On April 15, 1945, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated by the British,
who were appalled to find most of the 60,000 inmates in critical condition and who were totally unprepared to deal with the situation. During the next five days, 14,000 died, and in the following weeks, another 14,000 succumbed. Bergen-Belsen became the site of a displaced persons’ camp, which remained in existence until 1951. Forty-eight former members of the camp staff were tried by the British. Eleven were sentenced to death, including Josef Kramer. They were executed on December 12, 1945. (Source)
Bergen-Belsen inmates
Bergen-Belsen SS guards
“Living” conditions in Bergen-Belsen weren’t exactly in accordance with the Geneva Convention (which by the way wasn’t put into force until 1950):
Beginning in March 1944, Bergen-Belsen gradually became a “regular” concentration camp, the Germans transferring to it, from other camps, prisoners who were classified as “unfit to work.” The first group of 1,000 that arrived from Dora were housed in terrible conditions in a new part of the camp; nearly all died quickly and at liberation, only 57 were alive. More transports arrived and most of the prisoners were housed in the former “prisoners’ camp.” German convicts were also transferred from Dora, to serve as “block elders” and Kapos. They treated the other inmates very brutally.
In August 1944, a women’s camp was added. From Buchenwald, 4,000 women prisoners were transferred to the camp and then dispatched to Flossenbuerg. Most of them returned to Bergen-Belsen, sick or exhausted. Women from Plaszow and Auschwitz also were sent to Bergen-Belsen in October 1944, among them Anne Frank and her sister Margot.
At the end of 1944 and early in 1945, a complete deterioration of living conditions set in when thousands of survivors of death marches began to reach the camp. The administration did not even try to house them and a raging typhus epidemic broke out. From January to mid-April 1945, 35,000 prisoners perished.
Here are some gripping testimonies from inmates:
Judy Rosenzwieg:
“Suddenly we were marched into Bergen Belsen, that’s where we were taken. In Bergen Belsen it was absolutely the worst of them all. It was not blocks; not organized. It was in the streets. We were just thrown in there between the electric wires, and wherever you could go-you go, and wherever you want to sleep-you sleep. No food. Only once or twice a week they were handing out some of that horrible grass soup.”Shmuel Judkiewitz:
“The horror in that camp is indescribable. Worse than all the other camps.”The Liberation of Bergen Belsen
Judy Rosenzweig:
“All of a sudden out of the blue sky we saw tanks rolling into the camp…We had no idea what kind of tanks they were. Is it the Americans? Is it the Germans? Is it…We just didn’t know. We just suddenly panicked…
And loudspeakers started speaking loudly in German and in English:
‘You are liberated.’
‘We are the English Army – You are liberated.’
‘Stay away from danger and stay inside and we’ll help you.’
‘Stay alive. Try to hang in there. We’re here to help you.’
And we knew we were liberated. Needless to say, our feelings were very mixed. So we were liberated. So thank God we are alive. But are we really thankful? Who are we? Where are we going to go? What are we? Nothing. That’s okay, we’re alive.”Josef Rosensaft:
“Bergen Belsen, or Belsen, is a double symbol in the history of the years after the second World War; it is not just the name of a town in Northern Germany.
The name ‘Belsen’ invokes tremor in Jews’ hearts. Belsen is engraved in the Jewish consciousness as one of the most cursed places in Germany, where the bones of tens of thousands of Jewish victims are buried. The Belsen camp is, in Jews’ memories and in the memories of all people in the world, a camp of starvation, and unbelievable filth which caused diseases and plagues. Belsen has become a symbol of man’s inhumanity to man.
On the other hand, Belsen is also the camp that was liberated on April 15, 1945, and then became a symbol for renewal and rebirth, and the ‘return to life’ of the survivors.”
It should be noted that the German media these days report extensively on the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. Still, some go the extra mile: the conservative daily FAZ presents on April 15 a large painted picture of inmates being brutally beaten by guards.
In Abu Ghraib.
(Hat tip Michele)
