The short film, Dirty Bomb reveals a relatively unknown story of resistance during the Holocaust.
Jewish slave laborers were brought to the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, a satellite of Buchenwald, where they were forced to build the V-2 ballistic rocket, the brainchild of aerospace engineer Werner von Braun who was then working for the Nazis. Around 60,000 prisoners passed through the Mittelbau camps between August 1943 and March 1945. Two hundred Jewish inmates chose to sabotage the creation of the V-2 bomb.
According to historian Norman Davies, “due to a curious oversight in the Treaty of Versailles which did not include rocketry in its list of weapons forbidden to Germany,” von Braun was able to pursue his career in rocket technology in Germany. His pioneering work for the Nazis began at the German resort town of Peenemünde, where the world’s first liquid propellant rocket, the V-2 bomb, was initially developed.
Werner von Braun at Peenemünde Army Research Center
The creation of the V-2 bombs gave the Nazis the most powerful and sophisticated weaponry in the world. The V-2 contained both a powerful motor and an automatic guidance system that enabled the rocket to reach a height 50 miles above the earth while traveling up to 120 miles before striking its intended target. Several thousands of lives were lost when the bombs exploded in Britain, and it is estimated that 20,000 Jews lost their lives while constructing these V-2 bombs.
Werner von Braun would go on to have an illustrious career. He and over 1,600 other German engineers, technicians, and scientists were secretly moved to the United States after the war. While working for the United States Army, von Braun developed the intermediate-range ballistic missile program, and later developed rockets that launched Explorer 1- the United States’ first space satellite. Von Braun and his team were absorbed into NASA, where he served as director of the Space Flight program and became the chief architect of the Saturn heavy lift launch that used V-2 technology to send the Apollo space shuttle to the Moon.
Germans from Nordhausen burying the dead of Mittelbau-Dora
Following the Royal Air Force’s attack on Peenemunde that bombed and seriously damaged the facility, production was halted and a new underground site was constructed by slave laborers at the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp. Here, a new secret underground production facility would resume the work of assembling and storing the deadly V-2 bombs for the Nazis. The slave laborers at Dora Mittelbau were often selected from other camps and reassigned due to their special training, such as electrical or mechanical skills. Thousands of prisoners died while digging huge tunnels into the mountains as they constructed a large underground factory where the work of the former Peenemunde V-2 missile program continued. The prisoners lived almost exclusively underground, shut off from the world in unstable tunnels where they were deprived of fresh air and sunlight, starved, and the death toll was extraordinarily high. Dora Mittelbau is reported to have had a high mortality rate; of the 60,000 prisoners sent to Mittelbau, approximately one third died.
Underground factory
At the time of full missile production in 1944, Mittelbau-Dora was an independent concentration camp with a prisoner population of at least 12,000. A resistance took place amongst some of the prisoners at the camp who chose to tamper with the V-2 bombs that they were assembling-rendering them ineffective. The consequences of their decision insured death of these inmates who performed this sabotage as the bombs, like the inmates, were numbered. More than 200 prisoners were hanged for this sabotage. Dora’s resistance remained unknown to all but a few who lived through the horrors of the Dora Mittelbau camp, who were made to watch the public hangings of the saboteurs. Those who sacrificed themselves were left hanging and not buried, an attempt by the Nazis to frighten and dissuade other prisoners who were forced daily to walk between the rows of these hanged heroes.
According to Valerie McCaffrey, who wrote and directed the film Dirty Bomb, the idea to honor these unnamed heroes for their decision to sacrifice their lives originated from stories her uncle, who served in the Battle of the Bulge under General George Patton, shared with his family after the war. “The American soldiers nicknamed these V-2 bombs dirty bomb because they failed to go the distance. They were aimed at England, but landed in Belgium, and many misfired altogether. I was so intrigued by the role of the prisoners who sabotaged the building of the missiles that I had to make the film.”
The underground corridors of the factory, Mittelbau-Dora. Photo by Giovanni Carrieri
McCaffrey, an Armenian, explained how her family survived the Armenian genocide. “I thought it was urgent to tell this story about the heroes-the prisoners of the camp. They sacrificed their lives, knowing they would be found out and the outcome it would generate. This is one of the stories that changed the world.”
McCaffrey viewed this piece of history as a reversal story. “Most times, the prisoners are the victims, but in this story, they are the heroes. The scope of this story is that they were responsible for saving lives, and quite possibly ending the war. Interestingly enough, the grandfather of one of the investors of this film was a Nazi.”
The film stars Israeli native, Ido Samuel. “I grew up hearing stories about the Holocaust and meeting survivors who came to our school in Israel to tell their stories. You grow up as a Jewish person in Israel with a sense of commitment to always tell these stories and never forget.
Former concentration camp inmate Pinhas Klein stands
next to the memorial in the grounds of Mittelbau-Dora.
When I heard the story that her uncle told her (McCaffrey) about the Jewish prisoners who sabotaged bombs in World War II and saved thousands of lives, I was surprised I never heard of it before and it wasn’t known what those prisoners did. They sacrificed their own lives to save thousands that they did not know. Why were these prisoners willing to sacrifice their lives to sabotage the bombs?” Samuel believes what the prisoners at Dora Mittelbau did was very simple. “There was a Simon Wiesenthal quote that really stuck with me. ‘For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing They gave their lives so evil couldn’t succeed.’”
Photo Credit for graphic: Giovanni Carrieri. Visit his site at www.giovannicarrieri.com
(16) PHYLLIS MARIE, July 5, 2020 4:02 AM
Relatively little known story of the Jews who gave their lives to sabotage the V-2 bomb is greatly informative.
This post is much appreciated, as unlike other resistance stories, this one is relatively unknown, and we should honor the memory of those Jews who chose to try to sabotage this horrible missile program of the V-2 bombs, knowing the attempt would doom them but at the same time, trying to do it to save the lives of people they did not even know; it took tremendous courage and determination.
(15) Ted Bork, March 28, 2020 8:37 PM
My father was the person who showed the men how to do the sabotage.
My father was an electronics engineer and as slave labor was assigned to the telephone commando. He was able to move around the facility and when he got to the assembly area was able to instruct the workers as to how best sabotage the rockets. He told me how it was done. If you want more details feel free to contact me.
(14) David Shammai Sabghir, June 20, 2019 4:32 PM
Dr Robert Maxwell of Clark University
Inspired Von Braun through his earlier rocketry experiments at Clark University.
(13) Alan, June 19, 2019 8:11 AM
Werner von Braun
Werner von Braun was in charge of the German rocket program and was responsible for the deaths of many thousands of people, both slaves building the rockets and those that the rockets killed in London and elsewhere. After the war, he claimed to know nothing about the massive loss of life he had caused. He was captured by the Americans and later honoured by them. It was his development work in the USA that resulted in the first moon landing.
(12) TSvi, June 19, 2019 6:45 AM
bomb sabotage
Artillery shells were also sabotaged by slave laborers.
A friend who was an infantry soldier under Patton told me about laying in the grass trying to rest in the sun after a cold night when the Germans fired artillery bursts over their heads. Normally they would be filled with metal shards that would spray death on those below the bursting shells. But this time many shells exploded over them, but they were not hurt.
I had also read other first-hand stories about people in labor camps who risked themselves to save the lives of soldiers fighting the Germans by leaving some essential items out of some artillery shells.
(11) Baruch Mori, June 19, 2019 6:18 AM
Never Forget
Never let the evil do its its job!
(10) stephen siegel, June 18, 2019 7:38 PM
von braun and robert goddard
the liquid fuel rockets that von braun developed were based on the original research of robert goddard. working at Clark University, Worcester, Mass. in the 1920s, he developed and tested his original liquid fuel rocket models on the outskirts of Worcester. When von braun was asked about his work after the war, he said he read Goddard's books and developed the concepts further.
(9) Rabbi Pinchas Kantrowitz, June 18, 2019 4:11 PM
Interesting! Well-written! Important subject! Thank you!
(8) Bob Rabinoff, June 18, 2019 3:31 PM
Werner von Braun
"A man whose allegiance
is ruled by expedience...
'Once I shoot rocket up who cares where it comes down?
That's not mein department,' says Werner von Braun."
Tom Lehrer, 1960's
(7) MESA, June 18, 2019 2:32 PM
To think that people accused us Jews of going like sheep to the slaughter and wonder why we didn't fight back. Who says we didn't fight back? Here's one more example. Thank you.
(6) David Harold Chester, June 18, 2019 2:26 PM
not right picture
The photograph of the aerospace vehicles shows V1's not V2's.
(5) Steven Edelman, June 18, 2019 1:55 PM
Jews fought back.
This is a shining, little known, story of how Jews fought back.
(4) Chaplain Siegfried Rupp, June 18, 2019 1:50 PM
The pits and downfall of wars.
Thank you for your efforts to report so much forgotten history of Gods people.
(3) ERVEN ROVINSKY, June 17, 2019 5:55 PM
I have never heard the story
I think the prisoners were very brave for what they did.I tip my kepot to them.
(2) Anonymous, June 17, 2019 3:21 PM
... and von Braun was not the only one
... to persue his career after the war. Most seemingly did according to the painstaking research of Ernst Klee, he published in the book :
Was sie taten - Was sie wurden: Ärzte, Juristen und andere Beteiligte am Kranken- oder Judenmord (Die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus) Taschenbuch – 1. September 1986
Rough translation of the title: What they became: Physicians, legal experts, and other participants in the murder of patients and Jews . Regretfully this book seemingly remained untranslated
(1) Eden Winick Aaronson, June 16, 2019 11:52 PM
Informative and well-written article.
Thanks!