📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
The “Dora” camp was founded at the end of August 1943 as the subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. As part of the underground relocation of German armaments production, concentration camp inmates had to expand a tunnel system in the Kohnstein mountain near Nordhausen to become an underground rocket factory. The series production of the rocket propagated by the Nazi regime as Vengeanceweapon 2 began in January 1944. The prisoners were initially housed in the tunnel system for months. An above-ground barrack camp was not built until spring 1944. Between 1943 and 1945, more than 60.000 people from almost all European countries, especially from the Soviet Union, Poland and France, had to do forced labor in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp complex for the German industry.
💼 What the programme involves
Exposure work and visualization of a barrack foundation in the infirmary of the former inmate camp. The work takes place outdoors, in the forest area of the memorial, large and heavy stones have to be worked on and flat outline walls have to be set. The photos show the results of the last camps. The work is part of a bigger project: to create the visibility of barracks for prisoners which are now hardly to be seen because there are just the foundations left, hidden in a forest.
🏠 Accommodation on site
Youth hostel of the Protestant Church of Nordhausen-Salza
(by bike approximately 10-15 min from the memorial); self-catering (supermarkets are nearby); WIFI is only available at the memorial site.
📍 About the location
Nordhausen is located at the southern edge of Harz mountains in Thuringia, about 110 km east of Kassel. Weimar is about 100 km south and Leipzig about 130 km east of Nordhausen.
⚠️ Requirements
Interest in the history of concentration camps; good knowledge of English language; to be able to ride a bike in the road traffic is a serious requirement!!! It is not possible to come earlier or stay longer than the given dates.
ℹ️ Additional information
The part of the study and the physical work will be equally distributed with about 50% each. A trip to the Harz mountains and visiting interesting cities like Leipzig and Weimar is easily possible by train. Bicycles are available for everybody. There is a public open pool, 10 min from the hostel. Nordhausen has nice cafés, museums, a cinema, shopping centres etc.