Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. An estimated 50,000 prisoners died there, as well as 20,000 Soviet prisoners of war (POWs).[1][better source needed] Up to 35,000 of them died of typhus just before and after the camp was freed.[2][better source needed]
Liberation
The camp was liberated on 15 April 1945 by British soldiers.[3] Inside the camp, the British soldiers found 60,000 living people,[2] and 13,000 dead bodies lying on the ground, unburied.[3] The scenes were horrific. They were described by the BBC's Richard Dimbleby, who was with the British soldiers:
| “ | Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which ... The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them ... Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live ... A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British [soldier] to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny [baby] into his arms, then ran off, crying terribly. He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days. This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life.[4] | ” |
—Richard Dimbleby | ||
Notable inmates
Photo gallery
- The Liberation of Bergen-belsen Concentration Camp, April 1945 BU4195.jpg
British Army soldiers free the camp on April 15, 1945
- Bergen Belsen Liberation 03.jpg
After freeing the camp, British soldiers use bulldozers to push dead bodies into mass graves
- The Liberation of Bergen-belsen Concentration Camp, April 1945 BU4274.jpg
Women survivors in Bergen-Belsen, April 1945
- Bergen Belsen Liberation 01.jpg
Former camp guards are forced to load the bodies of dead prisoners onto a truck for burial, April 17–18, 1945
- Mass Grave 3 at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.jpg
Nazi Dr. Fritz Klein stands amongst corpses in Mass Grave 3
- The Liberation of Bergen-belsen Concentration Camp, May 1945 BU6674.jpg
A crowd watches the last camp hut be destroyed
Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Media
- Bergen-Belsen - 2018-02-26 (088).jpg
Memorial to Soviet prisoners of war
- The Liberation of Bergen-belsen Concentration Camp, April 1945 BU4004.jpg
Bergen Belsen crematorium in April 1945
- The Liberation of Bergen-belsen Concentration Camp, April 1945 BU4068.jpg
British and German officers finalize the arrangements for the ending of their temporary truce, April 1945
- Bergen Belsen Liberation 05.jpg
Some of the 60 tables, each staffed by two German doctors and two German nurses, at which the sick were washed and deloused, May 1–4, 1945
- Denkmal Rampe Bergen Belsen IMGP4318 wp.jpg
Memorial on the ramp where prisoners arrived
- President Reagan's remarks at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in West Germany, May 5, 1985.webm
President Reagan's remarks at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in West Germany, May 5, 1985
Related pages
References
- ↑ Oppenheimer, Paul (1996). From Belsen to Buckingham Palace. Nottingham: Quill Press. ISBN 0-9536280-3-5.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Bergen-Belsen", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The 11th Armoured Division (Great Britain)", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- ↑ "Richard Dimbleby, "Liberation of Belsen", BBC News, April 15, 1945". BBC News. April 15, 2005. Retrieved May 3, 2013.