Dora-Mittelbau Memorial

The camp was primarily used for the construction of large underground factories and development facilities for the V-2 missile program and other experimental weapons. The construction of underground production facilities was necessitated by Allied air raids on industrial complexes in Germany.

Concentration camp prisoners dug large tunnels into the surrounding mountains to house these production and storage areas. Until the spring of 1944, prisoners were kept mostly underground, deprived of daylight and fresh air, and enclosed in unstable tunnels. The mortality rate at Dora-Mittelbau was higher than at most other concentration camps. Prisoners too weak or ill to work were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau or Mauthausen to be killed. In 1944, a compound to house forced laborers was built above ground level south of the main factory area. Once full production of the missiles began in the fall of 1944, Dora-Mittelbau had a standing prisoner population of at least 12,000.

Dora-Mittelbau was enclosed by an electrified barbed-wire fence, with the main entrance located in the east of the camp. The camp had a crematorium, a camp prison, and a roll call area where prisoners were assembled before being marched off to forced labor. The camp also had a prisoner resistance organization, which sought mainly to delay production of the weapons and to sabotage the rockets that were produced. Prisoners suspected of sabotage were usually killed; more than 200 were publicly hanged for this reason.

In early April 1945, the Nazis began to evacuate the prisoners from Dora-Mittelbau. Most of the remaining prisoners were sent to Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany. Thousands were killed during death marches under horrendous conditions. When American forces liberated Dora-Mittelbau in April 1945, only a few prisoners were still in the camp.

Today, the Dora-Mittelbau Memorial site serves as a place of remembrance and education. It includes preserved remnants of the camp, a museum, and educational resources, providing a comprehensive understanding of the camp’s history and its role in the Holocaust.