On 11 April 1945, US troops discovered the Mittelbau concentration camp's subcamp at the Boelcke barracks. There they found well over 1,000 dead and dying concentration camp inmates. Only about 250 inmates could be freed alive. In the days that followed, the US forces ordered the local population to lay out a cemetery of honor opposite the municipal cemetery. The people of Nordhausen had to carry the dead from the Boelcke barracks to their graves and bury them in 30 long collective graves.
After the US troops left, the cemetery of honor remained a place of remembrance. In order to make the graves visible again and to enable dignified remembrance, the cemetery of honor has been redesigned since 2023. The 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp marks the inauguration of the newly designed cemetery of honour.
