Death March Stele - Mittelbau-Dora Memorial

Death March Stele

The stele was erected in 1984 to commemorate the victims of the death marches from the concentration camps that were part of the Mittelbau-Dora complex. A panel shows the routes of the clearance transports and death marches. Monuments of the same design were installed in multiple locations in the southern Harz.

On the right of the picture is a small piece of wall made of red brick. Attached to this section of wall is a plaque with a map showing the routes of the death marches from Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. The camp road leads past this section of the wall on the left. — Death march stele on the grounds of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp memorial, 2022. Photo: Lukas Severin Damm. ©Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial

In early April 1945 the SS cleared the camp due the approach of the American forces. Inmates were forced on death marches through the Harz. Guards shot inmates who collapsed from exhaustion along the way or who tried to flee. Thousands of dead lined the streets.

Leading up to the 35th anniversary of the liberation in 1980, the Council of the District of Erfurt decided to set up 35 identical steles in commemoration of the death marches of the inmates of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camps. The design of the stele is by Eckhard Bendin, then the director of the Office for Architecture-related Art for the District of Erfurt.