page_title: Dortmund
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Dortmund / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Reconnaissance Photo Aerial View Germany, World War Two, 1941-1945
context_page_description: Dortmund is with a population of 603,609 inhabitants as of 2020, the third-largest city of Germany's most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany's eighth-largest city. It is the largest city of the Ruhr, Germany's largest urban area with some 5.1 million inhabitants, as well as the largest city of Westphalia. On the Emscher and Ruhr rivers, it lies in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region and is considered the administrative, commercial, and cultural centre of the eastern Ruhr. Dortmund is the second largest city in the Low German dialect area after Hamburg.
  Founded around 882, Dortmund became an Imperial Free City. Throughout the 13th to 14th centuries, it was the "chief city" of the Rhine, Westphalia, and the Netherlands Circle of the Hanseatic League. During the Thirty Years' War, the city was destroyed and decreased in significance until the onset of industrialization. The city then became one of Germany's most important coal, steel and beer centres. Dortmund consequently was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II. The devastating bombing raids of 12 March 1945 destroyed 98% of buildings in the inner city center.
context_section_description: Under Nazi Germany, the Old Synagogue, which had opened in 1900, was destroyed in 1938. With a capacity of 1,300 seats, it was one of the largest Jewish houses of worship in Germany. Also, the Aplerbeck Hospital in Dortmund transferred mentally and/or physically disabled patients for euthanasia at the Hadamar mental hospital as part of the Action T4 (an additional 229 children were killed in the "Children's Specialist Department", which was transferred from Marburg in 1941).
  Bombing targets of the Oil Campaign of World War II in Dortmund included Hoesch-Westfalenhütte AG, the "Hoesch-Benzin GmbH" synthetic oil plant, and the Zeche Hansa. The bombings destroyed about 66% of Dortmund homes. The devastating bombing raids of 12 March 1945 with 1,108 aircraft (748 Lancasters, 292 Halifaxes, 68 Mosquitos) destroyed 98% of buildings in the inner city center, and 4,851 tonnes of bombs were dropped through Dortmund city centre and the south of the city; this was a record to a single target in the whole of World War II.
  The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Dortmund in April 1945. The US 95th Infantry Division attacked the city on 12 April 1945 against a stubborn German defense. The division, assisted by close air support, advanced through the ruins in urban combat and completed its capture on 13 April 1945.
caption: Photo of part of the city center area around Liebfrauen church in 1945
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