Former prisoners, their relatives and politicians gathered at the site of Mittelbau-Dora Nazi concentration camp in central Germany Wednesday on the 73rd anniversary of its liberation at the end of World War II, an EPA correspondent reported. 

Located in Nordhausen, the camp — now a museum and memorial site — was established by the Nazis in 1943, initially as a subsidiary of Buchenwald. Here, Jews and prisoners of war held in unspeakable conditions were forced to manufacture V1 flying bombs and V2 missiles.

One in every three of the roughly 60,000 its prisoners died, for which the Nazis installed a crematorium on site. 

Survivors of Mittel-Dora hail from all over Europe. Two of those in attendance at the solemn ceremony included Ukrainian man Ivan Smolkograi and Jerry Wartzki, who now calls the United States home, according to the EPA correspondent. 

By the time the camp was liberated by the Allies in 1945, many of the prisoners had been evacuated but over 1,000 dead bodies remained at the site.