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Repurposing

Civilians using rocket parts to erect temporary shelters on the industrial site of the former Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, after 11 April 1945.
Photo: unknown / United States Strategic Bombing Survey (National Archives, Washington)

After the devastating bombing raids on Nordhausen on 3 and 4 April 1945, many people had tried to escape the chaos of the ruined town. They sought refuge in the abandoned but undestroyed industrial facilities in and around the Kohnstein. People from Nordhausen and forced laborers who had been deported to the region found temporary shelter in the tunnels and even in the rocket components that had been left behind.

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Civilians pulling a fully-loaded wagon through the industrial site of the former Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. The entrances to the tunnel system were on the left, after 11 April 1945.
Footage: George Stevens – US Army Signal Corps (Library of Congress, Washington)
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Residents of Nordhausen used the tunnel complex as temporary shelter after their homes had been destroyed during the bombing of the city, after 11 April 1945.
Photo: unknown (National Archives, Washington)
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Two liberated prisoners of the former Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in front of a half-finished V2 rocket, 12 April 1945.
Photo: John R. Driza / US Army Signal Corps (National Archives, Washington)

It is said that the municipal hospital also used the tunnels after its buildings on Taschenberg were severely damaged in the air raids. Later, resources, building materials, and machinery were taken from the tunnels for makeshift repairs on the damaged buildings in the town.

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Two US soldiers on the fuselage section of a V2 rocket, April 1945.
Photo: James Mitchell (Mittelbau-Dora Memorial)
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Unused material for armaments assembly in the Mittelwerk plant stored in the abandoned industrial area of the former Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, May / June 1945.
Photo: George Phillips (Sammlung K.-H. Schwerdtfeger)
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