This series consists of ledger books from the concentration camp at Dachau, Germany. These volumes consist of arrival or entry registers organized by prisoner number. The nature and extent of information provided vary according to period. The name lists in the volumes for 1933 - 1936, for example, include each inmate's registry number, name, date and place of birth, date of incarceration, and detention category (in nearly all cases, noted simply as “Schutzhaft” or “Sch,” protective custody). Where applicable, entries have been annotated to indicate the date of release.
Entry registers for the 1937 - 1940 period furnish such additional information as marital status, number of children, religion, nationality, occupation, and home address. The data contained in the detention category is more varied but abbreviated in format (e.g., “A.Z.” for “Asoziales,” asocial element; “J” for “Jude,” Jewish; or “Sch Bifo” for “Schutzhaft Bibelforscher,” protective custody - Jehovah's Witness). This expanded entry format continued until November 1942. Thereafter the information entered for each new inmate was shortened to provide only the entry number, date of arrival, name of inmate, nationality and/or detention category, date of birth, and home town or city. The date of arrival column here often includes a notation of major transports to Dachau from other camps or specific cities. Deaths of inmates are indicated by a cross and date of death, but these annotations generally appear only for inmates registered prior to November 1942.
All entries are handwritten in ink. Red, blue, and green colored pencil lines as well as regular pencil lines were drawn over particular inmate names while colored stars and check marks were entered next to others. The Zugangsbücher for Dachau contain unique entry numbers for each individual registered on arrival at the camp. It is possible, however, that some prisoners sent to Dachau were not routinely registered, or arrived too close to the camp's liberation for accurate recording, and are therefore omitted from the registers. The final inmate entry on April 2, 1945, records only the registry number (147,536) and name, although blank spaces for registry numbers 147,537 - 148,739 suggest that more inmate arrivals were expected. The 42nd Infantry Division, U.S. Seventh Army captured the ledger books when they liberated and occupied the camp on April 29, 1945.
In the second volume, inmate entry numbers are also provided, although keyed to individual names and therefore not sequential. The next four volumes, designated IA/21 through IA/2 4, list inmate entries numbers 12,405 through 37,575 for the period July 10, 1937 - March 30, 1940 (the missing entry numbers 1 - 12,404 presumably reflect the initial numbering system evident in the alphabetical register for 1933 - 1936, as well as those incarcerated from January 1 to July 9, 1937).
In the last chronological segment (1940 - 1945), entry numbers 1 - 2,829 and some subsequent numbers indicate long-term inmates already in the camp prior to April 1940, and these entry numbers have been cross-referenced to corresponding entry numbers for the same inmates from the earlier period. These cross-references also include entry numbers that refer to missing portions in the initial numbering system. In rare cases, cross-references are also provided for inmates who were subsequently released or transferred to other camps, and who were later rearrested or returned to Dachau.
