Pictures of the atrocities - Mittelbau-Dora Memorial

View of the destroyed garages at the Boelcke barracks subcamp, 11 April 1945.
Photo: Bryce C. Thornton (Mittelbau-Dora Memorial)

On the morning of 11 April 1945, US soldiers came across the destroyed buildings of the Boelcke barracks on the outskirts of Nordhausen. There, among the bodies of well over 1,000 concentration camp prisoners, they found around 250 survivors.

Pictures of the piles of corpses went around the world after the liberation, revealing to the public the extent of the National Socialist crimes in the concentration camps.

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The bodies of prisoners killed in the camp lined up in front of the destroyed garages at the Boelcke barracks, April 1945.
Photo: Bryce C. Thornton (Mittelbau-Dora Memorial)

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US soldiers shortly after the liberation at the former subcamp in the Boelcke barracks, April 1945.
Photo: Geza M. Szirony (private ownership Jim Szirony)

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Bodies of concentration camp prisoners and forced laborers amidst the rubble of the Boelcke barracks, April 1945.
Photo: unknow (private ownership Rhonda R. Dorsett)

In January 1945, the SS had converted two vehicle halls at the barracks into a subcamp of the Mittelbau concentration camp, which was used to house sick and dying prisoners. These prisoners were largely left to their fate – around 3,000 of them died in just three months.

British air raids on 3 and 4 April 1945 hit the barracks hard. The pilots were unaware that it was a prisoner camp. Numerous prisoners were killed in the attacks, as the German guards had denied them access to the air raid shelters.