Editing Harz (section)

=== Nazi Germany and Second World War===
During the [[Nazi era]], the Harz area became an important production site for the armaments industry. Many factories, important to the war effort, were located there and, as the war neared its conclusion, they were increasingly staffed with slave labour. As a result, the Harz was the location of several hundred forced labour camps and KZs at that time. KZ Dora near Nordhausen in the South Harz became particularly infamous. This camp, ''[[Mittelbau-Dora]]'' (also ''Dora-Mittelbau'' and ''Nordhausen-Dora''), was a subcamp of [[Buchenwald concentration camp]]. Its prisoners were used by the [[SS]] mainly in the tunnel excavation and nearby underground stations of the [[Mittelwerk]] Ltd., in [[Kohnstein]], situated near [[Nordhausen, Thuringia|Nordhausen]], where the [[V-2 rocket]] and the flying bomb [[V-1 rocket]]  were produced. The slave labourers at the Dora camp were subjected to brutal conditions, which led to more than 20,000 deaths.

In February/March 1945 the SS Reichsführer, [[Heinrich Himmler]], established the Harz Fortress (''Harzfestung'') to defend [[central Germany (geography)|central Germany]] from the western allies. Its [[headquarters]] was at [[Blankenburg (Harz)|Blankenburg]]. Amongst the formations mobilised were divisions belonging to the [[11th Army (Wehrmacht)|11th Army]], divisions of the [[Waffen SS]] and the ''[[Volkssturm]]''. When the United States [[First Army (United States)|First Army]] reached [[Nordhausen, Thuringia|Nordhausen]] in the southern Harz, and went to advance northwards, it met with resistance, especially in the hills around the towns of [[Ilfeld]] and [[Ellrich]]. Not until 7&nbsp;May 1945 did the last formations of the 11th&nbsp;Army and Waffen SS in the Harz surrender. Several units of ''Volkssturm'' troops fought on against the Americans during May.

Shortly before his death in 2003, American Second World War veteran and organized crime figure, [[Frank Sheeran]], admitted to having participated in a massacre of German POWs in the Harz area. At the time, Sheeran was serving in the [[45th Infantry Division (United States)|45th U.S. Infantry Division]]. According to Sheeran, his unit was climbing the Harz when they came upon a mule train carrying supplies to German positions on the hillside. The Americans handed shovels to their prisoners, forced them to dig their own graves, then shot and buried them.<ref>Brandt, Charles (2004). "I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran and the Inside Story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the Last Ride of Jimmy Hoffa. Hanover, New Hampshire: Steerforth Press. [{{ISBN|978-1-58642-077-2}}. OCLC 54897800] Page 51.</ref>

[[Wernher von Braun]], one of the leading figures in the development of [[rocket]] technology in Germany during the Second World War and, subsequently, in the United States, reportedly ordered blueprints of his work to be hidden in an abandoned mine shaft in the Harz range.<ref name="Cadbury">{{cite book|last=Cadbury|first=Deborah|author-link=Deborah Cadbury|title=Space Race|year=2005|publisher=[[BBC Worldwide]]|isbn=0-00-721299-2}}</ref>