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History > 20th century > WW2 > Germany > Antisemitism > Holocaust

 

Dora-Mittelbau / Dora-Nordhausen / Nordhausen > Holocaust of Gardelegen

 

 

 

The holocaust of Gardelegen took place on April 13.

 

German SS guards tried to burn

between 500 and 1, 000 prisoners

to prevent their being liberated by advancing Americans.

 

There are approximately 150 corpses on the warehouse floor.

In the background are three soldiers of the US 9th Army

who took Gardelegen on April 17 and found the building still burning.

 

Location: Gardelegen, Germany

Date taken: April 17, 1945

 

Photographer: William Vandivert

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=5127552432b50e2c

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This page contains

extremely graphic scenes

of human suffering.

 

Please exercise caution

when viewing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 13, 1945

 

Holocaust of Gardelegen

 

 

Following the U.S. Army's

crossing of the Rhine River

and push into central Germany,

the SS camp administration

at Dora-Mittelbau

ordered

the evacuation of prisoners

from the main camp

and a number

of its affiliated subcamps

on April 3 and 4th.

 

The goal was to transport

the inmates by train or by foot

to the concentration camps

in Bergen-Belsen,

Sachsenhausen,

or Neuengamme.

 

Within days,

some 4,000 prisoners

from Dora-Mittelbau,

its satellite camps,

and a Neuengamme subcamp

arrived in the Gardelegen area,

where they had to dismount

from the freight cars

because the trains

could not advance any further

due to air raid damage

to the rail lines.

 

Greatly outnumbered

by the prisoners,

the SS guards began

recruiting auxiliary forces

from the local fire department,

the air force,

the aged home guard,

the Hitler Youth,

and other organizations

to watch over the inmates.

 

On April 13th,

more than a thousand prisoners,

many of them sick and too weak

to march any further,

were taken

from the town of Gardelegen

to a large barn

on the Isenschnibbe estate

and forced inside the building.

 

The assembled guards

then barricaded the doors

and set fire to gasoline-soaked straw.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10006173

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This victim of Nazi inhumanity

still rests in the position in which he died,

attempting to rise and escape his horrible death.

 

He was one of 150 prisoners

savagely burned to death by Nazi SS troops.

 

Sgt. E. R. Allen, Gardelegen, Germany, April 16, 1945.

111-SC-203572.

Pictures of World War II

US National Archives

http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-179.jpg

http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/?template=print#holocaust

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smoke still rising from corpses of prisoners

at the concentration camp at Gardelegen

who were burned alive by their Nazi captors.

 

Location: Gardelegen, Germany

Date taken: April 1945

 

Photographer: William Vandivert

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=85a190220689d754

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10006173

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Germany        Dora-Mittelbau / Dora-Nordhausen / Nordhausen        Extermination camp


 

 

Freed prisoner, face twisted w. grief & relief,

after the Nordhausen concentration camp

was liberated by Allied troops.

 

Location: Nordhausen, Germany

Date taken: April 1945

 

Photographer: John Florea

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=a91b0ecef216f3cb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American soldiers

walking past rows and rows of corpses

at the Nordhausen concentration camp

just after its liberation.

 

Location: Nordhausen, Germany

Date taken: April 1945

 

Photographer: John Florea

Life Images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

German civilians

being forced by the Allies to bury prisoners killed

at the Nordhausen concentration camp.

 

Location: Nordhausen, Germany

Date taken: April 1945

 

Photographer: John Florea

Life Images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

German male civilians

being forced by the Allies to dig graves for the prisoners killed

at the Nordhausen concentration camp.

 

Location: Nordhausen, Germany

Date taken: April 1945

 

Photographer: John Florea

Life Images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

German civilians

being forced by the Allies to bury prisoners killed

at the Nordhausen concentration camp.

 

Location: Nordhausen, Germany

Date taken: April 1945

 

Photographer: John Florea

Life Images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/dora-mittelbau-overview

 

 

https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2020/09/24/
le-livre-des-9-000-pour-n-oublier-jamais-les-deportes-de-dora_6053406_3260.html

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/
obituaries/henry-bawnik-survivor-of-death-camps-and-an-inferno-at-sea-dies-at-92.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related > Anglonautes > History > 20th century

 

World War II > Germany, Europe

Antisemitism, Adolf Hitler, Nazi era, Holocaust

 

 

 

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