ON THIS DAY: 15 APRIL 1945
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated by British forces in Germany 75 years ago today. First established in 1940 as a POW camp, Belsen was converted into a concentration camp from 1943. Used as a collection centre for survivors of death marches, Belsen was not technically an extermination camp but conditions were horrendous in the extreme.
When British and Canadian forces of the British 11th Armoured Division entered the camp they found a nightmare situation. 60,000 prisoners were discovered, most of whom were acutely sick and starving. An additional 13,000 dead bodies had been left unburied.
Prisoners died at a rate of 500 per day before and after the liberation primarily from typhus, although the British Army immediately began a relief effort despite having limited resources. Their first priority was to bury the dead, contain disease and arrange suitable food, water and medical supplies for the starving prisoners. These challenges were overwhelming and nearly 14,000 prisoners would die after liberation.
The British forced the SS personnel of the camp to help bury the dead in mass graves. Meanwhile, photographers and cameramen of No. 5 Army Film and Photographic Unit documented conditions in the camp and the British measures to ameliorate them. These pictures and films were widely distributed abroad and had a lasting impact as a hideous symbol of the crimes committed by the Nazis.
The camp was finally burned to the ground because of a typhus epidemic and louse infestation. 45 of Belsen's camp staff were tried by military tribunal with 11 defendants being sentenced to death, including camp commandant Josef Kramer.
Many of the British liberators were traumatised by what they saw, including journalist Richard Dimbleby who said in a stark BBC radio broadcast, "I had passed through the barrier and found myself in the world of nightmare." RAF officer and future comedian Michael Bentine later wrote, "I've tried, without success, to describe it from my own point of view, but the words won't come. To me, Belsen was the ultimate blasphemy."
However, the last word should go to survivors. Only yesterday on 14 April 2020, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who survived both Auschwitz and Belsen said of the latter camp, "In Belsen you just simply perished. It was total chaos. The end of the world."
Survivor Susan Pollack also remembered being liberated, "I was already a corpse, full of lice, but I remember the first time in almost a year the gentleness, kindness. Somebody lifted me up and placed me in this little ambulance - how was that possible? I remember the soldier's touch. I remember his gentleness. I think that somehow I felt a spark of hope. I am grateful forever for what those battle-worn soldiers have done for us survivors."
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