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In May 1945, a delegation of US congressmen visited Mittelbau-Dora on their tour of various liberated concentration camps. They wanted to gain an impression of the crimes committed by the National Socialists. During their visit, the delegation also inspected the rocket parts remaining in the tunnel. Here Representative Dewey Short and Senator Leverett Saltonstall inspecting components of a V2 rocket, 1 May 1945.
Photo: Merge / US Army Signal Corps (National Archives, Washington)

When the US liberators arrived, they found the Mittelwerk assembly plant in Kohnstein, the production facilities for the German “wonder weapons,” intact. Special American and British delegations traveled to Germany to inspect these underground production facilities.

The US military was highly interested in the German rocket technology for its own research, and issued an order on 22 May 1945 to dismantle entire rocket assemblies and production machines and transport them to the USA. There was need for haste, as Thuringia was to be ceded to the Soviet occupation zone on 1 July, in accordance with the Allied agreement.

After Soviet special commandos took possession of the former Mittelwerk plant at the beginning of July, they also had machines and missiles transported to the USSR.

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US congressmen inspecting the liberated Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp on 1 May 1945.
Photo: Merge / US Army Signal Corps (National Archives, Washington)
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US army reporters inspecting the industrial site belonging to the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, after 11 April 1945.
Photo: unknown (National Archives, Washington)
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A partially assembled V2 rocket in the underground tunnel system was already labeled for transport to the USA when a British military delegation inspected the camp in May 1945.
Photo: unknown (D-Day Museum, Portsmouth)
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In the former Kleinbodungen subcamp, US troops also came across parts of V2 rockets that had been left behind. Concentration camp prisoners had been ordered to repair defective rockets here, after 11 April 1945.
Photo: unknown (National Archives, Washington)
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