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