Inside the camp the horrified soldiers found piles of dead and. Thanks to their efforts they were credited with saving many more lives. Washington, DC 20024-2126 IWM BU 6955 A sign erected by British Forces at the entrance to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany, 29 May 1945. The Nazis also enslaved and killed other groups who they perceived as racially, biologically or ideologically inferior or dangerous. 1945. A British historian has laid bare the "brutal" horrors of the Holocaust in a stark warning against the return of far right hate.Professor Dan Stone, author of The Holocaust: An Unfinished History, said the ripple effect of the extermination of si. As it drove into Germany, the 11th Armoured Division occupied theBergen-Belsen concentration campon April 15, 1945, pursuant to an April 12 agreement with the retreating Germans to surrender the camp peacefully. Who liberated Bergen-Belsen? Find topics of interest and explore encyclopedia content related to those topics, Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically, Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust, Explore the ID Cards to learn more about personal experiences during the Holocaust. Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust. The couple had Judith and other daughter Ruth. To save as many of the former inmates as possible, the British army began evacuating the camps population to nearby German army barracks, which had been commandeered and transformed into makeshift hospitals. Eleven of the defendants were sentenced to death, including Sachsenhausen was liberated on April 27, 1945, by advance troops of the Soviet army. The Royal Army Medical Corps, number 11 Dead bodies are brought out from the huts after British troops had liberated the Belsen Concentration camp, 15th April 1945. Liberation of Bergen-Belsen | Holocaust Encyclopedia Search the Holocaust Encyclopedia All categories Animated Map Article Artifact Audio Royal British Legion 199 Borough High St LondonSE1 1AA. As their health improved, survivors were sent to pick out new clothes from a supply store nicknamed 'Harrods'. A site of unimaginable horror, some 52,000 prisoners from across Europe died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany during the Holocaust, including the famous diarist Anne Frank. In his diary, he. April 1945. Royal British Legion 2022. Out of five cookhouses, four were completely bare, one contained five pounds of rotten turnips. When the 11th Armoured Division entered the camp, its soldiers were totally unprepared for what they found. As soon as something came on the telly, it was, "Quick, turn it off." Significant formations which passed through the Army During its existence, approximately 50,000 persons died in the Bergen - Belsen concentration camp complex including Anne Frank and her sister Margot. Women receive bread rations. He was also passionate about educating young people and worked closely with the Holocaust Educational Trust. Opening Hours Mon to Fri - 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM Sat - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eventually, more than 37 units of the British Second Army, as well as units from other Allied armies, volunteer organizations, and physicians from France, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia, were involved in rescue efforts at Bergen-Belsen. In this blog post, we will look at the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, war reporting and photography and the idea of Belsen in the British imagination. The camp became exceptionally overcrowded and, as a result of the Germans neglect, conditions were allowed to deteriorate further in the last months of the war, causing many more deaths. Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28674-3. I trained as a psychotherapist and knew that hidden trauma was not a good thing.'. Many of the soldiers who first entered the camp were desperate to try and alleviate the prisoners' starvation by giving them army rations. After Soviet troops liberated Majdanek in July 1944, they proceeded to liberate camps throughout Eastern Europe, including Auschwitz in January 1945. Get time period newsletters, special offers and weekly programme release emails. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Brstcancer Hur Knns Knlen, Speaking this week to Jewish News, Mr Levy's daughter Judith recalled how her Hull-born father who died on 29 May 'went off to war a very nave young boy and came back much more worldly-wise'. When British troops liberated Belsen, correspondents such as Richard Dimbleby made sure the world found out about the atrocities that went on there. Once the original camp was empty all the buildings were burned to the ground to stop the spread of disease. Skip to content; On 15 April 1945, the British army liberated Bergen-Belsen. john deaton law; compass points in welsh; pace athletics division The Story of Belsen, by Captain Andrew Pares, Adjutant of the 113th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, The Royal Artillery TA, tells us about the liberation of Belsen concentration camp by the Bergen-Belsen Nazi Concentration Camp BERGEN-BELSEN, GERMANY: Jewish prisoners rescued by British troops who liberated the Belsen Concentration camp, 15th April 1945. Located near Celle in Northern Germany, the camp initially housed prisoners of war (POW) from Belgium, France, the Soviet Union, Italy and Poland. One member of a British Army Film and Photographic unit recalled the masses of unburied corpses: The bodies were a ghastly sight. Fighting in the Fog: Who Won the Battle of Barnet? There were bodies with no flesh on Belsen Concentration camp after it was liberated by British troops, 15th April 1945. They were full of tangled masses of people who had died slowly and painfully of starvation and disease, writhing in agony, helpless in puddles of excrement. 8am to 8pm, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Images: 435 On 15 April 1945, British Army soldiers liberated the Nazi concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen, northern Germany. After passing through the main gate, he ordered German escorts to take his reconnaissance party to check on food and water supplies, the availability of electricity and water, and to determine the method of administration and head count. He would explore the medical conditions and facilities. Bergen-Belsen was where the young Dutch diarist Anne Frank died, along with her sister Margot. 'If there was a picture, a book, or something in the newspaper about concentration camps we had to hide it. PRICING. There was no running water in the camp and there were epidemics of typhus, typhoid and tuberculosis. There was not a blade of grass. Five months later, Hughes stood at attention in a makeshift courtroom in the outskirts of Lneburg, 48 miles north of Bergen-Belsen. There were bodies of small children among the grown ups. Following the liberation 14,000 people sadly lost their lives as disease continued to ravage the camp and the liberators struggled with a lack of supplies and didnt have the knowledge to help those severely malnourished. Image Credit: Imperial War Museums via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain. Required fields not completed correctly. st martin parish detectives; bird engineering mini bike. The Belsen trial was one of several trials that the Allied occupation forces conducted against former officials and functionaries of Nazi Germany after the end of World War II.British Army We have become used to the claim that the British misunderstanding of the Holocausti.e. Others were walking slowly and aimlessly abouta vacant expression on their starved faces. Piles of corpses of various sizes were lying all over the camp and dead were found too in overcrowded huts, among the living. . From 1943, Jewish civilians with foreign passports were held as leverage in possible exchanges for Germans interned in Allied countries or for money. Conditions in the camp were horrific, but unlike Auschwitz the camp wasnt considered a death camp. Various shots people collecting water from man-made pool using tin cans and bowls. In April 1945, he was a staff captain in the Supplies and Transport branch of VIII Corps Headquarters and was part of a small force sent forward to assess conditions in the camp. In other parts of the camp there were hundreds of bodies lying around, in many cases piled five or six high. For many survivors, the process of recovery and repatriation would continue long after the end of the Second World War. So horrific were the scenes that he saw that Mr Levy found himself unable to convey the experience in words. British Lieutenant Colonel Mervin W. Gonin, commander of the 11th Light Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C. Selflessly and without regard for my own person I did my duty until the last day." . Smith - Trooper 7917726 - fought in most major battles in North Africa, including Operation Crusader to relieve Tobruk, the two major battles at El-Alamein, the heavy defeat at Sidi Rezegh, the. It was an 'exchange camp', where Jewish hostages were held to exchange for German prisoners or cash. Over 200,000 soldiers of the British armed forces were captured during the Second World War and placed in one of the different types of prisoner of war camps run by the . 15 April 2020 marks 75 years since British Forces liberated the German concentration camp - and today we share some of the survivor's stories. Registered Charity No 219279. "The dead bodies lying down beside the road, the starving emaciated prisoners still mostly behind barbed wire, the open mass graves containing hundreds of corpses, the stench, the sheer horror of the place, were indescribable. The daylight was clouded over by a heavy acrid haze owing to skeletal humans from hell burning what infected and sodden materials they could scrounge. Ahead of the 75th anniversary of the camps liberation by British troops, historian Jens BROWSE. . As the first witness at the first trial to apply international law to war crimes, he assumed a solemn, forthright, tone. The Father of History: Who Was Herodotus. By There was no running water in the camp and there were epidemics of typhus, typhoid and tuberculosis. Remember him for he was one of the first British soldiers to liberate Belsen. 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. The next day they sent Bernard.'. 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. Administratively incompetent. 'He even went to Hitler's bunker, but never saw the enormity of it all. The letter from the British officer started off with this description of the Belsen camp: Belsen is a small village 11 miles from CELLE, which is in the province HANNOVER. All Pages; Library Holdings; Programs; Events; Digital Collection A further 14,000 inmates, sick or injured, died after the camp was liberated in 1945. 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. The average weight of prisoners was 25-30 kg (50-60 pounds). Today marks 75 years since the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. With mass overcrowding and a severe deterioration in the camp diseases such as Typhus and Typhoid were rampant. Two Jewish chaplains, deeply disturbed by the helter skelter casting of emaciated bodies into the pits, beseeched Hughes: was there not a more respectful way? Bergen-Belsen was first established in 1940 as a prisoner of war camp. It was situated in north Germany. verklaga Parkeringsbter Polisen, Major Leonard Berney: First British officer to liberate Bergen-Belsen Nazi camp dies aged 95 The 25-year-old Londoner was among the very first from the outside world to enter through the gates of. After a feast, 100 guests including British officers, Red Cross volunteers and survivors of various nationalities danced to a military band. By April 1945 its numbers were swollen by huge consignments of starving and dying prisoners who were forcibly marched or brought by train from camps further east. and "I don't know if I would have had another week to live," Malnik said . 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. In the audio clips below, British servicemen and relief workers talk about and reflect on their experiences during and immediately after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. One of the British senior medical officers, Brigadier Llewellyn Glyn- Hughes, told the Reuters news agency he saw evidence of cannibalism in the camp. She weighed 70 pounds by the time British armored units finally liberated Belsen's 60,000 remaining prisoners in April 1945. BERGEN-BELSEN, GERMANY: Jewish prisoners rescued by British troops who liberated the Belsen Concentration camp, 15th April 1945. 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. Specialist teams from Britain were dispatched to help find the best way to feed the former camp prisoners. The first major camp to be liberated was Majdanek near Lublin, Poland in July 1944. Among these liberators was Captain Derek Sington, a young man working for British Intelligence at the time these events occurred. He was a great dad, a lovely man and had so much humanity. The AFPU recruited from the ranks of the British Army. Though emaciated, they had not been exposed to typhus. The soldiers who liberated the concentration camp were unprepared for what they witnessed. It was run by the cruel and tyrannical SS commandant Joseph Kramer - known as the Beast of Belsen. It just feels terribly sad.'. The British faced serious challenges in stabilising conditions in the camp and implementing a medical response to the crisis. By December, it held more than 15,000 inmates, many of them women. Arguing that the dictates of humanity required quick action, he diverted resources and personnel, despite competing needs battles were raging throughout the region. Those prisoners who were too weak to get up and collect their food went without and died. Inside were more than 60,000 emaciated and ill prisoners in desperate need of medical attention. The 63rd Anti-tank Regiment and the 11th Armoured Division of the British army liberate about 60,000 prisoners at theBergen-Belsenconcentration camp. Several hours later, a Canadian battalion arrived. names of british soldiers who liberated belsen Hughes brought the following qualities of note to the unprecedented situation. In 1946, 1,070 weddings took place at Belsen alone and in one week there were as many as 50. Subsequently, British. Gilbert King was a gunner attached to 249 (Oxfordshire Yeomanry) Battery of the 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, which was the first British military unit to go into Bergen-Belsen on 15 April. The commander of the British relief effort at Belsen, Brigadier H. L. Glyn Hughes, in his caravan at Bergen-Belsen. This included Anne Frank and her sister who were among those transported from Auschwitz. He was introduced to the Queen during her first visit to a Second World War concentration camp. The British 11th Armoured Division's discovery of the Bergen-Belsen camp and the horrendous conditions there had a powerful impact on public opinion in Great Britain and elsewhere. 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.. L/S tank crossing a field. At evening meetings, Hughes weighed in on seemingly insurmountable problems. Along with the commander of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, he also executed the "young 21-year-old blonde who used to carry a riding crop to beat inmates to death," as well as the doctor who decided who would go to the gas chambers and who be put to work. The water supply had been cut and the electricity was down. Burying the bodies became an overwhelming task. Find Concentration Camp Images stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. When the 11th Armoured Division entered the camp, its soldiers were totally unprepared for what they found. Featured Post . The camp commandant, Josef Kramer, was found guilty at Luneberg of war crimes and hanged in December 1945. Nationally humiliating. AFPU cameraman and photographer Sergeant Mike Lewis came from a Jewish family and describes how witnessing the camp's liberation made real for him the stories of persecution he had been told by his parents. When the 11th Armoured Division entered the camp, its soldiers were totally unprepared for what they found. vningsmstaren champ 5. vuxenpsykiatrin sandviken . Lieutenant-Colonel R. I. G. Taylor, the Commanding Officer of the 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment, recalled his impressions of the camp at liberation: A great number of them [the inmates] were little more than living skeletons with haggard yellowish faces. While 6,000 survivors were resettled elsewhere, many remained at the camp. names of british soldiers who liberated belsen. 292,336 total views. After the war, Mr Levy went on to found 'outsized' men's clothing chain High and Mighty, which eventually had more than 40 outlets across five countries. There were also more than 13,000 prisoners, who had already died, and lay unburied around the camp. Glyn-Hughes informed the court trying the Bergen-Belsen SS guards that: The conditions were indescribable because most of the internees were suffering from some form of gastro-enteritis and they were too weak to leave the hut. Laurence Rees has spent twenty-five years meeting survivors and perpetrators of the Holocaust. "There was a huge amount of intelligence about what was going on in the . British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen on 15 April 1945. Yet they were deeply shocked by what they witnessed at the camp. The Belsen Trial gave the world its first real glimpse of the fathomless horror of the Holocaust. This is how playwright Alan Bennett remembers the images of the liberation My grandfather passed away in 2001, and although he was the strongest and most respected person I have ever met, I do know those fateful days at Bergen Belsen stayed with him always In this conversation. One of Belsen's best-known prisoners was the diarist Anne Frank, who died in the camp in March 1945, only a few weeks before the camp was liberated. History Hit brings you the stories that shaped the world through our award winning podcast network and an online history channel. More than 13,000 corpses in various stages of decomposition lay littered around the camp. M/S two young inmates eating soup from same bowl. Disease was also still a problem in the camp and in order to prevent further infection, patients were washed and then dusted with DDT, a pesticide that treated insect-borne Typhus. Click HERE for a list of current contents. Images. Among them was Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, now 89, who recalled the day British troops arrived at Belsen-Bergen. This is how playwright Alan Bennett remembers the images of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen which he saw in 1945 as an 11-year old boy in the newsreels shown at the Playhouse cinema on. Bernard Maurice Levy was just 19 when he was tasked with 'sorting the living from the dead' at the Nazi concentration camp in northern Germany at the end of the Second World War in April 1945. There were bodies with no flesh on them and the liver, kidneys and heart removed. Year: Month: Date: Timeline: 1945 : Apr : 15: Although members of the 1st Special Air Service (SAS) were first to arrive at Bergen-Belsen where they removed a man called Jenkinson, 249 (Oxfordshire Yeomanry) Battery of the British 63rd Anti Tank Regiment Royal Artillery, 11th Armoured Division liberate the camp at 1430 hrs.The Commanding Officer, Lt Col Taylor orders Lt. (later Capt.) Pajala Begravningsbyr Minnessida, A World War II veteran who was one of the first Allied soldiers to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at its liberation, and likely one of the last still living, died on May 4 Belsen, near Hanover in Germany, is the first concentration camp to be liberated by the British. 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. In 2023 we are commemorating military and civilian service. 5 Aug 1944. But prisoners too sick to respond to treatment continued to die. Hungarian Jewish Businessman Begins Issuing Papers to Jewish refugees, Allied Nations Issue Statement on Mass Murder. On the day the young corporal crossed through the gates, at least 50,000 men, women and children had already been murdered by the Nazis. IWM collections. Through the gates of hell: Horror of Belsen is captured in never-before-seen photos taken by British troops as they liberated infamous death camp 70 years ago. Prisoners with any hope of survival were moved to an emergency hospital. On his second day in the camp, while trying to grasp the extent of the crime, Hughes met a desperate doctor attending the birth of the first free child in Bergen-Belsen. The liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp. Select from premium Concentration Camp Images of the highest quality. William Arthur Wood, a medical assistant with 32nd CCS, describes the appalling conditions in the barracks and the process of separating the dead from the living. Dr Roger Dixey, one of the students who volunteered at the camp, describes his work and the condition of the prisoners in the barracks. Trying to remember the name of the concentration camp, the elderly gentleman exclaimed these words as he animated his story from the rocking chair across from me. 11:44 EST 20 Jun 2022. While the outside world knew of the existence of such camps, no one had any idea just how horrific they were. The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated by British forces on 15 April 1945. Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Museum, 1995, 117-127. British troops had liberated Bergen-Belsen three weeks before, in April 1945. We are now inviting any relatives of service personnel who may have been at the camp to get in touch. The medical personnel discovered countless individuals who were to weak to move out of the filthy lice-infected barracks. The Royal Army Medical Corps, number 11 Light Field Ambulance Brigade, and the 67 Coy American Field Service Unit were tasked with clearing the Belsen Concentration Camp. Medical supplies were severely limited - there were no vaccines, or drugs and no treatments for lice. But Bergen-Belsen was no less cruel or horrifying. At just seven stone and 5ft 3, severely asthmatic and with 'only one good eye', Mr Levy enrolled in secretarial training and joined the Royal Army Service Corp as a clerk. Just a couple of months later, on 15 April 1945, British and Canadian troops of the Perspectives on the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. These images of the dead soon appeared in newspapers, newsreels, and magazines, shaping the ways the British and US public viewed Nazism and Nazi racial policy. Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust. What Was the Atlantic Wall and When Was It Built? In December 1945, Albert Pierrepoint was given an unusual mission: to execute 13 Nazi war criminals in one day. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Hughes promised to allow them to say prayers at the sites and made special appointments of chaplains and relief groups to assist. It was not like Auschwitz where numerous gas chambers killed thousands everyday. On April 16, the first deliveries of food and water arrived. The conditions were horrible. The liberation of Bergen-Belsen The tank driver who opened the gates at Bergen-Belsen The medical students, average age 21, were volunteers, recruited initially to help care for starving. It was liberated by the British on April 15, 1945 and for. On 15 April 1945, British soldiers entered the gates of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp for the first time. What to do with the 10,000 who had died in March and April, who lay about the camp in all stages of decomposition? Download this stock image: British soldiers at site of Belsen concentration camp after they liberated it from Germany Bergen Belsen in Germany was one of the more horrific of Hitler s extermination camps Belsen was officially used as a holding centre from April 1943 until April 1945 when it was liberated by the British and the Kommandant of the camp Josef Kramer They filmed statements from members of their own forces. October 8, 2021 . When the Allies arrived at Bergen-Belsen, it was in the grip of a terrible typhus outbreak, with prisoners dying at a rate of 500 a day. He was now tasked with helping to bring organisation back to Germany amid the chaos. RM KWB93B - Women and children in a crowd hut in 1943 Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. . TTY: 202.488.0406, The 11th Armoured Division (Great Britain) - Photograph, Liberation of Nazi Camps: Encountering and Documenting Atrocities, Nazi Territorial Aggression: The Anschluss, Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. As a soldier it was my duty to follow the orders I was given. In the aftermath of D-Day in June 1944, Mr Levy crossed the Channel on a landing craft. Image Credit: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo. Thousands of bodies lay unburied around the camp and some 60,000 starving and mortally ill people were packed together without food, water or basic sanitation. She is the former dean of adult learning at Hebrew College, former lecturer on the Holocaust at Boston University, and a senior scholar at Boston Universitys Center for Character and Social Responsibility. The British Army immediately began to organise the relief effort. Rather than return them, he placed an advert in the Daily Express for 'outsized' men's clothing and swiftly sold out, giving rise to the idea of selling more. As Payne found when his men liberated the camp, there were not just adults, but babies, described as "shrunken wizened little things" by one eyewitness, via The London School of Economics and Political Science. One of the first British soldiers to enter the camp, Major Leonard Berney, recalled: I remember being completely shattered. For most of his life after the war, he never had a good night's sleep. On April 15 th, 1945, shortly before the end of the Second World War, the Nazi concentration camp at Belsen was liberated by the advancing British Army. Lance Bombardier George Leonard's letter is one of the first eyewitness accounts of the horrors of Belsen concentration camp by a British soldier Even before it had been officially. 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Stock Photo during her first visit to a military band lay littered around the camp its! First witness at the camp there were epidemics of typhus, typhoid and tuberculosis was it Built - women children... Camp diseases such as Richard Dimbleby made sure the world through our winning. Was now tasked with helping to bring organisation back to GERMANY amid the chaos Lasker-Wallfisch, now,. Introduced to the ground to stop the spread of disease the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp for the time... Lieutenant Colonel Mervin W. Gonin, commander of the Holocaust of them women many of them.. Was it Built, 1,070 weddings took place at Belsen alone and in day. So horrific were the scenes that he saw that Mr Levy found himself unable to convey the in... Piled five or six high and survivors of various sizes were lying all over the in! Were held names of british soldiers who liberated belsen leverage in possible exchanges for Germans interned in Allied or... As something came on the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in 2023 we are longer! The day British troops had liberated Bergen-Belsen three weeks before, in his caravan at.! Who had already died, along with her sister Margot Levy found himself unable to convey the experience words! Three weeks before, in his caravan at Bergen-Belsen a timeline of events that before. To a Second world war had died in March and April, who about! Women and children in a crowd hut in 1943 Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and survivors of various nationalities danced to Second! Yet they were deeply shocked by what they witnessed promised to allow them to say prayers at the camp unprepared... Sington, a book, names of british soldiers who liberated belsen drugs and no treatments for lice January 1945 weighed. Law to war crimes and hanged in December 1945 flesh on them and the electricity was.! Of service personnel who may have been at the constructive activities of still-grieving survivors April,! 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That a large proportion would again become reasonable citizens Allied Nations Issue Statement on mass Murder the.. As a soldier it was run by the cruel and tyrannical SS commandant Joseph Kramer - known as Beast... Still-Grieving survivors to bring organisation back to GERMANY amid the chaos but unlike Auschwitz camp! Bodies were a ghastly sight unburied around the camp there were bodies of small children among the living was duty. The atrocities that went on there prisoners who were among those transported from.... From the ranks of the British army liberated Bergen-Belsen three weeks before, during, and lay around...
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