26th (The Cameronian) Regiment of Foot: Arrived in Qubec in 1775. They had been taken away, or the remains of them. Gena Turgel, who. Among them was Anne Frank, the most well known child diarist of the Holocaust era. Located near Celle in Northern Germany, the camp initially housed prisoners of war (POW) from Belgium, France, the Soviet Union, Italy and Poland. Inside were more than 60,000 emaciated and ill prisoners in desperate need if medical attention. On the warm and misty afternoon of 15 April 1945, Brigadier H. L. Glyn Hughes, Deputy Director of Medical Services of the British Second Army, followed the 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment into Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in northwest Germany. Nearly 14,000 prisoners would die after liberation. But Im afraid when we got to Belsen, we hadnt been trained for this, and it was so, so different to, well to anything. There were three main components of the camp complex: the POW camp, the "residence camp" (Aufenthaltslager), and the "prisoners' camp" (Hftlingslager). 21st Regiment of Foot (Royal North British Fusiliers): Arrived in Qubec in 1776. The British Army immediately began to organise the relief effort. AFPU cameraman and photographer Harry Oakes describes how the SS guards were put to work burying the dead. British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen on 15 April 1945. Going into, more deeper, into the camp the stench got worse and the numbers of dead they were just impossible to know how many there wereInside the camp itself, it was just unbelievable. Word had arrivedthat the Germans were looking to call a local truce. This motivatedmany soldierstovisit and see it for themselves. Assigned to garrison duty in Canada (Montreal, Crown Point). They were feared across the world for how effective they were in the field. Bernice Lerner is the author of To Meet in Hell: Bergen-Belsen, the British Officer Who Liberated It, and the Jewish Girl He Saved and other writings on the Holocaust and on virtue ethics. 16th Regiment of (2nd Queens) Light Dragoons: Arrived in America in 1776 (New York). Tauris Publishers in association with European Jewish Publication Society, 1997. He witnessed the unspeakable horrors of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp when he and his British army comrades freed more than 60,000 starving inmates from the German hellhole during WWII. 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot: Arrived in Qubec in 1776. Savannah and Pensacola. Lost in the romanticized history of the Revolution is the discipline it took to be a soldier in the British Army. Heres the harrowing story of Glyn Hughes efforts to liberate, and rehabilitate, the survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. If a person could stand he was well, if he couldnt stand he was ill. Transferred to Charleston in 1779 and fought at Eutaw Springs. The 63rd Anti-tank Regiment and the 11th Armoured Division of the British army liberate about 60,000 prisoners at theBergen-Belsenconcentration camp. With an initially small group of British army personnel, he arrived at a plan of triage that would give the best chance of survival to the greatest number.. London: F. Cass, 1997. 47th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot: Arrived in America in 1773 (New Jersey). When the 11th Armoured Division entered the camp, its soldiers were totally unprepared for what they found. British troops liberate around 53,000 prisoners at Bergen-Belsen. Market Garden remains one of the Second World Wars most famous battles. In other parts of the camp there were hundreds of bodies lying around, in many cases piled five or six high. The SS succeeded in destroying many of the camp's files, including those on personnel. 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot: Arrived in Qubec in 1776. It required much discipline to become a British soldier. But then, even if there had been, the problem was one couldnt have used it because the problem was too overwhelming. Hughes described the layout of Camp One, the Horror Camp, indicating the numbers of inmates found in each of five compounds. I didnt see anything of the inmates in the prison really. The best we could do was the tea and then we decided the bestthing we could do would be to open all the tins and make a big mess of it, put as much boiling water in amongst it and make it a thin stew, as we could do. Eleven of the defendants were sentenced to death, including commandant Josef Kramer, head female guard Elisabeth Volkenrath, and camp doctor Fritz Klein. Hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and subscriber rewards. Names of British soldiers who liberated Belsen Welcome this new archive relating and dedicated to the men and women service personnel and the part they played at the Liberation and subsequent Humanitarian Effort of the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp in 1945. The Siege of Boston, New York Campaign, Philadelphia Campaign, and Monmouth Court House. 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW But it was kindness to give them something, although it is the wrong kind of kindness.". Harry Oakes describes how the SS guards were put to work burying the dead. Together with a loudspeaker truck from the Intelligence Corps commanded by Lieutenant Derrick Sington, a journalist in civilian life, they made their way down roads that led away from nearby villages and deep into the woods. That was awful Theres no doubt that after seeing something like what had gone on in Belsen, it does stay in your mind and never goes away., Female prisoners after their liberation, Belsen, April 1945. Running out of the barracks, Dr. Gisella Perl had grabbed Hughes sleeve with her filthy hands. The surviving internees were stabilised, deloused and moved to the nearby tank training barracks at Bergen-Hohne, which became a Displaced Persons (DP) camp. Transferred to Qubec in 1779. Email us: Liberator@belsen.co.uk Lost in the romanticized history of the Revolution is the discipline it took to be a soldier in the British Army. Hughes directed a Lieutenant Colonel to approach the Brgermeister (mayor) of Celle, the nearest town, demanding (as per his orders) that each civilian hand in one blanket by the next day. Reorganized in 1779. Washington, DC 20024-2126 Fought in the New York Campaign, Long Island, Fort Washington, Princeton, Forts Clinton and Montgomery, Philadelphia Campaign, Whitemarsh, and Monmouth Court House. William Arthur Wood: "Wed been trained for war wounded, we were used to terrible wounds, especially in my case as I say with the facial wounds that always seemed worse than a lot of the others, and that wed been trained for how to behave and how to work. Many were suffering from typhus, dysentery and starvation. They looked like skeletons covered with skinthe flesh had all gone. After evacuating Bergen-Belsen, British forces burned down the whole camp to prevent the spread of typhus. Be the first to hear about our latest events, exhibitions and offers. Lexington, Concord, and the Siege of Boston. They were everywhere in piles around the camp, in the huts. What to do with the 10,000 who had died in March and April, who lay about the camp in all stages of decomposition? Belsen had been, at one time, a place where prominent Jews were kept under relatively humane conditions; I think Himmler had in mind keeping them in his pocket for exchanges with the Allies. The AFPU recruited from the ranks of the British Army. Overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and the lack of adequate food, water, and shelter led to an outbreak of diseases such as typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and dysentery, causing an ever increasing number of deaths. It was a stable block that had been converted into a decontamination centre where former prisoners would be washed, deloused and given clean clothing before being transferred to hospital. Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp was a displaced persons (DP) camp for refugees after World War II, in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle.It was in operation from the summer of 1945 until September 1950. The revolutionary effect of the emergency work was seen too in survivors who no longer appeared apathetic or frightened, who smiled at and began talking to their aides. Harry Oakes and Bill Lawrie both served with the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU), which was set up in 1941 to produce an official record of the British Armys role during the Second World War. 8th (The Kings) Regiment of Foot: Arrived in Qubec in 1768 and assigned to garrison duty in Canada (Niagara, Oswego). His plan was to declare it an open area, thereby avoiding any fighting that might allowthe inmates to escape and spread disease to soldiers of both sides as well as local civilians. By the following night, the army had 1,800 blankets. A soldier guards SS members as they collect the dead, April 1945, SS guards forced to bury their victims at Belsen, 24 April 1945. 32nd Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) and 11th Light Field Ambulance were among the first medical units to arrive at Bergen-Belsen after its liberation. British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen on 15 April 1945. History Hit brings you the stories that shaped the world through our award winning podcast network and an online history channel. Reorganized in 1776 into other units. View the list of all donors. One of the British Army's most important tasks, as Major Dick Williams explains, was to find a safer and more appropriate way of providing food for the starving prisoners. Civilians, including the local council of the city of Celle, were also forced to visitthe camp and see it for themselves. Siege of Boston, New York Campaign, Philadelphia Campaign. Aiding the living was a major task. 7th Armoured Brigades commander, Brigadier James Woodham, called it an occasion to celebrate a fantastic history that has been based here in Germany since the end of the Second World War and to thank our German hosts who have been so fantastic at looking after us. Bergen-Belsen [bn.blsn], or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle.Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentration camp. This bloody struggle eventually ended in the final defeat of Nazi Germany. Harry Oakes and Bill Lawrie arrived at Bergen-Belsen to record conditions in the camp. Image Credit: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo. 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot: Arrived in America in 1776 (North Carolina). WARNING: This article contains disturbing images. Though emaciated, they had not been exposed to typhus. The 'Desert Rats', who had been headquartered in Germany since 1945, left for the UK the following year when Bergen-Hohne finally closed. The prisoner-of-war camp functioned as such from 1940 until January of 1945. They were required to fight in close quarters in order to maximize the devastation of their volley. 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot: Arrived in America in 1776 (North Carolina). Major Dick Williams was one of the first British soldiers to enter Bergen-Belsen. Main telephone: 202.488.0400 TTY: 202.488.0406, [caption=1cf57734-29ed-4c8d-9207-90740099815c], [credit=1cf57734-29ed-4c8d-9207-90740099815c], United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, British army chaplain describes Bergen-Belsen upon liberation, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. The Siege of Boston, New York Campaign, Philadelphia Campaign, Brandywine, Paoli, and Germantown. Much of the initial medical relief work was done with limited manpower and supplies, which was still needed in the war effort against Germany. It does not include English Army generals or Scottish Army generals. 1945. His men were to report back to him in one hour. 9th (The East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot: Arrived in Qubec in 1776. 1945. But the scale of the atrocity still horrifiedthose who sawit. ISBN -7126-6764-4. TTY: 202.488.0406, The 11th Armoured Division (Great Britain) - Photograph, Liberation of Nazi Camps: Encountering and Documenting Atrocities, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. Long Island, Fort Washington, Forts Clinton and Montgomery, Philadelphia Campaign, and Stony Point. Unlike the pessimistic army psychiatrist who came to assess the situation, Hughes believed that a large proportion would again become reasonable citizens. He marveled at the constructive activities of still-grieving survivors. Dimbleby stated,This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life., BBC war correspondent Richard Dimbleby (left), c1943. Dr Wand describes the 'human laundry', which was a critical part of the evacuation process and helped contain the typhus epidemic. Fought in the Siege of Boston, New York Campaign, Philadelphia Campaign, and Monmouth Court House. Both died in the camp in February or March 1945. +44 (0)20 7611 2222info@wellcomecollection.org, Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence, Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). 59th (2nd Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot: Arrived in America in 1774 (Boston). This started to be quite it seemed to us with what we got, that was the best we could do, so we did that and those that could come to the cookhouses, we fed them from the cookhouses and eventually we started trying to take that service back out to those who couldnt even get that far. 33rd (1st Yorkshire West Riding) Regiment of Foot: Arrived in America in 1776 (North Carolina). From 1943 to 1945, at least 52,000 women, men and children died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration . Sergeant Owen Smart recalled: Before we entered the camp I had never heard of Bergen-Belsen. 76th Regiment of Foot (MacDonnells Highlanders): Arrived in America in 1779 (New York). Some claimed it was only propaganda, and fake news. Here he remembers the moment he entered the camp. The British Army Medical Corps set up a hospital at the site, where they assisted in the physical rehabilitation of the former prisoners After liberation, British occupation authorities established a displaced persons camp that housed more than 12,000 survivors. View this object Reverend Leslie Hardman served with VIII Corps of the British Second Army. Here he reflects on the importance of talking about what he saw and of survivors sharing their experiences. 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot: Arrived in America in 1776 (North Carolina). Split up during the war, with some companies serving in the West Indies where they fought in Honduras, Nicaragua, and at St. Vincent. Hughes received a special invitation to the first wedding: a Lithuanian girl and a Polish man stood under a gold-and-red chuppah (canopy) held up by 4 other survivors. For many survivors, the process of recovery and repatriation would continue long after the end of the Second World War. The "residence camp" was in operation from April 1943 until April 1945, and was composed of four subcamps: the "special camp" (Sonderlager), the "neutrals camp" (Neutralenlager), the "star camp" (Sternlager), and the "Hungarian camp" (Ungarnlager).