DORA The concentration camp where the V-bombs were produced
Photo cover: Two surviving prisoners on steps at the Boelcke Barracks during the Liberation Nordhausen, April 1945 Photo by the American soldier James M. Myers National Archives Washington, 208-AA-130H-26
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Dora-Mittelbau: an underground concentration camp
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Pierre Joseph Denis 3 2.
Exterminaton through work in the Dora tunnels
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Leopold Claessens 7 3. The hell at Harzungen 8 Jan Cools 9 4.
Ellrich, the camp of the dead
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Franรงois and Roger De Coster 11 5. Blankenburg, the Belgian camp 14 Louis Boeckmans 15 6. Resistance in Dora 16 Pierre Joseph Denis 17 7.
New forced labourers from Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen
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Tobias Schiff
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8. Dodenmarsen 20 Frans Jonghbloet 21 9. Allied bombs on Nordhausen 24 Oleg Steenbrugge 25 10. The end of Dora 28
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Dora-Mittelbau: an underground concentration camp For them, every day involved the same torture. Twelve hours of uninterrupted work in dark and dusty passages: carrying rubble to the outside, hacking the ground with pickaxes, drilling with compressor drills, … Then six hours of formalities, including the roll call, after which meagre amounts of food were distributed. This was followed by six hours of ‘rest’. They slept in wooden bunk beds in the same tunnels, while the dynamiThe SS transferred the fi rst forced labourers to te explosions continued. They almost never saw Dora from the concentration camp Buchenwald. daylight. They were required to dig tunnels in the Kohnstein hill for the installation of the Mittelwerk According to estimations, one in three prisoners factory. Their numbers had reached about 10,000 did not survive the fi rst months. A few weeks laby the end of 1943, and about 300 of these were ter, the fi rst V-weapons had been produced. Belgian. At the end of 1943, after the Allies had bombed the centre of V-bomb production in Northern Germany, the Germans began a secret building site in the Harz mountains near Nordhausen. The plan: subterranean factories for the production of V-weapons, etc. The workers: in majority forced labourers. The camp in which they were imprisoned was referred to as ‘Dora’.
A V-2, measuring 14 metres high, in one of the enormous passages at Dora-Mittelwerk Propaganda photos by Walter Frentz, one of Hitler’s private photographers, 1944 KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, invent no 128.025 and 128.014 Hanns-Peter Frentz collection, Berlin
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Pierre Joseph Denis Pierre Joseph Denis, 1945 Denis family collection
The resistance fighter from Liege, Pierre Joseph Denis (°1921), was one of the first Belgians to enter Dora’s dark passageways on 2 September 1943: ‘Through the mist of chalk, we could see no further than 10 metres. The stench of burning plaster was choking and the dull sound of explosions was appalling. In the shadowy light of a few lamps, we were beaten and forced through these catacombs to our sleeping quarters, where we lay pressed together in wooden bunks stacked four high.’ It was three days until we were given any food: ‘A piece of bread and cooked turnips, which we ate in-between the dead and the dying. We hardly recognised each other, as we had lost weight and were covered in plaster dust. It stank of chlorine and the dead. You could hardly inhale the air. We laid in the bunk beds, between or on top of the other prisoners. Sometimes a body had to be thrown off. At one point, a group of SS members came in and were bellowing. Using clubs and whips, they rounded up the prisoners to carry the dead and the dying out to carts, which were then taken to the crematorium at Buchenwald. It was pure hell.’
Prisoners at work in the tunnels at Dora, 1944 Nazi propaganda photo by Hanns Hubmann Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbezitz, 30036922
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Exterminaton through work in the Dora tunnels In 1944, Dora itself became an independent concentration camp, comprising the main camp and 40 side camps. Over 65,000 prisoners were held there during the Second World War, principally on sites of the German construction firm Organisation Todt (OT). An estimated 26,500 of these did not survive the war.
In the spring of 1944, the production of V-weapons was in full flow and further work camps were needed to dig out new passages in the hills. More and more prisoners were taken from Buchenwald to Dora, including hundreds of men who were deported from Belgium between May and August. Many Belgians stayed briefly in the main camp, before being transferred to side camps, or ending up in the sick bays or Boelcke Barracks in Nordhausen, where weakened prisoners died a slow death. Over 2,600 Belgians were held in one of the Dora camps, including a hundred from Antwerp. Between 1,200 and 1,400 did not survive the misery.
One of the two large tunnels at Mittelwerk, storing V-2 motors, 1945 KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, 089.015 D-Day Museum, Portsmouth
Entrance to one of the two large tunnels under the Kohnstein hill, 1945 KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, 089.011 D-Day Museum, Portsmouth
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Leopold Claessens Leopold Claessens circa 1942 (left) Leopold and two British army members in Bergen-Belsen after Liberation Claessens family collection
Resistance member Leopold Claessens (°1924) from Burcht ended up at one of the Dora building sites in June 1944: ‘One of the Belgians in our group was a miner and familiar with the kind of drills we needed to use to make the tunnels. He had to train us. Our job was among the hardest forced labour. The life expectancy of prisoners was one month.’ Leopold: ‘Two Nazis always stood beside the open toilets with a baronet on their rifles. On several occasions, I witnessed how prisoners were kicked in the back, pushed into the filth and suffocated. On one occasion, two Hungarian Jews were missing during the roll call. They had fallen asleep on the compressors, which were lovely and warm. The engineers dragged the poor souls outside over the sharp stones. There they made a large circle and ordered us to fetch the one and two-metre drills. Meanwhile, all local SS members joined the gathering. They drilled the two Hungarians to bits. The blood and bits of flesh flew all over the place. It is the worst thing I have ever seen.’
A Dora prisoner shows the American liberators the crematorium in the main camp. April 1945 Photo taken by American soldier John R. Driza. National Archives Washington, 208-AA-130H-3
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The hell at Harzungen Harzungen camp was completed in June 1944. It had a barbed wire enclosure and an electric fence. Ten of the fourteen buildings were used to accommodate an estimated 4,000 prisoners. A total of about 750 Belgians were held there during the course of its existence.
In March 1944, the SS decided to open two new work camps near the main camp: Harzungen and Ellrich. In doing so, the Germans wished to resolve the lack of space and get new tunnels dug by a fresh supply of labourers from Buchenwald. Little is known about the early weeks in these two camps, but large groups of Belgians and French ended up there in May and June.
One of the entrances to the underground factories, 1945. Photo taken by the American soldier George Philips KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, 519.037 K.H. Schwerdtfeger collection
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Jan Cools Jan Cools in Landshut (Germany) after the Liberation. Guido Van Wassenhove collection
Resistance member Jan Cools (°1915) from Wuustwezel ended up in Harzungen in June 1944: ‘At 3 in the morning: “Get up! Get to work Commando Bertha!” This was the sign to appear at the roll call and stand in lines of five. Departure from the camp was at 4 am, past the control post and, on foot, along the main road to Niedersachswerfen, along an appalling path, covered in sharp pebbles, to a rock escarpment where we saw, to our great amazement, openings in the rocks.’ After eight hours in the tunnels, they marched back again: ‘With dry lips, a dry mouth and throat, and dying of thirst, we encountered a sign saying “Forbidden to drink the water!” in three languages. Being so incredibly thirsty, most newcomers tended to ignore this warning and would drink greedily. These people suffered terrible diarrhoea. A second sign bore the message: “One louse your death”.’ ‘At about 8 pm, if the roll call was successful, people had to sleep. So six hours were set aside for sleep. Two people in one bed of 75 cm wide, on a sack filled with wood wool and a single blanket.’
Digging tunnels around Dora, 1944. The photo was taken by Walter Frentz, one of Adolf Hitler’s private photographers. He did not photograph the misery in the tunnels. KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, 128.001 Hanns-Peter Frentz collection, Berlin
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Ellrich, the camp of the dead According to many, life was worst of all in Dora’s largest side camp. The combination of primitive accommodation and exhausting daily marches gave Ellrich its terrible reputation. It was not a new camp, but an extension to the empty and ruined buildings of the old plaster factory near the village station. At its peak over 8,000 priso-
ners were held in Ellrich. On 1 November 1944, there were 660 Belgians. 4,000 people are estimated to have died there. The mortality was so high that the bodies were burned on the inner courtyard. In March 1945, its own crematorium was built. The main camp could no longer cope with all the bodies.
The heavily guarded entrance and enclosure at Ellrich, 1945 Photos taken by the American soldier George Philips KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, 519.014 and 519.017 K.-H. Schwerdtfeger collection
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François and Roger De Coster François and Roger De Coster in 1945, after having experienced the hell of Dora. De Coster family collection
The brothers François (°1920), Willy (°1925) and Roger (°1928) De Coster were held together with their father Jos (°1887) for resistance activities in Wespelaar. Jos and Willy were left behind in Buchenwald and died in 1945. Roger and François ended up in Ellrich in July 1944. François: ‘When we arrived, there was a roll call of about an hour, after which the newcomers had to wait until we were “booked in”. In this block the bunks were two high and stood on a stone floor. We had to sleep in twos in a bed that was only big enough for one. There was no sign of any food, as nothing was given to newcomers.’ Roger: ‘There were lice and fleas everywhere. If you scratched you got big wounds that would never heal. During disinfection, we had to get undressed and wait naked where the roll call was usually carried out. They beat us and immersed us in a bath of creolin. We were not given a towel. I wore the same underwear for six months. Our hair was shaved off every three weeks with clippers or scissors. The shearer gave us a parting in the middle sometimes or one on the side. I was given shoes on one occasion.’
The large ‘residential block’ at Ellrich Photo of the former Belgian prisoner Jozef Huybreghts, who returned to Ellrich in 1958. KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, 323.018
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The crematorium and incinerator in Ellrich, 1945 Photos taken by the American soldier George Philips KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, 519.016 and 519.020 K.H. Schwerdtfeger collection
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Before the crematorium was added, bodies were burned on a wood pile in Ellrich. Americans found these human remains during the Liberation in 1945 Photo by the American soldier Georges Philips KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, 519.019 K.-H. Schwerdtfeger collection
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Blankenburg, the Belgian camp In late August 1944, the Germans created the work camp Klosterwerke in the village of Blankenburg, about 45 kilometres north of the main camp Dora. After its foundation, about 540 people were forced to work there. At least 355 of these were Belgians, who were deported from Belgium to Buchenwald in early August.
At the beginning, the prisoners stayed in tents formerly belonging to the Hitler Youth. Meanwhile, a group of prisoners built stone barracks. These were ready by the end of October 1944. Initially there were no windows. Life in Blankenburg was hard. The dead were undressed and thrown into a mass grave.
Their main task was to dig a tunnel in the Eichenberg, where V-weapons would be produced. A first group pushed a cart with the heavy building material to the entrance of the tunnel, where a second group were excavating the tunnel.
Blankenburg camp in 1958, during a visit from the Belgian ex-prisoner Jozef Huybreghts. KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, 323.021
Blankenburg camp in 1958, during a visit from the Belgian ex-prisoner Jozef Huybreghts. KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, 323.021 The work commando to which the Boeckmans brothers belonged, were required to unload cement from the train wagons. Drawing by Paul Ooms based on Louis Boeckmans’ testimony Š Paul Ooms, 2010
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Louis Boeckmans Louis Boeckmans after his liberation in 1945. Boeckmans family collection
Resistance member Louis Boeckmans (°1923) from Tessenderlo ended up in Blankenburg together with his brother Jef. At a certain moment, Louis stepped out of line to pick up an apple: ‘When I quickly rejoined the row, a member of the SS rushed over. He pointed his rifle at me and shouted in German: “What have you got there?” I showed him the piece of apple and he growled: “Get rid of it, you Schweinhund!” I threw it away and he left me in peace.’ The trouble began when we got back to the camp: ‘During the roll call the kapo suddenly shouted my number 76076: “Austreden!” I stepped forward, shaking with fear. The SS member who had caught me earlier stood beside him. He ordered the kapo and the Vorarbeiter to take me away to the washing place. I was forced to lie on a bench. The Vorarbeiter held me tight, while the kapo gave me 25 lashes on my behind. The pain was unbearable. I felt every wound get deeper with each strike. It was all messed up down there. But I was lucky, as my wounds did not become infected as was usually the case. I couldn’t bear it. I put on a brave face towards the others, and certainly towards my brother, but…’ Drawing by Paul Ooms based on Louis Boeckmans’ testimony © Paul Ooms, 2010
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Resistance in Dora Most forced labourers were political prisoners and resistance fighters. Men who had resisted German occupation were forced to help build the factory for weapons which would cause havoc back in their home towns.
Yet, even so, there was still resistance, led mainly by the French and the Russians. In the autumn of 1944, while the terror of the V-bombs was at its peak, there was even a plan to seize power in Dora. However, this was never completed. Sometimes they were successful in sabotaging the weapon production and excavation work. Yet we will never really know the true impact of these activities.
SS guards were given the task of minimising the risk of resistance activity in the Dora camps. This is why they carried out regular public punishment. Prisoners were hanged, beaten and sometimes killed in cold blood. Different nationalities were mixed up on purpose. Criminals were appointed as leaders.
Prisoners and German employees at the entrance to Dora-Mittelwerk German engineers and workers were employed in the secret factory as well as forced labourers. Photo by Hanns Huberman, for a Nazi propaganda journal, 1944 Prussian Heritage Image Archive (bpk), 30014345
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Pierre Joseph Denis Pierre Joseph Denis after the Liberation, 1945. Denis family collection
Pierre Joseph Denis (°1921) from Liege ended up on the building sites at Ilfeld and was able to participate in the resistance. It was a French resistance leader who took him into his confidence: ‘He explained what he expected of us: 1) to keep as many prisoners alive as possible; 2) to make the prisoners’ lives as bearable as possible; 3) to slow down the work; 4) to spread the resistance; 5) to get as many people as possible to join the resistance; 6) to expose informers; 7) to sabotage the production of the V-weapons as much as possible.’ Despite the danger, Denis did all he could to cause sabotage: ‘We crawled inside a rocket. We moved a black ring that secured a bundle of wires, cut the middle wire and returned the ring to its normal position. We also made notches in the fuel tank seals. We sabotaged hundreds of rockets in this way. One evening, when we returned, we saw seven men attached to a beam by the neck.’
Dora prisoners at work in the tunnels of the main camp, 1944 Propaganda photo made by Hitler’s photographer Walter Frentz. KZ Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, 128.003 Hanns-Peter Frentz collection, Berlin
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New forced labourers from
Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen The Allied armies reached Germany at the beginning of 1945. This caused the Germans to evacuate the concentration camps and transfer prisoners to other camps. This meant that a further 275 Belgians or more arrived in Dora in January 1945, following the evacuation of the camps at e.g. Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen. Only the most healthy prisoners were transported. The weaker prisoners remained and were murdered. After a hellish train journey, they arrived exhausted in Dora, where many were so worn out that they
immediately ended up in the sick bays at Dora or in Boelcke barracks in Nordhausen. Despite the losses of the German army, Dora was extended with a new side camp in Woffleben in early 1945. The plan was to build a large underground factory to the north of the large tunnels at Mittelwerk for the famous German company, Junker. This new network of tunnels in the Himmelberg was given the insignificant name B3.
View of the main camp Dora, with the sick bay front right The crematorium was slightly beyond the picture to the right, April 1945 Photo by RaphaĂŤl Algoet CegeSoma collection, 95597
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Tobias Schiff Tobias Schiff, 1942. Schiff family collection
Tobias Schiff (°1924) was a Jewish boy from Antwerp-Berchem. In August 1942, he and his parents fled from Antwerp. He was detained by the SS in France. On 28 August 1942, he was deported from Drancy (France) to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he ended up in the work camp Sakrau. He was later transferred to the work camps Spitkowice, Trzebinia, Birkenau and Buna-Monowitz. On 17-18 January 1945, the camp Buna-Monowitz was evacuated due to the advancing Russian army. This caused Tobias Schiff to end up in Dora at the end of January 1945. More and more prisoners started arriving from other camps. Among the chaos, Schiff found ‘a job with which to survive’:
my work involved translating the orders from the SS member I was good at communicating with Russian, Polish and French people it was not my living I was just good at learning languages I learned Polish in Auschwitz and Monowitz and, anyway, they weren’t conversations that I had to translate, but short orders it didn’t last long 2 or 3 weeks but it was a job with which to survive
29 April 1945, upon returning to Antwerp Tobias Schiff left and cousin Schloïme Klagsbald on the right. Collection Museum Kazerne Dossin and the Schiff family
a French man approached me he was an officer in the French army he had a temperature of 39° but the sick bay was overcrowded and he was not allowed to stay he was really ill and so thin he said to me ‘Toby, I can’t work any more’ I hid him for a few days in an unfinished hole he came to me in the morning and then I hid him
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Death marches who were unable to keep up or fell out of the line of five were mercilessly shot: ‘The SS just left the bodies along the way. You just can’t imagine how I felt at that moment. Just like the others I was completely exhausted. Every step was painful. But I carried on, as I knew that giving up meant death. Prisoners that we had known all those months marched in front and behind us. I walked on the outside beside my brother. In the row ahead of us I saw that a man had soiled his trousers We had no choice, as those who stepped out of line were immediately shot. So it was better just to do it in our trousers.’
In early April 1945, the Allies were rapidly approaching the Harz mountains. As with the other concentration camps, the Germans decided to evacuate the prisoners to other camps. The idea behind these ‘death marches’ was no longer to set prisoners to work, but to use them in negotiation. The majority of Dora prisoners ended up in Bergen-Belsen, Neuengamme, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen. Thousands were murdered along the way. Prisoners from Blankenburg, including Louis Boeckmans, were forced to walk north. The men
Louis Boeckmans joined his brother in helping a fellow prisoner during the death march. The man - Frans Verbruggen from Sint-Niklaas – did not make it. He was shot dead by the SS along the way. Drawing by Paul Ooms based on Louis’s testimony © Paul Ooms, 2010
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Frans Jonghbloet Frans Jonghbloet, portrait on the death announcement, 1945. Jonghbloet family collection
One of the most infamous acts of cruelty occurred during the death marches on 13 April 1945 near the village of Gardelegen. A thousand prisoners from Ellrich were locked up in a large barn by German SS members, after which the building was set on fire. Days later, the American liberators discovered 1,016 bodies. One of at least eight Belgian victims was Frans Jonghbloet (°1925) from Herentals. He came to Dora from Gross-Rosen in February. Until a few years ago, his family did not know how or where he had died. Until they visited the war memorial at Dora and recognised their ‘uncle Sooike’ on a terrible photo of a mutilated body in the barn.
The barn in Gardelegen that was used for the slaughter. Photo by an American soldier. Jewish Virtual Library
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Prisoners who tried to escape were cold-bloodedly murdered. The third body on this photo is that of Frans Jonghbloet. Gardelegen, 16 April 1945 National Archives Washington, 531268
It was on this photo the family recognised Frans Jonghbloet. Photo by the American photographer Charles Overstreet, April 1945 Charles Overstreet Collection
A charred body in the barn at Gardelegen. The American army took various photos to demonstrate German atrocities. Photo by Sergeant E.R. Allen, 16 April 1945. National Archives Washington, 531265
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The Americans forced German citizens from neighbouring Gardelegen to bury the bodies from the barn that had been burned down, April 1945. Photo by the American soldier Josef Erich von Stroheim National Archives Washington, 208-AA-130F-2
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Allied bombs on Nordhausen Most prisoners were evacuated from Dora and the side camps in early April 1945. The sick and wounded were either slaughtered or abandoned in the sick bays and Boelcke barracks in Nordhausen.
The victims included 1,500 concentration-camp prisoners, who were taken from the Dora camps to Boelcke barracks. When the Americans conquered Nordhausen less than a week later, they forced German citizens to bury the bodies from Boelcke barracks, and this was filmed and photographed. They always did this when they discovered a camp. How many of the emaciated prisoners were killed by British bombs and how many withered away or were shot by SS guards will never be known.
On 3 and 4 April 1945, the British army carried out an air attack on Nordhausen. Although this was not officially confirmed, it was in retaliation for the V-bomb terror. For two days and nights, almost 2,400 tons of bombs were dropped on the historic town. 8,800 people were killed, almost half of whom were women and children.
The bodies of camp prisoners in thr Boelcke barracks upon American liberation, April 1945 Photo taken by the American soldier James M. Myers National Archives Washington, 111-SC-20 34 56-S
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Oleg Steenbrugge Resistance member Oleg Steenbrugge (°1918) was taken from the concentration camp Gross-Rosen to Dora in February 1945 and ended up in the Boelcke barracks due to illness. He experienced the bombing himself: ‘The aircraft alarm was sounded by with bellowing sirens. Everyone was sent to their block. A great roar, a hiss and then the first bombs fell with a mighty crash and commotion onto the camp. The great iron gates, which kept us inside, were ripped open and smashed by the tremendous force of air. Windows rattled, things set on fire.’ The man from Ghent ended up under the rubble: ‘But I was still alive, still breathing, just about. It is impossible to describe what I saw, felt, muttered, thought and begged in those first moments. Was this the end? After so much suffering, was I to die in the final moments? I thought of home, of my wife and children, of my mother…’
Two survivors lie amongst hundreds of bodies in the Boelcke barracks, 11 April 1945 Photo by the American soldier Roberts National Archives, Washington, 111-SC-20 34 68-S
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An unknown Belgian survivor from the hell in the Boelcke barracks, 11 April 1945 Photo taken by Roberts, an American soldier National Archives Washington, 111-SC-26 66 79
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The end of Dora Raphaël Algoet (°1902) was a Belgian photographer and was one of the first to arrive at the liberated camp Dora, together with American troops. He made a penetrating photo documentary, including the sick bay and crematorium. The following photos all were made by Raphaël Algoet in April 1945, just after Liberation.
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One of the prisoners in the sick bay at the main camp CegeSoma collection, 95601 A German nurse and patient in the sick bay at Dora CegeSoma collection, 95627 Severely ill prisoners in a small room at the crematorium in Dora They had probably been used for medical experiments. CegeSoma Collection, 95611 Entrance to Tunnel B at Mittelwerk showing, in the foreground, the round tanks, two of which were in every V-1 bomb. CegeSoma Collection, 95613 The secret place for storing components for the V-1s and V-2s at the station in Niedersachswerfen.
CegeSoma Collection, 95607
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The liberated Belgian prisoner, Leopold Van Dijck, in front of unit 23 in Dora, the unit for those unable to work CegeSoma Collection, 95617
Bibliography The book Dora. 1943-1945 by Brigitte D’Hainaut and Christine Somerhausen (EPO, 1992) is currently the only one about the Belgians in Dora. These is also the magazine for members of the Vriendenkring van Politieke Gevangenen van Dora vzw (Circle of Political Prisoners from Dora), from which the testimony from Pierre Joseph Denis was taken (and combined with additional research by Pieter Serrien and Arthur Denis). A general study was written by the French historian and former prisoner André Sellier: A history of the Dora Camp (Ivan R. Dee, Chicago 2003). The testimony by Jan Cools was published in Wuustwezel and Loenhout in the Second World War by Guido van Wassenhove from the Nationale Strijders Bond Wuustwezel division (Wuustwezel, Flitsgrafiek Printers, 2013). The testimony by Tobias Schiff was published by EPO in 1997 and entitled Back to the place I never left. The story of François and Roger De Coster was published in 2006 by EPO and entitled From Breendonk to Ellrich-Dora. The testimony by Louis Boeckmans was recorded in 2019 by Pieter Serrien and published by Horizon under the name De laatste getuige (The last witness). The story of Frans Jonghbloet was reconstructed by Pieter Serrien and Marc Jonghbloet. Raphael Algoet’s photos are stored in the CegeSoma in Brussels. Oleg Steenbrugge recorded his memories in 1988 in the book Onvergetelijke waarheden (Unforgettable truths). There is an extensive bibliography in the book Elke dag angst (Every day fear) (Horizon, 2016) by Pieter Serrien.
About the author As historian and writer Pieter Serrien publishes on how people experienced the two world wars. In 2016, he published his book Elke dag angst at Horizon publishers, in which he recounts the history of the V-bomb terror and camp Dora. On his website he shares detailed information about camp Dora and the V-bomb attacks in Belgium. More info: www.pieterserrien.be