The concentration camp where prisoners built the underground rocket factory was created due to the relocation of the production of the "V2" rockets from Peenemunde to a tunnel system in Nordhausen.
The concentration camp where prisoners built the underground rocket factory was created due to the relocation of the production of the "V2" rockets from Peenemunde to a tunnel system in Nordhausen.
For the inmates of this fast-growing camp, life meant working and living for months in indescribable conditions under the mountain. Of the 60,000 people detained in Mittelbau Dora and its numerous sub-camps, 20,000 lost their lives between August 1943 and April 1945. At the memorial, visitors can see the camp grounds and the tunnel system as part of a guided tour. A permanent exhibition in the newly renovated museum tells the story of the camp, the prisoners, offenders and accomplices. The exhibition focuses on the role of Mittelbau Dora as a model of concentration camp slave labour and the underground factory as well as the question of why the Germans in 1943, when the war was lost long ago, began the "total war" and controlled the senseless killing of tens of thousands in forced labour in the Harz building rockets.
