In 1945, U.S. Americans liberated the Nazi concentration camp complex of Mittelbau-Dora, and retrieved tons of intact rocket technology from the nearby Mittelwerke factory. Today, an astounding mix of first-hand memoirs, biographies and false survivor tales, novels and theater plays, Hollywood movies and newsreel footage testify to the role the U.S.A. have played with regard to Mittelbau-Dora, and vice versa. This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of these textual and visual representations, and juxtaposes them to publications by German eyewitnesses, local researchers and academic historians, and experts in cultural memory.

Author Biography

Bruno Arich-Gerz (Dr. phil.) is Juniorprofessor at the TU Darmstadt, Germany. His fields of research include American Studies/Media Studies, E-Learning, Thomas Pynchon, and Namibia Studies.