Survivor marks liberation of German concentration camp, 80 years on

A 100-year-old survivor of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp was among those attending a ceremony on Monday to mark 80 years since the camp was liberated by US forces on April 11, 1945.

Albrecht Weinberg survived a number of Nazi concentration and extermination camps as a teenager, including the Mittelbau-Dora camp near the central German town of Nordhausen.

He was joined as guest of honour at Monday's memorial service, held at the site of the former camp, by Julia Romantschenko.

Ukrainian-born Romantschenko is the granddaughter of camp survivor Boris Romantschenko, who was killed aged 96 during a Russian missile strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in 2022.

The Mittelbau-Dora camp was set up by the Nazis in 1943.

Some 60,000 people were imprisoned there and forced to manufacture missiles and other military equipment under inhumane conditions in a system of tunnels.

The cruise missiles built by the inmates were used by the German Luftwaffe to attack London during World War II.

Only around one in three prisoners survived the camp, with many killed by hunger, disease, abuse or as the result of the forced labour.

US troops liberated the camp on April 11, 1945, just weeks before the end of the war.

However, they only encountered a few prisoners at the site, as the Nazis forced most of the inmates to leave on death marches or killed them.