
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.