Everyday life after the camp - Mittelbau-Dora Memorial

Rocket on display at the market in Ellrich, in the background the Kaffee Brauer (today the Sparkasse bank), after 11 April 1945.
Photo: George Phillips (Sammlung K.-H. Schwerdtfeger)

In June 1945, US officer George Phillips was in Ellrich and the surrounding area. He used his private cameras to document everyday life in the occupied small town, where two of the Mittelbau concentration camp’s subcamps had been located.

Phillips photographed a V2 rocket on display at the Ellrich market, the parts of which had been found at the Mittelwerk plant near Nordhausen. Apparently, the US occupiers wanted to show the population the weapons that had been manufactured there using forced laborers. These rockets killed thousands of people in cities such as London and Antwerp in the last year of the war.

1/4

The V2 rocket was found by the US Army in the Mittelwerk plant and mounted on a transport trailer. Technicians used V1 parts to complete the tip, then cut the completed rocket open to the tail for display, after 11 April 1945.
Photo: George Phillips (Sammlung K.-H. Schwerdtfeger)

2/4

Children and young people looking at the rocket on display at the market, pieced together from various parts, after 11 April 1945.
Photo: George Phillips (Sammlung K.-H. Schwerdtfeger)

3/4

The sign on the tail fin was put up during the recovery of the rocket at the Mittelwerk plant, after 11 April 1945.
Photo: George Phillips (Sammlung K.-H. Schwerdtfeger)

4/4

The rocket on display in Ellrich, after 11 April 1945.
Photo: George Phillips (Sammlung K.-H. Schwerdtfeger)

Numerous photos taken by George Phillips also show the site of the former Ellrich-Juliushütte subcamp. Just a few days before the arrival of US troops on 12 April 1945, the bodies of more than 1,000 concentration camp prisoners were burned on funeral pyres, as can be seen in his photos.