Prescribed commemoration - Mittelbau-Dora Memorial

Residents of Nordhausen burying the bodies of concentration camp prisoners from the Boelcke barracks in the new cemetery of honor in mid-April 1945, on the orders of the US troops. This order was intended to convey to the population their responsibility for the Nazi crimes committed right in the middle of their town.
Photo: Harold Lee (Mittelbau-Dora Memorial)

On 11 April 1945, US troops discovered the Boelcke barracks, one of the Mittelbau Concentration Camp’s subcamps. There they found well over 1,000 dead and dying concentration camp prisoners. They were only able to liberate around 250 survivors.

Over the next few days, the US troops conscripted the local population to construct a cemetery of honor across from the municipal cemetery. Residents of Nordhausen had to carry the dead from the Boelcke barracks to the burial site and bury them in 30 elongated collective graves.

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Layout of the new cemetery of honor, in the background the destroyed buildings of the Boelcke barracks.
Photo: Russ Ballinger (private ownership Claudia King)

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On US orders, residents of Nordhausen carrying the bodies of concentration camp prisoners from the Boelcke barracks to the new cemetery of honor, April 1945.
Photo: Russ Ballinger (private ownership Claudia King)

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Residents of Nordhausen carrying the bodies of concentration camp prisoners to the new cemetery of honor, April 1945.
Photo: Harold Lee (Mittelbau-Dora Memorial)

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US soldiers supervising the burial of the bodies in the collective grave rows on the hill, April 1945.
Photo: Geza M. Szirony (private ownership James Szirony)

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US soldiers supervising the burial of the bodies, April 1945.
Photo: Russ Ballinger (private ownership Claudia King)

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The new cemetery of honor, April 1945.
Photo: unknown (National Archives, Washington)

On 13 May 1945, the town's population were required to attend a funeral service held as an inaugural ceremony of the cemetery of honor and to lay flowers on the graves. These actions, ordered by the US military, were intended to convey to the population their responsibility for the National Socialist crimes – an assertion that most of the residents rejected.