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In late 1943 an external branch of the Buchenwald concentration camp was established near Nordhausen and was designated Dora.
This measure was occasioned by the bombardment of the Peenemünde rocket experimentation plant on August 17/18 1943. Concentration camp inmates as well as forced labour convicts were put to work in the armament industry to mobilise all available manpower for the “total war”. From January 1944 the so-called V-Weapons were produced in Dora.
The inmates were locked up in the tunnels day and night and under the murderous living and working conditions many died within a few weeks. In spring of 1944 the new barracks were built above ground. Therefore the camp received the status of an independent camp. Until the end of the camp the network of over ground camps and underground facilities was still being expanded. Most of the inmates worked at a numerous construction sites, only about ten per cent being employed in the underground factories. The underground work was under the supervision of leading engineers for example Wernher von Braun or Arthur Rudolph.
From 1943 till 1945 in Mittelbau-Dora altogether 60000 inmates, 20000 died, most of them while carrying out construction work. The tunnels were blasted in 1949 by the Soviets.
The camp was liberated on April 11 1945. The US Army found 1200 dead and dying persons. The former barrack camp served as a resettler’s camp until 1946 and was the demolished.
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