A History of the Dora Camp

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 1. JULI 2003

Despite the plethora of books on the Holocaust, there remain little-known corners to be explored, and Sellier casts light on one of the darkest corners with this account of the Dora Camp, where V-2 rockets--Germany's supposed secret weapon--were produced. The story of this camp, with its underground factory, has been suppressed or ignored by the U.S. government, writes historian Michael Neufeld, because of"its inconvenient connection to an American hero: the rocket scientist Wernher von Braun," who was in charge of testing the rockets. Sellier, a French historian and a survivor of Camp Dora, relates how the factory was manned by slave laborers sent from Buchenwald; describes life in the underground tunnels, where the prisoners not only worked but lived without running water or proper sanitation; and tells of the camp's evacuation by death marches and other means with the approach of Allied forces in 1945. Sellier quotes directly from the chilling testimony of the camp's former inmates, who evoke Dante to convey the hellish nature of life there. This is an important addition to the history of the Holocaust, published in association with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Illus. Maps.