Talk:Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp

Recent Photos
I have photos available of a V2 rocket engine and some of the tunnels taken by myself at mittelbau-Dora if anyone feels they could be used in the artical. Motorfix 15:13, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Gardelegen Massacre, 13 April 1945
This seems quite relevant:. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 20:58, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Their are photos of staggering numbers of deaths from Allied air raids on this camp - originally advertised as Nazi atrocities.159.105.80.141 14:31, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

The article states that air raids were a cause of deaths but deemphases it - any numbers as to deaths from air raids ( I assume Allied raids ).159.105.80.141 14:41, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

All I know is what is on that page. This isn't really my area here, just as part of my work on Arthur Rudolph. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 16:28, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Mittelwerk
It is my understanding that the production facility was called the Mittelwerk, while the camps were Mittelbau-Dora. Currently, this article makes it appear that the facility and the camps were Mittelbau-Dora. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 13:55, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

The Goat
A paperback I have here, Conspiracies and Cover-Ups: What the Government Isn't Telling You by David Alexander (Berkley, 2002), is not at all scholarly in nature. So, cum grano salis, we have:

The camp "was infamous for the so-called "Goat," a crane with many steel cables used for mass hangings of men guilty of infractions as trifling as stealing crusts of bread to avoid starvation." (pp. 117–118)

Possibly a better documented book discusses this. Varlaam (talk) 03:45, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Dora Conditions
I noticed this chapter:

"Although most of the prisoners were men, a few women were held in the Dora Mittelbau camp and in the Groß Werther subcamp. Only one woman guard is now known to have served in Dora, Lagerführerin Erna Petermann. Regardless of sex, all prisoners were treated with extreme cruelty, which caused illness, injuries and deaths. Examples of the cruelty routinely inflicted on prisoners include: severe beatings that could permanently disable and/or disfigure the victims, deliberate and life-threatening starvation, physical and mental torture as well as summary execution under the smallest pretext."

None of this is backed up by any references or evidence. Doesn't wiki policy demand that it should be deleted? I don't have the references but suggest to delete this part of the article unless someone can prove these statemants. Pilava (talk) 23:41, 1 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Agreed. It's highly unlikely that *all* prisoners received the same level of treatment, as some would inevitably be favoured over others, plus other factors. I suggest rewording it to be less absolute, such as "It is generally assumed that most prisoners were subject to extreme cruelty, resulting in illness, injuries and deaths." ICE Bullet (talk) 00:00, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

Image caption.
Hello. An image caption in this article reads '[r]ows of dead inmates, killed by Royal Air Force bombing, fill the yard of the Boelcke Barracks, a subcamp of Mittelbau-Dora in Nordhausen, 12 April 1945'. The reference to Royal Air Force bombing does not appear in the image's nor in the US National Archives' own caption. As such, I think the reference to bombing needs a reference. --IxK85 (talk) 10:31, 14 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Actually the description claims that around 1,300 immates died from 4 to 5 April during a RAF bombing to the subcamp, but there is no clarification whether or not the corpses shown in the pic were those of the victims of the air strike. I reworded the caption accordingly.--Darius (talk) 17:12, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Attempt to get this article into shape
I'll give this a major overhaul - this subject deserves a much better article. I'll add a lot of material from WP:RS. However, I will also remove stuff that is based only on WP:SPS - in particular, the section on the "discovery" of the camp. This comes from a personal website, apparently run by some descendants of the person mentioned. Unless a RS can be found that supports this, I don't think we need it here. In fact, it seems misplaced anyway - would you expect to have a name mentioned that way in an Encyclopedia Britannica entry on this KZ? I don't think so. There were also two external links to WP:SPS that I dropped.

I made an effort to include all previous (referenced) materials, without duplicating any info. There are two "notable" inmates who have their own articles. Others may exist.

I cut out the list of defendants at the trial, as this is covered in sufficient detail in the relevant article. No need to rehash it here.

This is work in progress. I'm still working on the post-1945 part. If someone could copy-edit my text, I'd appreciate it. Cheers, Drow69 (talk) 17:07, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

Oh yes - this source seems kind of borderline WP:SPS: It might be legit, but could also be a site where every interested amateur can just post his or her research. However, I gave it the benefit of the doubt.Drow69 (talk) 17:16, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

Location?
The coordinates given in this article seem to be incorrect. I believe the correct ones are: 51.5351583, 10.7497113

But perhaps someone with greater familiarity with the subject matter can advise shannonr (talk) 20:11, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Changed it. The new coordinates are right in the middle of the former camp.Drow69 (talk) 12:25, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

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Firsthand account
For anyone interested, there is a fascinating and sobering firsthand account of Mittelwerk/Dora at the end of WWII in the book Rockets and People: Volume I by Boris Chertok, a top Soviet rocket scientist. See Chapter 19, Nordhausen—City of Missiles and Death. Online at http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol1.pdf — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.81.160.124 (talk) 05:05, 4 June 2016 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 05:51, 26 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 1945mittelwork-nordhausen-survivors.jpg

Buchenwald model
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/mittelbau-main-camp-in-depth

German political prisoners obtained non-SS administrative positions, eg. Albert Kuntz, who supervised camp construction.Xx236 (talk) 09:00, 14 February 2022 (UTC)