During the last months of the war some 60,000 prisoners, many of whom were evacuees from Auschwitz and Groß Rosen, were sent to Mittelbau-Dora. Weak, desperately ill captives were transported in open railway carriages in the middle of winter, and prisoners barely strong enough to walk were forced on death marches as the SS disposed of those described as ‘weak’ and ‘not capable of work’.
Shortly after his liberation in 1945, a prisoner who had been forced to unload the dead and dying from rail cars as they arrived at Mittelbau-Dora described the scene:
These people were evacuated from a camp in Poland before the Russian offensive. They were transported from Poland to central Germany in open goods wagons for 20 days without food. On the way they froze, starved or were shot. Men, women and children of all ages were among them. When we took hold of the dead, arms, legs or heads often came off In our hands, as the corpses were frozen.
Author’s Note:
Mittelbau-Dora received roughly 4000 prisoners from Auschwitz in early 1945, followed by more than 10,000 from Groß Rosen. See Wagner, Production des Todes, pp. 269-70.
Source:
Bessel, Richard. “Murder and Mayhem.” Germany 1945: From War to Peace. New York, NY, HarperCollins, 2009. 51. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Wagner, Produktion des Todes, p. 268.
Quoted in Wagner, Production des Todes, p. 332.
Further Reading:
Konzentrationslager Auschwitz (Auschwitz Concentration Camp)
Konzentrationslager Groß-Rosen (Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp)
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