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View of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Germany, date uncertain. See more photographs |
BERGEN-BELSEN |
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The Bergen-Belsen camp was first established in 1940 south of the small towns of Bergen and Belsen, about 11 miles north of Celle, Germany. Until 1943, Bergen-Belsen was a prisoner-of-war camp. At first, French and Belgian prisoners of war were held there and, after 1941, Soviet prisoners of war. Many of these inmates died of starvation or disease due to deliberate neglect. In 1943, German authorities established the so-called "residence camp" of Bergen-Belsen on a portion of the site of the prisoner-of-war camp. This enclosure housed several thousand Jewish prisoners under the pretext that they would be exchanged for German nationals held by the western Allies. Few of the Jewish detainees were ever actually exchanged. In February 1944, the Germans permitted some 200 prisoners to leave for Palestine in exchange for German citizens in British territory, and more than 1,500 Hungarian Jews were permitted to enter Switzerland in return for cash payment. The Germans hoped that such exchanges would facilitate peace negotiations with American and British officials. By July 1944, over 4,000 of these "exchange" Jews were detained in Bergen-Belsen. In December 1944 the Germans redesignated Bergen-Belsen a concentration camp. |
Throughout its existence, the camp expanded to include eight sections: a "prisoners' camp," two camps for women, a special camp, a neutrals camp, the "star camp," a Hungarian camp, and a tent camp. The "prisoners' camp" housed Jewish prisoners brought from the Natzweiler-Struthof and Buchenwald concentration camps to construct the camp. It closed in February 1944. In March 1944, prisoners from other concentration camps who were too ill or no longer able to work were brought to Bergen-Belsen. The special camp housed Jews from Poland who held papers (usually passports or entrance visas) issued by foreign countries. The SS and German police deported most of them to Auschwitz to be killed. The neutrals camp was reserved for several hundred Jews who were citizens of neutral countries, including Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and Turkey. The "star camp" housed about 4,000 Jewish prisoners, mostly from the Netherlands, who were ostensibly to be exchanged for German nationals interned by the Allies. Prisoners in the "star camp" were not required to wear camp uniforms, but instead had the Star of David sewn onto their clothing (thus the camp's name). The Hungarian camp was built in July 1944 for more than 1,600 Hungarian Jews, whom Heinrich Himmler (head of the Gestapo and the Waffen SS) planned to exchange for money and goods. These prisoners did not wear camp uniforms, but were marked by a Star of David on their clothing. |
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Bergen-Belsen also served as a collection camp for sick and injured prisoners transported from other concentration camps. They were housed in a separate section, the so-called hospital camp. After the hospital camp became overcrowded, sick female prisoners, among them Anne Frank, were held in the tent camp. Many seriously ill prisoners were killed with lethal injections in the camp infirmary. |
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Bergen-Belsen became a collection camp for thousands of Jewish prisoners evacuated from camps closer to the front as Allied forces advanced into Germany in late 1944 and early 1945. The arrival of thousands of new prisoners, many of them survivors of death marches, flooded the camp. In February 1945 there were already some 22,000 prisoners. With the arrival of prisoners evacuated from the east, there were over 60,000 by April 15, 1945. Overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and the lack of adequate food and shelter led to a typhus epidemic. In the first few months of 1945, tens of thousands of prisoners, perhaps as many as 35,000 people, died. On April 15, 1945, British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen. Sixty thousand prisoners, most of them seriously ill, were found in the camp. Thousands of corpses lay unburied on the camp grounds. More than 10,000 former prisoners, too ill to recover, died after liberation. After evacuating Bergen-Belsen, British forces burned down the whole camp to prevent the spread of typhus. During its existence, approximately 50,000 persons died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After liberation, a displaced persons camp of more than 12,000 inhabitants was established in German military school barracks near the original concentration camp site. Further Reading Bardgett, Suzanne, and David Cesarani, editors. Belsen 1945: New Historical Perspectives. Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, 2006. Herzberg, Abel Jacob. Between Two Streams: A Diary from Bergen-Belsen. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers in association with European Jewish Publication Society, 1997. Reilly, Joanne, David Cesarani, Tony Kushner, and Colin Richmond, editors. Belsen in History and Memory. London: F. Cass, 1997. |
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