Bergen-Belsen

Bergen-Belsen, sometimes called Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp located southwest of the city of Bergen, near the town of Belsen, some ten kilometers northwest of the town of Celle, in Lower Saxony (Germany), on the Lüneburg Heath. It was opened in 1940 to intern French and Belgian prisoners of war, but from the summer of 1941 welcomed more than 20,000 Soviet prisoners.

First a workers' camp, a training camp for the Wehrmacht, then a depot for equipment and weapons, it was transformed into a prisoner-of-war internment camp from 1940, enlarged in preparation for the war against the USSR. It was transformed into an exchange camp (1943-1944), where Jews with a neutral nationality, such as Turks or Spaniards from Salonika, Jews with South American papers, Poles with dual nationality, "Palestinian" Jews, French wives of prisoners of war and their children, who came from Drancy in May and July 1944, were grouped together at Camp de l'étoile. In fact few Jews will be freed: 222 can emigrate to Palestine, 1,683 Hungarian Jews can reach Switzerland.

The camp is integrated into the concentration camp system from 1943 by the Central Office for Economy and Administration (SS Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt, WVHA). It is divided into several sectors, up to eight corresponding to distinct groups and different regimes. 4 sectors correspond to Jews who can be exchanged, 3 to newly transferred prisoners, the last sector receives from 1944 onwards prisoners requiring care and rest.

Conditions worsen with the arrival of many prisoners transferred from camps at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, Flossenburg, Mauthausen... in the face of the advancing Allied armies. The camp had 15,000 inmates by November 1944 and 60,000 by April 1945. In this short space of time 35,000 people die, including Anne Frank and Hélène Berr. According to several survivors, cannibalism was endemic.

With overcrowding, disorganization and epidemics, mortality was very high. Exchange Jews from the Star Camp, Hungarian Camp, Neutral Camp and Special Camp were evacuated by 3 trains to Theresienstadt. The third train, "the lost transport", arrives near Tröbitzin Saxony on April 23. It is liberated by the Red Army.

The camp is liberated byBritish troops on April 15, 1945. Mortality remains high, however, due to a typhus epidemic that the British are unable to contain quickly due to a lack of resources and a failure to immediately perceive the scale of the problem. The camp was finally quarantined and the barracks burned. The corpses were buried in mass graves.

Around 70,000 people died there, including 20,000 Soviet prisoners. Among the victims were Anne Frank and her older sister Margot Frank, both suffering from typhus6, as well as two former French deputies: Claude Jordery, who died on February 9, and Augustin Malroux, on April 10.
Source Wikipedia
Photo credit Arne List

Bergen-Belsen, sometimes called Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp located southwest of the city of Bergen, near the town of Belsen, some ten kilometers northwest of the town of Celle, in Lower Saxony (Germany), on the Lüneburg Heath. It was opened in 1940 to intern French and Belgian prisoners of war, but from the summer of 1941 welcomed more than 20,000 Soviet prisoners.First a workers' camp, a training camp for the Wehrmacht, then a depot for equipment and weapons, it was transformed into a prisoner-of-war internment camp from 1940, enlarged in preparation for the war against the USSR. It was transformed into an exchange camp (1943-1944), where Jews with a neutral nationality, such as Turks or Spaniards from Salonika, Jews with South American papers, Poles with dual nationality, Palestinian Jews, French wives of prisoners of war and their children, who came from Drancy in May and July 1944, were grouped together at Camp de l'étoile. In fact few Jews will be freed: 222 can emigrate to Palestine, 1,683 Hungarian Jews can reach Switzerland.The camp is integrated into the concentration camp system from 1943 by the Central Office for Economy and Administration (SS Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt, WVHA). It is divided into several sectors, up to eight corresponding to distinct groups and different regimes. 4 sectors correspond to Jews who can be exchanged, 3 to newly transferred prisoners, the last sector receives from 1944 onwards prisoners requiring care and rest.Conditions worsen with the arrival of many prisoners transferred from camps at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, Flossenburg, Mauthausen... in the face of the advancing Allied armies. The camp had 15,000 inmates by November 1944 and 60,000 by April 1945. In this short space of time 35,000 people die, including Anne Frank and Hélène Berr. According to several survivors, cannibalism was endemic.With overcrowding, disorganization and epidemics, mortality was very high. Exchange Jews from the Star Camp, Hungarian Camp, Neutral Camp and Special Camp were evacuated by 3 trains to Theresienstadt. The third train, the lost transport, arrives near Tröbitzin Saxony on April 23. It is liberated by the Red Army.The camp is liberated byBritish troops on April 15, 1945. Mortality remains high, however, due to a typhus epidemic that the British are unable to contain quickly due to a lack of resources and a failure to immediately perceive the scale of the problem. The camp was finally quarantined and the barracks burned. The corpses were buried in mass graves.Around 70,000 people died there, including 20,000 Soviet prisoners. Among the victims were Anne Frank and her older sister Margot Frank, both suffering from typhus6, as well as two former French deputies: Claude Jordery, who died on February 9, and Augustin Malroux, on April 10.Source WikipediaPhoto credit Arne List