There exists no coherent iconography dealing with any particular concentration camp. Of course a certain number of photographs taken here and there in the camps were subsequently discovered, but they were never representative of a whole, whether of the prisoners at work on the work sites or in the factories, or of daily life in the camps themselves. The photographs that illustrate books dealing with the camps are most often those taken by Allied troops at the time of the camp’s liberation. Thus they show either the prisoners’ joy as they acclaimed their liberators or dramatic scenes of emaciated prisoners or cadavers.
Similarly, the drawings by the prisoners, whether done secretly in the camps or upon their return, are necessarily disparate. They provide a powerful idea of the concentration camp world in a general sense but are rarely characteristic of any one camp in particular. The author found himself in this very predicament with regard to Dora as he was writing his book. It was the fortuitous discovery in 1998 of a remarkable series of color photographs taken in 1944 in the Dora Tunnel which made it possible to envisage a public exhibition in 1999 on the theme of “Images of Dora” and to publish the corresponding catalog. The twenty-eight illustrations that make up the illustrations section in the English edition of A History of the Dora Camp are all taken (with one exception) from this exhibition.
It should be noted that they concern only the Dora Tunnel and the main camp at Dora but not such sub-camps as Ellrich nor the work sites of the Sonderstab Kammler or Helmetalbahn. An important—and tragic—part of the history of the Mittelbau complex is thus only known through rare accounts.
There exist very few documents making it possible to evoke the hell that was Dora in the early months. Five have been selected to characterize this period. They are all drawings. The following four documents (illustrations 6 through 9) show the camp as well as the prisoners assembling to go to work in the tunnel.
The Mittelwerk company factory in the tunnel with its prisoners can be seen in nine documents (illustrations 10–18), six of which are photographs taken by Walter Frentz, discovered in 1998. They make up only part of a veritable photographic report of more than thirty photos of the rocket factory, which was made in early July 1944 by Walter Frentz, an official photographer and filmmaker who was close to Leni Riefenstahl. Everything suggests that the photographs were commissioned by Arms Minister Albert Speer and that Hitler himself was the recipient. The point indeed was to convince Hitler in the wake of the Normandy landing that after a long period of trials the mass production of the V2 would be able to get under way under the best conditions.
Certain photographs bring out the factory’s size and prevailing order; this can be seen in illustrations 10 through 12. Others show the prisoners at work (illustrations 13 through 15), as Hitler himself had demanded, barring foreign civilians from those tasks. But the prisoners appear as qualified workers—as befits a weapon of such importance. These photographs were not intended for propaganda, because their subject was both a concentration camp and a secret factory, which could not be shown. They ought to have been destroyed, but as it happens Walter Frentz held on to a certain number of them, hidden in a suitcase, which were discovered by his son, Hanns-Peter Frentz, when Walter Frentz moved into a retirement home. They provide a one-of-a-kind testimony.
Though the authenticity of these documents is undeniable, they were nevertheless staged. In fact, the technical necessities of lighting and exposure time required that the factory be shut down while the photographs were being taken. All one sees are a minimum of prisoners, some of whom are still alive and have recognized themselves in the pictures. Some German civilians may also be seen, but no uniform—whether of the Wehrmacht or of the SS—is to be seen. And among the prisoners, no Kapo is to be seen. In order to show the other side of the picture, a drawing (illustration 16) was selected, showing one of the many Transportkolonnen involved in carrying engines, fuel tanks, fuselages, and so on. The portraits of two redoubtable individuals from the tunnel have been added (illustrations 17 and 18): the Kapo known as “Big George” and the SS man Busta known as “Horse Head.”
Contrasting with these images of Dora’s industrial aspect, illustrations 19 through 23 show the constant presence of death in the camp during the final months, including the unloading of cadavers from Ellrich as well as the pyre that was put up after the arrival of the evacuation convoys from the camps in the east, and the hangings. Illustration 24, a photograph taken by the Americans upon their arrival at the Boelcke Kaserne in Nordhausen, is emblematic of the barbarism at the end of the camps, as is the drawing of the evacuation convoy heading for Bergen-Belsen and the photograph of the barn at Gardelegen (illustrations 25 and 26).
The photograph (illustration 27) showing the American officials contemplating the rocket, and the photograph (illustration 28) of the blowing up of the tunnel by the Soviets brings the history of Dora to a close.
1. This drawing by Guy Boisot (identity number 42188) shows the excavation work done by the prisoners at the far south of tunnel A under constant blows in the dust and din, not far from the “dormitories.”
2. This drawing by the German civilian Werner Brähne is the only one showing the prisoners installing machines in the underground factory.
3. The French artist Maurice de La Pintière (31115) here evokes the earth-moving work at the outside entrances to the factory during the winter of 1943-44, which was especially murderous.
4. This charcoal drawing by René Souquet (39627) shows how the pallet beds were crammed into the dead-end galleries, thus making up the tunnel “dormitories” where for months on end thousands of prisoners covered in vermin succeeded one another.
5. In this drawing by La Pintière, one sees a line of sick prisoners who have just left the tunnel for the Revier in hope of receiving care.
6. and 7. Twice a day beginning in May 1944 the prisoners working in the tunnel left their blocks and assembled in Kommandos in the roll-call area on the orders of their Kapos. They then left the camp and went to the underground factory for a twelve-hour shift, either the day shift or the night shift. These drawings were done at Dora by Léon Delarbre (53083), curator at the Belfort Museum.
8. A general view of the eastern part of the camp taken by the Americans in April 1945. The eighty-odd blocks in this small town were spread out along a valley at the foot of the Kohnstein.
9. This drawing by Guy Boisot shows a number of blocks among the trees.
10. The first of the six successive photographs taken by Walter Frentz shows the enormous hall for storing fuel tanks, all perfectly lined up and awaiting assembly.
11. The fuel tanks are on the assembly line set up in tunnel B, which moves from north to south.
12. At the far end of the line, the finished rocket is lifted into vertical position for a last check, just before the Army—in charge of launching operations—would take possession of it.
13. The French prisoner Jean Maupoint, whose identity number 31851 can be seen, is doing electrical cabling with the Biinemann Kommando. Deported in April 1943, he died after his return in August 1945.
14. The person to the left is Claude de Chanteloup (43928). He is working on cutting sheet metal in the Firnrohr Kommando.
15. Certain components of the rocket were partially assembled in the halls perpendicular to tunnel B. Such was the case for the tail, which the prisoners then attached to the main body.
16. The other side of the picture consisted of above all the Transportkolonnen, which Walter Frentz was asked not to photograph. Delarbre’s drawing shows half the fuselage of a V2 being moved.
17. The SS-Hauptscharführer Erwin Busta, known as “Horse Head,” terrorized everyone in the factory, including the Meister. Missing in 1945, he was tried only later.
18. The German criminal prisoner Georg Finkenzeller, known as “Big George,” was the Oberkapo of the Haukohl Kommando. He would be tried in 1947. Delarbre’s drawing captures his disquieting silhouette.
19. Léon Delarbre’s drawing shows the corpse of a prisoner in front of the entrance to a block before being carried to the crematorium. He had “died during the night.”
20. The mortality rate grew steadily higher at Ellrich during the winter of 1944–45. Cadavers were regularly transported to Dora, where they were incinerated. Delarbre bears witness.
21. Delarbre did several drawings of the hangings organized by the SS in March 1945. The victims were generally Soviet prisoners.
22. A photograph taken in late April 1945 shows the pile of human ashes in front of the Dora crematorium.
23. The evacuation convoys from the Auschwitz and Gross Rosen camps arrived at Dora with numerous corpses of prisoners who had not withstood the cold and hunger. The crematorium’s capacity was not adequate, and the bodies were burned on pyres set up in the camp. This drawing done by La Pintière upon his return bears witness to this appalling spectacle.
24. American troops who arrived in Nordhausen on April 11, 1945, discovered an unbearable spectacle at the Boelcke Kaserne. The corpses were subsequently arranged in rows before being buried in communal graves by the city’s inhabitants.
25. Delarbre’s drawing is the only testimony of its kind to the conditions of the evacuation of the Dora camp and the other Mittelbau camps in April 1945. It shows a convoy between Dora and Bergen-Belsen, which wandered for five days.
26. The prisoners of the two evacuation convoys blocked in Gardelegen were locked into a barn and burned on the orders of a local Nazi official on April 13, 1945. This photograph taken by an American soldier on April 15 shows one of the 1,016 victims.
27. The discovery of the underground factory by American troops was followed by a series of official visits. This photograph shows congressmen contemplating components of the rocket.
28. In 1948 the Soviets blew up the factory tunnels after having emptied them out.
