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63rd Anniversary: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen

On 15th April, 1945 British Troops drove into the Nazi Concentration Camp at Bergen-Belsen in North Germany. HMDT is asking everyone in the UK to take time to remember the victims, survivors and liberators of Bergen-Belsen on this day.

Bergen-Belsen was set up in 1940 as a prisoner-of-war camp until 1943, when it was divided into the prisoners’ camp and the “Star Camp” in which prisoners classed as valuable and whom the Nazi’s planned to exchange with the allies for German civilians. Few prisoners were exchanged. Bergen-Belsen also served as a collection camp for sick and injured prisoners transported from other concentration camps. They were housed in a separate section, the so-called hospital camp. Bergen-Belsen was also the destination of survivors of death marches from other concentration camps. It is estimated there were over 60,000 prisoners in Belsen by April 1945. Approximately 35,000 prisoners died of Typhus, malnutrition and starvation in the first few months of 1945. Among those who died at Bergen-Belsen was Anne Frank and her sister Margot.

The 11th Armoured Division of the British Army entered the camp on the afternoon of 15th April 1945.

Iolo Lewis, a soldier in the British Army, reflects on the sight that met the liberators “I was absolutely horrified to find out what had happened where I stood and the inhumanity of man against man. I have never been the same since, mentally. How could people do this sort of thing to other people?...The people were not lively. They were treated like animals. They had lost reason. When the medics came in they tried to save a lot of people.”

Survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch remembers – “It was about 5 p.m. on 15 April 1945 when the miracle actually happened: the first British tank rolled into the camp. We were liberated! No one who was in Belsen will ever forget that day. We did not greet our liberators with shouts of joy. We were silent. Silent with incredulity and maybe just a little suspicion that we might be dreaming.”

Helen Bamber volunteered to go from the UK to Belsen after liberation to assist in the rehabilitation of surviving prisoners. On her arrival, she says, there were “still awful sights, amputees, gangrene, festering sores. People still looked terribly emaciated…sometimes when you were searching through things you were reminded of the enormity of it: once we came across a vast pile of shoes, sorted according to sizes, including children’s, all neatly lined up; you were never safe from that kind of confrontation.”

The anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen reminds us of the relevance of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides to us in the UK today and highlights that the evils of prejudice, discrimination and intolerance continue to exist in Britain. We have lessons to apply today, as individuals, communities and institutions within our society. Hate crimes and attacks against people because of race or ethnicity; sexuality; disability; or religion continue to take place. HMD acts as a reminder to all of us of our responsibility to protect the civil and human rights of all people in our society and around the world.

You can use the resources contained on the HMDT website to further explore the events leading up to the liberation of Belsen through survivor testimony, poetry, and images.

Helen Bamber http://www.hmd.org.uk/resources/item/44/
Eve, Paul & Rudi Oppenheimer http://www.hmd.org.uk/resources/item/117/
Belsen Silence by Iolo Lewis http://www.hmd.org.uk/resources/item/145/
Freddie Knoller http://www.hmd.org.uk/resources/item/1/
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch http://www.hmd.org.uk/files/1152102415-2.pdf
Renee Salt http://www.hmd.org.uk/files/1149791208-9.pdf
Woman at Displaced Persons camp http://www.hmd.org.uk/resources/item/58/
Child survivor after liberation http://www.hmd.org.uk/resources/item/59/

Further information

Slideshow of the Liberation of Belsen, as reported in the British Press http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/4445811.stm Please note that the slideshow contains images that some may find disturbing.

Read more: ‘After Daybreak: The liberation of Belsen, 1945’ by Ben Shephard (Random House, 2006).