About the exhibition

2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp on 11 April 1945. On this occasion, the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial, in cooperation with the cities of Nordhausen and Ellrich, is presenting the outdoor exhibition “After the liberation. Mittelbau-Dora in the spring 1945” from April to August 2025.

This exhibition focuses on the camps and the surrounding area in the weeks following liberation. The aim is to show the complexity of the liberation of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. To do so, it captures the perspectives of the liberated, the liberators, and the local population. And it shows that many people did not live to see their liberation – they died in the camps or on during murderous clearance transports and “death marches” shortly before the liberation.

The exhibition centers around historical photographs and film recordings made in Nordhausen and the surrounding area in the spring of 1945. They tell stories of the shock of the horror of Nazi crimes, of survival, of confrontation and of repression. Some of these photographs were only recently handed over to the memorial from private archives. They are now on public display for the first time as part of this exhibition.

Ten steles have been erected at various historical sites: on the grounds of the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial, in Nordhausen at the cemetery of honor and at the site of the former subcamp in the Boelcke barracks; in Ellrich on the market square and at the memorial site for the Ellrich-Juliushütte subcamp.

The content of the exhibition is also available online.