Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Germany

 

Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi camp operated between 1940 and 1943 to retain prisoners of war. The Nazis expanded it in 1941 to house those captured during the invasion of the Soviet Union. Records indicate about 41,000 murdered by April, 1942.

The Nazis killed their prisoners by subjecting them to forced labour, brutal treatment, and starvation as well as failing to protect them from or provide adequate treatment for diseases such as typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid, and dysentery.

The sign below shows how the camp appears in 2024. Images and texts tell the story. This image is on the camp's main street and is in the centre of a 70-metre area between huts for POWs and those for prisoners.

Perhaps you can glimpse the size of the camp in the image below, which locates a water reservoir and food depot.

The Prison Camp was a camp within a camp.

Jews like Anne Frank and her family were sent to the prison camp. They had broken Nazi laws by hiding in Amsterdam. After their arrest, they were in Westerbork and Auschwitz before being transferred to Bergen-Belsen where Anne and her sister Margot died in early 1945--not long before the camp was liberated by the British.

As the Soviet Army pushed the German Army back into Germany, thousands of people from camps in the East were brought to Bergen-Belsen. The overcrowding was horrific. Stones, markers, and memorials remember those who were murdered.

Today, visitors can visit Bergen-Belsen, which is near Celle. There is a visitor's centre and a place for reflection.

Visitor's Centre, Bergen-Belsen 2024

A place of reflection 2024
Bergen-Belsen

Bergen-Belsen was liberated 15 April 1945 by the British Royal Artillery 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment. The horror was unlike anything the allies had seen in war. Bergen-Belsen was the first camp to be liberated, so the story made global news.

Thousands were dead, thousands were sick or dying. Disease was rampant.

60,000 prisoners were in the camp at the time of liberation.

10,000 or more died between April 18 to 28 so, nearly 1,000 people per day.

Because of disease, the buildings were burned.

Because there were so many corpses, they were buried in mass graves by captured SS guards as directed by the British.

Photographs reveal some of the horror witnessed by British troops. The captions indicate an archive at the  Imperial War Museum in London, England.

The image below depicts two priests beside a grave.

All photos were taken 9 October 2024 at Bergen-Belsen by Geoffrey W. Sutton. They may be used for personal or educational purposes without charge. Kindly give credit by citing this blog post.

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Geoffrey W. Sutton has a PhD in psychology and writes about psychology and culture.

Website: https://www.suttong.com/

Amazon Author: https://author.amazon.com/home

ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Geoffrey-Sutton-2

Academia Page: https://evangel.academia.edu/GeoffSutton

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Resources

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank  ON AMAZON

Belsen and its Liberation Images of War

Google Map

Auschwitz Concentration Camp Poland

 

Auschwitz Concentration Camp was created by the Nazis in 1940 to house prisoners taken following the invasion of Poland. The site was previously an army barracks. The first transport arrived from Tarnow 14 June 1940.

Early on, most prisoners were Poles.

We entered Auschwitz into a dark grey cement tunnel where a large steel door banged shut behind us. We did not know what to expect.

We emerged into an outdoor grey cement corridor with tall walls that make you feel small. Only the blue sky looked inviting.

At first, the brick buildings don't look so bad.

But the barbed wire reminds us--this is a prison camp.

A local guide explains life in Auschwitz. Were are in Auschwitz I known as the main camp, which houses some 15,000 to 20,000 prisoners. Later we will visit Auschwitz II known as the Birkenau camp.

Collections of objects remind us that real people occupied these spaces.

Thousands existed side by side.

Pictures of the past...haunting memories

1941

The first people murdered by gas occurred on 3 September--about 850 Soviet prisoners of war and Polish prisoners who were sick. The Nazis used Zyklon B to kill them in block 11.

Cannisters of Zyklon B

Gas chamber and roof vent for gas.

After the war, the crematorium was reconstructed.

A story board locates the site of the gas chamber and depicts the design.

The commandant lived nearby.

After the war, commander Rudolf Hoss was hanged here--a sign marks the spot.

The death wall is in the courtyard between blocks 10 and 11.

11 November was Poland's National Independence Day.

On 11 November 1941, the first murders by shooting took place at this location. 

    One by one, 151 were stripped, tied, and shot.

 Approximately 4,500 Polish political prisoners were executed at the death wall.

Next, after a short break, we went to Auschwitz II, Birkenau.

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Geoffrey W. Sutton has a PhD in psychology and writes about psychology and culture.

Website: https://www.suttong.com/

Amazon Author: https://author.amazon.com/home

ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Geoffrey-Sutton-2

Academia Page: https://evangel.academia.edu/GeoffSutton

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Google Map

Checkpoint Charlie Berlin Germany

 

Checkpoint Charlie is a symbol of the Cold War period (1945 - 1991) when East and West Berlin were separated. The American sector was on the West side and the Soviet sector on the East side.

The American guard house is a popular tourist attraction. The name Charlie refers to border crossing checkpoint "C."

The checkpoint is the location of the Berlin Crisis in 1961 when US and Soviet tanks faced off against each other on either side of the border. The border wall was erected in 1961.

The site has been featured in several films:

  1983 Octopussy (A James Bond film)

  1965 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold  (Richard Burton, Claire Bloom)

  2015 Bridge of Spies (Tom Hanks)

  2015 The Man from U.N.C.L.E.   

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Geoffrey W. Sutton has a PhD in psychology and writes about psychology and culture.

Website: https://www.suttong.com/

Amazon Author: https://author.amazon.com/home

ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Geoffrey-Sutton-2

Academia Page: https://evangel.academia.edu/GeoffSutton

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Google Map showing the location of the checkpoint and the related museum nearby.

Wilhelmstrasse 81-85 Berlin Germany

 

Wilhelmstrasse is a street of historic importance and a name that represented the German government until 1945.

The massive building pictured above housed the Reich Air Ministry headed by Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring who ordered its construction, which took place between 1935 and 1936.

You have to gain some distance from the structure to appreciate its size. It has 2,800 rooms and 7 kilometres of hallways.

Although Berlin was decimated by allied bombing during World War II, this building survived.

Google Map

The 3-D setting on Google maps offers a sense of the size of the building compared to others.

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Geoffrey W. Sutton has a PhD in psychology and writes about psychology and culture.

Website: https://www.suttong.com/

Amazon Author: https://author.amazon.com/home

ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Geoffrey-Sutton-2

Academia Page: https://evangel.academia.edu/GeoffSutton

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Hitler's Bunker Berlin Germany

 

Hitler’s bunker, known as the Führerbunker, was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. It was part of a larger subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases, in 1936 and 1944. This bunker served as Hitler’s final headquarters during the last months of World War II.

 

The Führerbunker was heavily fortified, with walls and ceilings made of thick concrete to withstand bomb attacks. It contained about 30 rooms, including living quarters, conference rooms, and support facilities. Hitler moved into the bunker on January 16, 1945, and it became the centre of the Nazi regime until the end of the war.

 

In the bunker, Hitler married Eva Braun on April 29, 1945, and they both committed suicide the following day. The bunker was largely destroyed after the war, and the site remained unmarked until 2006, when a small plaque was installed.

The images below show a sketch of the bunker and the sketch overlaid on the current site.

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Geoffrey W. Sutton has a PhD in psychology and writes about psychology and culture.

Website: https://www.suttong.com/

Amazon Author: https://author.amazon.com/home

ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Geoffrey-Sutton-2

Academia Page: https://evangel.academia.edu/GeoffSutton

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Topographies Des Terror Berlin Germany

 

The Topography of Terror is a significant historical museum in Berlin, Germany, located on Niederkirchnerstrasse. This site was once the headquarters of the Gestapo and SS during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 194512. The buildings were largely destroyed during World War II, and the area was later transformed into a museum and memorial.

 

The museum features both indoor and outdoor exhibits that document the history of the Nazi terror apparatus, including the Reich Security Main Office and the Sicherheitspolizei. The permanent exhibitions focus on the central institutions of the SS and police, detailing the crimes they committed throughout Europe. Additionally, the site includes remnants of the Berlin Wall, adding another layer of historical significance.

In 2024, entry to the museum was free. The main exhibit is a tour of Nazi terror told through large storyboards in German and English.

The terror story begins in 1933.

There was considerable excitement at the Nazi rallies.

Children learn how to behave in the new culture.

Those who don't toe the line are publicly humiliated.

Racial policies and the death camps reveal the worst of humanity.

Taking a break...

Jews as the enemy

"Asocial people"

"Homosexuals"

Outside the building is a trench where prisoners were once held in cells.

There's also part of the old Berlin wall that divided the city during the Cold War period.

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Geoffrey W. Sutton has a PhD in psychology and writes about psychology and culture.

Website: https://www.suttong.com/

Amazon Author: https://author.amazon.com/home

ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Geoffrey-Sutton-2

Academia Page: https://evangel.academia.edu/GeoffSutton

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Museum website LINK

Related posts

Holocaust memorial, Berlin

Google Map for the Museum