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Rail Wagon

Close to the former bridge over the Zorge River is a restored wagon of the Reichsbahn at the edge of the street leading to the camp. Today it marks the entrance to the memorial and symbolizes the abduction of tens of thousands of concentration camp inmates from German-occupied regions of Europe for forced labour in the southern Harz.

The photo shows an old railway carriage of the German Reichsbahn in autumn. The wagon is standing on a small piece of track in a meadow. There is a small information board in front of the wagon.
Railway wagon, 2022. Photo: Lukas Severin Damm.

Beginning in the spring of 1944, the SS transported inmates in wagons such as this to Camp Dora and other Mittelbau camps. In early 1945 inmates "evacuated" from camps in the East arrived in Dora, though a great number of the enfeebled inmates had not survived the long transport in overcrowded and poorly ventilated wagons.


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