Mittelbau-Dora is a disturbing but essential visit. Prisoners were forced to expand tunnels in the Kohnstein and assemble V-2 rockets there under brutal conditions; many died from labour, starvation, disease, and executions before the camp was liberated in 1945.
The memorial includes exhibitions, the former camp grounds, and access to part of the tunnel system on guided visits. It is not a casual sightseeing stop, and it needs time and attention, but it explains Nordhausen's twentieth-century history better than anything in the town centre.