpg "Police search a messenger employed by the Social Democratic newspaper Vorwaerts. [LCID: 45001]")
Police search a messenger at the entrance to the building where Vorwaerts, a Social-Democratic Party newspaper, was published. The building was subsequently occupied during the suppression of the political left wing in Germany that was carried out in response to the Reichstag Fire. Berlin, Germany, March 3–4, 1933.
Item View![An early view of the Dachau concentration camp. Columns of prisoners are visible behind the barbed wire. [LCID: 63606]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/22454ca6-c397-4a81-be54-9a8d58fc65b4.jpg "An early view of the Dachau concentration camp. Columns of prisoners are visible behind the barbed wire. [LCID: 63606]")
An early view of the Dachau concentration camp. Columns of prisoners are visible behind the barbed wire. Dachau, Germany, May 24, 1933.
Item View![Nazi concentration camps, 1933-1934 [LCID: ger72050]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/d278031c-3fce-48fc-b7bf-3fe87f85016d.gif "Nazi concentration camps, 1933-1934 [LCID: ger72050]")
The first concentration camps in Germany were established soon after Adolf Hitler's appointment as chancellor in January 1933. The Storm Troopers (SA) and the police established concentration camps beginning in February 1933. These camps were set up to handle the masses of people arrested as alleged political opponents. They were established on the local level throughout Germany. Gradually, most of these early camps were disbanded and replaced by centrally organized concentration camps under the exclusive jurisdiction of the SS (Schutzstaffel; the elite guard of the Nazi state). Dachau was the only concentration camp opened in 1933 that remained in operation until 1945, and was the model for the Nazi concentration camp system that replaced the earlier camps.
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