During the last months of the war, the SS evacuated concentration camps in Eastern Europe, forcing prisoners on death marches to Dora and other camps in Germany. Conditions within the camp deteriorated dramatically due to the growing and weakened population. In April 1945, Dora and its sub-camps were evacuated, and most prisoners were sent on a death march to Bergen-Belsen, resulting in the death of thousands in the last weeks of the war. By the time United States forces liberated the camp on April 11, 1945, they found only a few hundred prisoners alive who had been left behind in the infirmary.
Many of the perpetrators involved with Dora were never held responsible for their horrid, murderous activities. The only engineer to stand trial, General Director Georg Rickhey, who oversaw production of the missiles and rockets, was acquitted. Key Nazi scientists involved with Dora, such as Wernher Von Braun and Walter Dornberger, were brought to the United States under a secret mission called “Operation Paperclip” to work on a variety of U.S. government programs.
“I hope visitors to the museum will understand that many of the Germans who oversaw that operation were never brought to justice, and were treated in the United States as heroes,” Gilens said.
In his evocative black and white photographs, Gilens said he tried to convey the destruction of the people who were forced to build the V-2 rockets, and a sense of memorial and recognition to those who died and those who survived.
In addition to Gilens’ photographs, the exhibit includes artifacts unearthed from the tunnels. The artifacts, which include a cup, bowl, spoons, cigarette holder and case, and a rusty infirmary kit, give glimpses into the lives of those who labored and died in the darkness of the tunnels.
Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, the first survivor-founded Holocaust museum in the United States, is a primary source institution that commemorates those who perished, honors those who survived, and houses the precious artifacts that miraculously weathered the Holocaust. Since 1961, the Museum has provided free Holocaust education to students and visitors from across Los Angeles, the United States, and the world, fulfilling the mission of the founding Holocaust survivors to commemorate, educate and inspire. The Museum is open seven days a week and admission is always free.
100 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles, California 90036
Objects from Dora tunnels