Crematorium tag found by a US soldier in Dachau concentration camp after liberation

Crematorium tag from Dachau concentration camp in Germany. The tag was picked up by an American soldier on a tour of the camp in the spring of 1945, after the camp’s liberation. A numbered tag was placed with each corpse to be able to identify the ashes after cremation. The numbers on the tags did not correspond to prisoner numbers. Produced in large quantities, not all the tags were used. Dachau was the first concentration camp established by the Nazi government in 1933, originally for political prisoners. Over time, other groups were interned at Dachau, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma, homosexuals, repeat criminal offenders, and Jews. It was divided into two parts - the concentration camp and the crematorium for the disposal of the bodies of inmates who died at the camp. The camp was liberated by United States forces on April 29, 1945.