As the Allies advanced across Europe at the end of theSecond World War, they came across concentration camps filled with sick and starving prisoners. They were all, or most of them, lying in pools of vomit and faeces and urine. The Round House there, which would become so significant for the British after the war, was used as a hospital. Here he describes his first impressions of the camp and its atmosphere of death. Over the course of its existence, the Bergen-Belsen camp complex held Jews, prisoners of war, political prisoners, Roma (Gypsies), "asocials," criminals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals. Anne Frank was one of the people deported to Bergen-Belsen. Reorganized and transferred to Jamaica in 1782. British soldiers supervise the distribution of food to camp inmates, April 1945. And having got rid of the dead you then made a sort of so say ward round to try and do what you could for the remainder, all of whom had diarrhoea, or the vast majority had diarrhoea. They were supported by Light Cavalry and Heavy Artillery. Among the British troops closest to this area were the soldiers of 11th Armoured Division. Hughes described the layout of Camp One, the Horror Camp, indicating the numbers of inmates found in each of five compounds. You just couldnt understand that all those people could be there and yet everything was so quietIt was just this oppressive haze over the camp, the smell, the starknessof the barbed wire fences, the dullness of the bare earth, the scattered bodies and these very dull, too,striped grey uniforms those who had it it was just so dull. 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. Washington, DC 20024-2126 Transferred to East Florida in 1778 and St. Kitts in 1779. Between Two Streams: A Diary from Bergen-Belsen. And when they made enquiries they were told that they were from a Political Prison Camp at Belsen. Served in the West Indies and fought in Honduras and Nicaragua. A considerable number of the ones in the hut were dead and the first job to do each day was to go in, and with the help of two Hungarian soldiers strangely enough we had a company of Hungarian soldiers to help as labourers youd go into the hut and pick out the dead bodies. Rediscovering Richard III with Matt Lewis, Rome and the Amalfi Coast with Tristan Hughes. Charleston, New York Campaign, Philadelphia Campaign, Brandywine, Germantown, Whitemarsh, and Monmouth Court House. Norna Alexander was a nurse with 29th British General Hospital, which arrived at Bergen-Belsen just over a month after its liberation. Main telephone: 202.488.0400 1900s A relief worker helps former prisoners select new items of clothing from supplies provided by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), 16-17 May 1945. They had crossed the River Weser on 5 April with 270 tanks and were closing on the city of Lneburg, aiming for the River Elbe and advancing across the woodland and heather of the Lneburg Heath. They were utterly unprepared for what they found. Yet back in Britain, and even amongsome sections of the Army, there was doubt that what had been reported from Belsen was true. Siege of Boston and New York Campaign. Latest Posts:Bergen Belsen Memorial Despite the annual []Eric Trott RAMC Social worker Andy Strowman []Albert Wood 9 TROOP 174 Battery 58th L.A.A This letter was written by my []Walter Gallant Was at the Liberation of [], Please select a letter from the index (above) to see entries, There are currently 1207 names in this directory, Middlesex Hospital Belsen Medical Students, St Bartholomews Hospital Belsen Medical Students, St Marys Hospital Belsen Medical Students, The London Hospital Belsen Medical Students, University College London Belsen Medical Students, Westminster Hospital Belsen Medical Students, Albert Wood 9 TROOP 174 Battery 58th L.A.A, Sgt. Foe to Friend 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. 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. They all had the most appalling coughs, they all had the most dreadful skin diseases, they were all filthy dirty and they were all absolutely skeletally thin And we were dealing with the killer, the main killer, which was typhus. In this podcast, he reveals to Dan what he has discovered and how it has led him to create the first accessible and authoritative account of the Holocaust in more than three decades. History Hit Launches on Comcasts Entertainment Platforms in the US. We would like to establish the Names of British soldiers who liberated 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. Dr Roger Dixey, one of the students who volunteered at the camp, describes his work and the condition of the prisoners in the barracks. The British Army immediately began to organise the relief effort. Laurence Wand: "You see, there was a war still being foughtThere was a CCS, there was 32 CCS, there was an anti-aircraft regiment and there was a control unit, there were a few British Army units which had been allowed to be in reserve at Belsen, but their primary function was not to look after Belsen, their primaryfunction was to back up the 21st Army Group in trying to get that war over and there was very little that could be spared.
