Who was the first Commandant of Dachau and what happened to him?
The first guards at the “Dachau Prison Camp” were Bavarian state police officers from Munich who were requisitioned by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, the Acting Chief of Police of Munich since March 9, 1933. Police Captain Schlemmer was in command of the police unit. On April 1, 1933 Himmler was appointed Commander of the Bavarian Secret Police; at the same time he was also put in charge of all existing and future concentration camps by a special decree of Minister of Interior Adolf Wagner. After April 1, 1933, Himmler was also in charge of the political auxiliary police, a unit of the Bavarian State Police that was now a part of the SS. The first guard unit of 60 SS men to enter Dachau after April 1 was under the command of SS-Sturmführer Robert Erspenmüller. The SS officially took over the guarding of the camp on April 11, 1933, by which time the number of guards had increased to 138. By April 30, 1933 there were 234 SS men guarding the inmates at Dachau. With the changing of the
