The district court in Nordhausen and the adjoining court prison were integrated into the National Socialist apparatus of persecution and repression at an early stage. As early as 1933, several Communists and Social Democrats were held in the prison. The court prison later became a base for forced labour.
From the mid-1930s, the inmates of the court prison, many of whom were imprisoned for political offences, were used for forced labour. The prisoners worked for the R. Schulze u. Co. brickworks, the A. and F. Probst gypsum factory and Kornhaus Nordhausen GmbH, among others. The prisoners on remand were used to fold boxes for the local
Until the spring of 1943, the Nordhausen court prison was mainly occupied by male remand prisoners and convicts. In February 1943, the Reich Ministry of Justice converted the prison into a detention centre for „fallen“ women as part of its social-racist persecution policy and had over 100 women transferred to Nordhausen from various prisons in central Germany. Most of them had to work in the Wolkramshausen ammunition depot and were driven from the prison to Wolkramshausen and back every day on lorries with their guards. They were housed in very cramped conditions in the prison, and many prisoners had to share their cell with up to twelve other women.