Dora death camp. Dora mittelbau Nazi concentration camp

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The prisoner leaves Dora - Mittelbau (known names: Dora, Nordhausen) - a Nazi concentration camp, formed on August 28, 1943, near the town of Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany, as a subdivision of the already existing Buchenwald camp. The main purpose of the camp was to organize the underground production of weapons at the Mittelwerk plant, including V-2 missiles. For 18 months of existence, 60,000 prisoners of 21 nationalities passed through the camp, approximately 20,000 died in custody. Many of them died while laying the tunnel leading to the plant. On April 11, 1945, the US 3rd Panzer Division liberated Camp Dora-Mittelbau.

Allied soldiers inspect the stoves in the 's-Hertogenbosch camp
The kilns were used to cremate victims of the 'Hertogenbosch concentration camp in the Netherlands. After liberation by Canadian forces in November 1944, the camp was used to detain the Nazis

A surviving concentration camp inmate cries near the charred corpse of a friend who was burned by flamethrower guards while trying to escape

Prisoners of the Mauthausen concentration camp in the last days of the war
Camp Mauthausen was built in one of the most beautiful and picturesque places in the Danube Valley on the outskirts of the old Upper Austrian town of Mauthausen in 1938, when it became a "branch" of the Nazi concentration camp Dachau, located near the Bavarian capital - Munich.
The first 2 thousand Soviet prisoners of war entered Mauthausen on October 22, 1941.
All in all, in a concentration camp - not far from the "favorite city of the Fuhrer, which he wanted to turn into the capital of the world" - Linz - more than 32 thousand Soviet citizens, 30 thousand Poles were executed, died from beatings and hunger, as well as from backbreaking work in the quarries , several thousand Jews, Italians, Hungarians, Albanians, Serbs and Croats.

Children in the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp
The Ravensbrück concentration camp was built, starting in November 1938, by the SS forces and prisoners transferred from Sachsenhausen, in the Prussian village of Ravensbrück, near the Mecklenburg climatic resort of Fürstenberg. It was the only large concentration camp on German territory that was designated as the so-called "guarded detention camp for women". Children of "non-Aryan" peoples were shaved baldly. In April 1945, the prisoners were liberated by the troops of the Second Belorussian Front.

Russian concentration camp prisoner Dora - Mittelbau points to a Nazi. On April 11, 1945, the US 3rd Panzer Division liberated the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp.

The arrest of Joseph Kramer, commandant of the Nazi concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen. Nicknamed the "Belsen Beast" by the prisoners of the camp, he was one of the Nazi war criminals personally responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. Joseph was arrested by British troops in April 1945.

A prisoner at the Bergen-Belsen camp during his liberation.
Concentration camp near Celle, Hanover. At first it was a small camp for political opponents of the Nazi regime. Later it was significantly expanded. Although Belsen was not formally a "death camp", it was not equipped with gas chambers, thousands of prisoners died there from starvation and exhaustion. In April 1945 Belsen was liberated by the allied forces. At the time of liberation, over 35 thousand corpses were found in the camp, and about 30 thousand people remained alive.

Walk outside the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in the boots of German soldiers

Prisoners in Bergen-Belsen after liberation in April 1945. Many suffered from typhoid and dysentery. Average duration the life of the prisoners was about nine months

Buchenwald prisoners during the liberation
Buchenwald is a German fascist concentration camp. Created in 1937 in the vicinity of Weimar. It was originally called Ettersberg. For 8 years, about 239 thousand people. were prisoners of Buchenwald. At first, these were German anti-fascists, later, during World War II, representatives of many other nationalities. Many prisoners died already during the construction of the camp, which was carried out without the use of mechanisms. The prisoners were also mercilessly exploited by the owners of large industrial firms, whose factories were located in the Buchenwald area. A particularly large number of prisoners perished in the Buchenwald branch of Dora, where the Fau shells were manufactured in underground rooms. Inhuman conditions of existence, hunger, backbreaking work, beatings led to mass mortality. About 10 thousand prisoners were executed, including almost 8.5 thousand Soviet prisoners of war. In total, 56,000 prisoners of 18 nationalities were tortured to death in Byelorussia. On August 18, 1944, the leader of the German working class, Ernst Thalmann, was brutally killed by the Nazis in Byelorussia. Since the founding of the camp, an underground anti-fascist organization headed by communists began to form in it. In 1943 an international camp committee was created, headed by the German communist W. Barthel. By the beginning of April 1945, the organization consisted of 178 groups (3-5 people each), including 56 Soviet groups. On April 11, 1945, amid the defeat of the fascist German troops in World War II, the prisoners of Byelorussia, led by an international political center, raised an uprising, as a result of which the camp was liquidated by the insurgents.

Buchenwald Prisoner Tattoos

Allied forces discovered the bodies of burned Buchenwald prisoners in April 1945

Forced travel of Weimar citizens to Buchenwald in April 1945
The citizens of neighboring Weimar were forced to personally verify the atrocities committed in the Bkuchenwald concentration camp

Germans during a forced trip to Buchenwald, after liberation in April 1945

A German woman looks at the bodies of those killed in Buchenwald during a forced trip in April 1945. After the liberation of the concentration camp of the generals of the American headquarters, George Smith Patton said that the Germans of nearby cities must see the atrocities of the Nazis.

Allied troops with German civilian forces prepared graves for the dead prisoners of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in April 1945

Prisoners of the Dachau Concentration Camp, one of the first death camps in Germany, welcome the liberators with joy - 42nd US Army Division, April 29, 1945

Burial at Nordhausen
A newly released prisoner prepares his mother's body for burial near the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp, April 1945

Portrait of a prisoner of the Dachau concentration camp, April 1945

Prisoners leaving Auschwitz in February 1945
Auschwitz, or rather Auschwitz-Birkenau, is the largest Nazi concentration camp and death camp, the central link in the mechanism created by Hitler's Germany for the destruction of unwanted individuals and groups, mainly European Jews. It was founded by order of G. Himmler at the end of April 1940 in the outskirts of Zasole, a small provincial town of Auschwitz (Poland), 60 km southwest of Krakow and 30 km southeast of Katowice (near the confluence of the Vistula and Sola rivers).

Prisoners celebrate the liberation of Buchenwald

Soviet children, prisoners of the 6th Finnish concentration camp in Petrozavodsk. During the occupation of Soviet Karelia by the Finns, six concentration camps were created in Petrozavodsk to contain local Russian-speaking residents. Camp 6 was located in the area of the Transshipment Exchange, it held 7000 people.

Prisoners of the Auschwitz-Monowitz concentration camp at the construction of a chemical plant of the German concern I.G. Farbenindustrie AG

Jewish woman with her daughter after being released from a German forced labor camp

The corpses of Soviet citizens found on the territory of the Nazi concentration camp in Darnitsa. District of Kiev, November 1943

General Eisenhower and other American officers look at the executed prisoners of the Ohrdruf concentration camp.

The deceased prisoners of the Ohrdruf concentration camp.

Representatives of the Prosecutor's Office of the Estonian SSR at the bodies of the dead prisoners of the Klooga concentration camp. The Klooga concentration camp was located in Harju County, Keila Volost (35 km from Tallinn).

Soviet child next to his murdered mother. Concentration camp for the civilian population "Ozarichi". Belarus, the town of Ozarichi, Domanovichsky district, Polesie region.

Soldiers from the 157th American Infantry Regiment shoot the SS guards from the German concentration camp Dachau.

Arrival of prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The inmates gather centrally on the platform.

Arrival of prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp. First stage of selection. It was necessary to divide the prisoners into two columns, separating men from women and children.

Arrival of prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The guards form a column of prisoners.

Rabbis in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The inmate of the Wöbbelin concentration camp burst into tears upon learning that he was not included in the first group of prisoners to go to the hospital after being released.

Soviet soldiers examine children's clothing found in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The freed prisoners of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, mostly women and children, spend the night in one of the camp premises.

Residents of the German city of Weimar in the Buchenwald concentration camp at the bodies of the dead prisoners. The Americans brought to the camp the residents of Weimar, which was located near Buchenwald, most of whom stated that they did not know anything about this camp.

Unidentified guard at the Buchenwald concentration camp, beaten and hanged by prisoners.

Guards of the Buchenwald concentration camp beaten by prisoners in the punishment cell on their knees.

Beaten by prisoners, unknown guard at the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Servicemen of the medical service of the 20th corps of the 3rd US Army at the trailer with the corpses of prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

The bodies of prisoners who died on the train on the way to the Dachau concentration camp.

Liberated prisoners in one of the barracks of the Ebensee camp, 2 days after the arrival of the advance units of the 80th US Infantry Division.

One of the emaciated inmates of the Ebensee camp is basking in the sun.

Released from the Eselheide camp, Soviet prisoners of war swing in the arms of an American soldier.
In camp No. 326 Eselheide, about 30 thousand Soviet prisoners of war were killed; in April 1945, the surviving Red Army soldiers were liberated by units of the US 9th Army.

French Jews in the Drancy transit camp, before being sent to German concentration camps.

Guards at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp load the bodies of deceased prisoners into a truck escorted by British soldiers.

Census of former employees of the German military concentration camp by the British.

Odilo Globocnik (far right) visits the Sobibor extermination camp, which operated from May 15, 1942 to October 15, 1943. About 250 thousand Jews were killed here.

The corpse of a prisoner of the Dachau concentration camp, found by Allied soldiers in a railway carriage near the camp.

Human remains in the furnace of the Stutthof concentration camp crematorium. Location: surroundings of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland).

Hungarian actress Livia Nador, liberated from the Gusen concentration camp by soldiers of the US 11th Panzer Division near Linz, Austria.

A German boy walks along a dirt road, on the side of which lie the corpses of hundreds of prisoners who died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

The arrest of the commandant of the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen Joseph Kramer by British troops. Subsequently, he was sentenced to death and hanged on December 13 in the Hameln prison.

Children behind barbed wire in the Buchenwald concentration camp after its release.

Soviet prisoners of war are disinfected in the German prisoner of war camp Zeithain.

Prisoners during roll call at the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Polish Jews await execution under the protection of German soldiers in a ravine. Presumably from the Belzec or Sobibor camp.

The surviving Buchenwald prisoner drinks water in front of the concentration camp barracks.

British soldiers inspect the crematorium oven in the liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp, SS Hauptsturmführer Amon Leopold Goet.

Liberated child prisoners from Buchenwald emerge from the camp gates.

German prisoners of war are led through the Majdanek concentration camp. The remains of the prisoners of the death camp lie on the ground in front of the prisoners, and the crematorium ovens are also visible. Outskirts of the Polish city of Lublin.

Soviet prisoners of war in the Zeithain camp are disinfected before being sent to Belgium

Mauthausen prisoners look at an SS officer.

Death march from the Dachau concentration camp.

Prisoners in forced labor. The Weiner Graben quarry at the Mauthausen concentration camp, Austria.

Portrait of prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp after its liberation Soviet troops.

Representatives of the Prosecutor's Office of the Estonian SSR at the bodies of the dead prisoners of the Klooga concentration camp.

The arrested commandant of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Joseph Kramer, in shackles and guarded by an English escort. Nicknamed the "Belsen Beast", Kramer was convicted by an English court of war crimes and in December 1945 he was hanged in the prison in Hameln.

The bones of the killed prisoners of the Majdanek concentration camp (Lublin, Poland).

The furnace of the crematorium of the Majdanek concentration camp (Lublin, Poland). Left Lieutenant A.A. Guivik.

Lieutenant A.A. Guivik is holding the remains of prisoners of the Majdanek concentration camp.

A column of prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp on the march in the suburbs of Munich.

A young man released from the Mauthausen camp.

The liberation of the surviving prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet soldiers.

The corpse of a prisoner of the Leipzig-Tekla concentration camp on barbed wire.

Remains of prisoners in the crematorium of the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar.

One of 150 prisoners killed in the Gardelegen concentration camp.

In April 1945, in the Gardelegen concentration camp, the SS men drove about 1,100 prisoners into a barn and set them on fire. Some of the victims tried to escape, but were shot and killed by the guards.

Meeting of Americans - liberators of the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Residents of the city of Ludwigslust walk past the bodies of prisoners of the same name concentration camp for prisoners of war. The bodies of the victims were found by servicemen of the American 82nd Airborne Division. The bodies were found in pits in the camp courtyard and in the interior. By order of the Americans, the civilian population of the area was obliged to come to the camp to get acquainted with the results of the crimes of the Nazis.

Workers of the Dora-Mittelbau camp killed by the Nazis.

American generals Patton, Bradley, Eisenhower in the Ohrdruf concentration camp near the fire, where the bodies of prisoners were burned by the Germans.

Registration photographs of children-prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Sending Slovak Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Arrival of a train with new prisoners to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Soviet prisoners of war liberated by the Americans from a camp near the French town of Sarreguemines, bordering Germany.

The victim's hand is deeply burned by phosphorus. The experiment consisted of setting fire to a mixture of phosphorus and rubber on the skin of a living person.

Liberated prisoners of the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Selection of Jews who have just arrived at the concentration camp.

Liberated prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

A Soviet prisoner of war, after the complete liberation of the Buchenwald camp by American troops, points to a former guard who brutally beat the prisoners.

SS soldiers lined up on the parade ground of the Plaszów concentration camp.

Former guard of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp F. Herzog dismantles a pile of prisoners' corpses.

Soviet prisoners of war freed by the Americans from the Eselheide camp.

Liberated children from the Auschwitz concentration camp.

A pile of corpses of prisoners in the crematorium of the Dachau concentration camp.

A pile of corpses of prisoners in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

The corpses of prisoners of the Lambach concentration camp in the forest before burial.

A French prisoner of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp on the floor of a barrack among his dead comrades.

Soldiers from the American 42nd Infantry Division at the car with the bodies of prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp.

Prisoners of the Ebensee concentration camp.

The corpses of prisoners in the courtyard of the Dora-Mittelbau camp.

Prisoners of the German concentration camp Wöbbelin await medical attention.

Camp inmate Dora-Mittelbau (Nordhausen) shows an American soldier the camp crematorium.

In total, 10 mentions of this article were found

When the Bergen-Belsen camp was transferred to a temporary detention regime in April 1943, it consisted of barracks that had previously been occupied by prisoners of war. At the very beginning, the Häftlingslager camp was designed to house 500 male prisoners who were working to create a temporary detention camp for foreign prisoners to be exchanged for German prisoners of war. Inmates at the Häftlingslager camp were required to wear striped uniforms and were required to work until exhaustion. The first prisoner transport for this camp left the 1943 concentration camp. In addition to this number, a group of French prisoners was transferred from the 1943 concentration camp. Beginning in March 1944, a special section was created in the Häftlingslager camp, designed to accommodate prisoners who are sick or who are no longer able to perform physical work - the recovery camp (Erholungslager). In 1945, sick prisoners from all concentration camps in Germany were transferred to this section, where, without adequate medical care, they died en masse. This section is also called the Krankenlager Camp. The first prisoner transport for the Recovery Camp arrived in 1944 - it brought 1000 prisoners from the camp. By the time Bergen-Belsen was liberated, only 57 of them were still alive. About 200 prisoners in the Häftlingslager camp were killed by injection (this process was led by an inmate named Karl Rothe, who had the status of "head nurse" and was appointed to this position). He was killed by the prisoners themselves in September 1944.

According to various sources, the launch of 2,000 missiles, aimed over seven months to destroy London, resulted in the deaths of over 2,700 people (one or two people died from each missile). Near the factory, on the southern slope of Mount Konstein, there was a supplier of slaves to the factory. Missile manufacturing took away more lives than missile strikes. In the camp, 25 thousand corpses were found buried, another 5 thousand people were shot before the offensive of the American army.

Concentration camp (German Dora-Mittelbau), from 28 August 1943 to autumn 1944 as additional camp(Dora refers to the letter "D") - later as an independent camp Mittelbau (German Mittelbau) (after the destruction of the army laboratory Peenemünde (German Peenemünde) was rebuilt. ), was the largest underground weapons factory in World War 2. The factory primarily produced "-2" - German Vergeltungswaffe-2).
Concentration camp Dornburg (German Dornburg), camp number: 239, March 21, 1945 - April 10, 1945

Simultaneously with the labor of hired workers, forced labor of prisoners, prisoners of war, prisoners and "" was widely used in the factories of the company. According to the company itself, by the fall, Siemens had 50,000 forced laborers - about a fifth of the entire workforce. So, at the factory in Ravensbrück, where communications equipment was produced, more than 2,000 women prisoners of the concentration camp worked. Siemens Schuckertwerke AG also owned a factory in the Bobrek concentration camp, one of the approximately forty Legendaries of the Auschwitz 3 concentration camp, which was part of the camp complex known collectively as "". Gilbert Michelin, a former prisoner of Bobrec, noted in his memoirs that living conditions were as uncomfortable as in Birkenau, but there were no gas chambers, no beatings, and a day off was set on Sunday. In addition to the forced labor of prisoners of the Ravensbrück and Auschwitz camps, Siemens used the labor of prisoners from its own concentration camp, which it contained in the Berlin-Haselhorst area. The prisoners of the camp were used for forced labor in the Siemens-Schuckert and Siemens-Baunion cable works. Prisoners of the Königs Wüsterhausen, Gross-Rosen, etc. camps also worked for the Siemens concern. Subsequently, the Siemens AG concern established a special fund for persons who worked under duress during the Second World War for the companies that were part of the Siemens House.

An example of the most brutal forced labor during the final phase of World War II was the Nazi concentration camp Dora (KZ Dora). This place was located in the center of Germany in South Harz near the city of Nordhausen and was a branch of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

A special feature of the Dora concentration camp was that the prisoners had to work underground in specially created military factories. One of these places was the Mittelwerk missile factory, where the installation of “weapons of retaliation” - the world's first long-range ballistic missiles V-2 (V-2) - was carried out. They were designed by the German designer Werner von Braun. The Nazis believed that their use would lead to a turn in the war. It was with them that the Nazis bombed London. In addition, the assembly of V-1 projectile aircraft was carried out here.

In 1944, the German Minister of Armaments Albert Speer ordered the creation of a whole network of construction projects in the Nordhausen area. Dozens of concentration camps were set up throughout the Harz, most of which were concentrated around Mount Constein. All these camps later became part of the concentration camp called Mittelbau-Dora (German: Mittelbau-Dora).

In early 1945, the Auschwitz death camp was evacuated by the SS. More than 16 thousand prisoners were moved inland - to the Mittelbau-Dora camp. The last commandant of Auschwitz, SS Sturmbannfuehrer Richard Baer, took over the administration of the Mittelbau concentration camp in February 1945.

From August 1943 to April 1945, more than 60 thousand people from all over Europe were brought to the camp. At least 20 thousand prisoners did not live to see the end of the war. In April 1945, it was liberated by the Americans, and the entrances to the so-called underground tunnel system in Mount Constein were blown up by Soviet troops in 1947.

After the war, the camp ground was used to house the freed forced laborers, and in July 1945 it was handed over to the Soviet authorities. Later, the camp served as a place for resettlement of the Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia. In 1946 the camp was disbanded and the barracks were dismantled. By the summer of 1947, there were practically no traces of the camp. Its existence was reminded of the only building - the former crematorium.

In the mid-1960s, a memorial complex was built on the site of the Dora camp. In the 1990s, interest in the history of the concentration camp increased and the complex was reconstructed. Part of the adits system became available for visiting. Since 2006, a permanent exhibition has been opened on the territory, telling visitors about the tragic history of this place.

In the museum building, on an area of 420 square meters, there is a permanent exhibition dedicated to the history of the camp.

As a rule, massive buildings were erected as gates to the concentration camps of the 3rd Reich. In the Dora camp, there were no longer such camp gates. The border between the SS territories and the concentration camp was just a wooden fence. There were no well-known inscriptions “Labor liberates” (Arbeit macht frei) or “To each his own” (Jedem das seine).

The camp fence ran along the perimeter of the concentration camp and was under high voltage current.

Every morning a roll call of prisoners was held on the parade ground. Physical punishment and mass hangings were also carried out here.

In the camp prison, the Gestapo and the SS were torturing and killing prisoners.

There was also a place where prisoners were secretly executed and hanged.

The camp had over 60 wooden barracks, each of which housed up to 400 prisoners.

Since the fall of 1944, a crematorium worked on the territory of the camp, where about 5,000 corpses were burned.

On the territory of the SS, there were residential barracks for 1000 soldiers.

Adits are horizontal shafts drilled or dug in the soil. A small part of the adits is open to the public.

You can see part of the main adit A and three side adits in which prisoners lived in unprecedented conditions.

The temperature underground is 9 degrees.

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Dora-Mittelbau, also called Dora-Nordhausen, ... Created on 28.8.1943 in the Harz Mountains, on the slope of Mount Konstein, 5 km from Nordhausen (Thuringia), originally was a branch of a concentration camp ... On this site, in 1936, construction began on the Wifo underground fuel depot (Wirtschaftliche Forschungsgesellschaft - Economic Research Society). The first 100 prisoners arrived on 8/28/1943 - 10 days after the destruction of the V-2 base at Peenemünde. From the very beginning it was assumed that D.-M. production of "weapons of retaliation" - V-2 missiles will be organized; production began in Jan. 1944 (supervised by engineer Arthur Rudolph). In the summer of 1944, V-1 production was also launched here. Later, the production of aircraft engines from Heinkel and Junkers was also located in the adits.

In the camp, the prisoners worked in tunnels specially cut into the mountain; it is the largest underground weapons factory during World War II. Inside the mountain, the prisoners laid 2 parallel adits (tunnels A and B), into which the railway tracks and the necessary equipment were laid. These tunnels were approx. 1.8 km and an altitude of approx. 30 m, between them 46 tunnels were laid across the running tunnels. By May 1945, the total length of the camp tunnels was approx. 20 km, and the total area is 250,000 m2.

D.-M. was one of the most difficult camps in Germany. The workshops were built mainly by Jews, and after the completion of the work, almost all of them were taken to Auschwitz and Mauthausen and destroyed there. At the first stage of the camp's existence, the conditions in it were extremely difficult, which led to the mass death of prisoners from overwork, exhaustion and diseases (mainly of the lungs).

10/28/1944 D.-M. became an independent camp, called the "Mittelbau concentration camp" (Konzentrationslager Mittelbau). Initially, the camp had 23 branches and external teams, by April. 1944 their number increased to 40. Each branch acted as a branch of the camp, producing components for the main production.

03/25/1945 in the camp was approx. 34,000 prisoners, and on 1.4.1945 began their evacuation to Bergen-Belsen (several thousand died and were shot on the way). 3.4.1945 the camp was subjected to devastating bombing by the American Air Force. In apr. 1945 the evacuation of prisoners to Bergen-Belsen, Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg and others began (since river transport was used, many prisoners died as a result of raids on ships by Allied aircraft). 1,016 inmates were burnt alive in the guard house.

In total, during the existence of the camp, approx. 60,000 prisoners of 21 nationalities, of whom died (most of them during the construction of tunnels) approx. 20,000 people

04/12/1945 the territory of the camp (where only sick and disabled prisoners remained) was liberated by units of the 104th Infantry Division of the 1st US Army. The equipment was dismantled by the Soviet occupation authorities and removed. In 1966, the Memorial to the Victims of Nazism was opened here.