For most, the horrors of the Second World War will never be more than history learned from the pages... View MoreFor most, the horrors of the Second World War will never be more than history learned from the pages of a textbook.
But for a few, the terror of Hitler's regime is etched into memories
which still have the power to reduce them to tears more than seven decades
on.
This is the emotional moment survivors of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, in central Germany, broke
down while revisiting the site 72 years after it was liberated by Allied troops.
Marian Wach, from Poland, broke down as he was taken to see a cremation oven used to burn the bodies of some of the 20,000 who died here
Mr Wach is one of just a handful of people who spent time in the
camp and are forever haunted by their experiences inside
Petro Fedorowitsch Mischuk, a Ukrainian survivor of Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, breaks down in tears as he
visits 72 years after it was liberated by the Allies
Mr Wach was also overcome by emotion while laying flowers at a brass memorial
to those who did not survive their time at Mittelbau-Dora
Mr Mischuk, who wore a striped uniform similar to the
ones given to prisoners at the camp, speak with fellow
survivor Pierre Berg, from France
In one particularly arresting image, former inmate Marian Wach, from Poland, wipes tears from his
eyes as he is confronted with the sight of a cremation oven.
In another Petro Fedorowitsch Mischuk, from Ukraine, dabs tears from his
eyes using a striped cap of the kind prisoners were forced to wear.
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Both men were present along with a handful of other former camp detainees to lay flowers next to a brass memorial honouring those
who died.
Mittelbau-Dora originated as an external unit of Buchenwald, one of the
first and largest concentration camps on German soil.
It was established as a concentration camp in its own right in the summer
of 1943 - when it was known as Dora - and existed for just over
a year and a half.
Around 60,000 people were brought to work at this camp, in central Germany,
where V2 rockets were manufactured. Of those, around 20,000 died
Mittelbau-Dora was initially used to house political prisoners, but as the Allies liberated nearby camps, Jews and other 'undesirables'
were transferred there
Mr Mischuk flew a Ukrainian flag during a meeting to mark 72
years since Allied troops freed him from Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp
The site was used to produce V-2 rockets - the powerful missiles that the Germans
used to attack Allied cities - after a RAF bombing raid destroyed the factory where they were previously made.
Mr Berg laid flowers to join other tributes left at the camp, which now houses a museum documenting the horrors it was witness to
Inmates were initially housed by the SS in the Mittelwerk, as the tunnels
intended to be the new underground rocket production site were
called.
Although some prisoners were moved to an above-ground barracks
when they were completed in January 1944, many carried on sleeping
underground until much later.
With no means of sanitation except oil barrels - and alongside the punishing labour of digging the
tunnels - conditions were terrible, and many inmates died of
hunger and thirst.
People from concentration camps around Germany were specially selected and moved to Dora
to begin production of the rockets in January 1944.
The exhausted prisoners who had built the tunnels were shipped out to a group of approximately 35 sub-sites, which
together were known as the Mittelbau-Dora complex.
Inmates were mainly political prisoners from Poland, the Soviet Union and France.
There were also people from races the Nazis saw as 'inferior',
including Jews and Roma.
The number of Jews dramatically increased towards the end of 1944, as the Nazis began to
evacuate camps to the east because of the advancing Red Army.
Floral tributes lay on a memorial stone with the
names of the different races and religions of people who
were kept there
Alexander Bytschok, from Ukraine, also wore a striped prisoner suit along with a number which was assigned
to every inmate by the Nazis in an attempt to dehumanise them
American soldiers and medics lead emaciated prisoners out of the camp after it was liberated on April 11, 1945
Soldiers inspect a V1 rocket found at the camp. Prisoners were used to build the
weapons, as well as digging tunnels used in launching
them
With a population boom straining resources, and combined with
horrendous winter conditions, the death rate shot up.
In early 1945, as the Nazi regime began to collapse, guards evacuated the inmates of Mittelbau-Dora to
other camps including Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany.
During these horrendous death marches, people who could not keep up were simply shot, and many others died of starvation.
Due to these evacuations, there were very few inmates left when the Americans finally liberated Mittelbau-Dora on April 11, 1945.
Out of approximately 60,000 people who had worked in the camp complex, some 20,000
died.
THE BOMBS THAT RAINED DOWN DEATH: NOTABLE STRIKES BY V-2 ROCKETS
The first ever V-2 strike came on the morning of
8 September 1944, landing in Charentonneau à Maison-Alfort on the edge of
a newly-liberated Paris, and killing six people.
A few hours later that same day, a V-2 struck Chiswick, in west London, killing three and
injuring 17.
A third strike just a few seconds later hit a field outside Epping, Essex, leaving no-one hurt
or injured.
Clean-up crews salvage what they can from the ruins of buildings destroyed by a V-2
rocket in Hornsey, north London, in November 1944
Initially British politicians tried to cover up the new threat, blaming gas explosions, but this ruse was quickly seen through,
and people began to refer to V-2s sardonically as 'flying gas pipes'.
On 8 March 1945, a V-2 hit Smithfield Market in London. Many of the victims fell through
the ruined building onto the railway below.
Women and children who had gone to the meat market to buy rabbits were killed, putting the final death
toll for the bomb at 110.
The worst attack on Britain came on 25 November 1944, when a V-2 hit a Woolworths
department store in New Cross, south-east London, mid-afternoon,
killing 168.
A re-made German V-2 rocket pictured during a test flight at White Sands proving grounds, New Mexico.
The rockets were 46-foot long and weighed 14 tonnes
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For most, the horrors of the Second World War will never be more than history learned from the pages... View More