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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, 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/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/
Related > Anglonautes > History > 20th century
World War II > Germany, Europe Antisemitism, Adolf Hitler, Nazi era, Holocaust
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