Bergen-Belsen

[Name of the Institute]

Bergen-Belsen

Introduction

Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in the land of Lower Saxony, situated a mile from the village of Belsen, and a few miles to the south-west of Bergen. Geographically, the place called Bergen-Belsen is now non-existent. It was established in, May 1940, as Stalag 311 for prisoners of war in Belgium and France. The initial number of prisoners was nearly 600. In July 1941, there were about 20 thousand prisoners of war from the Soviet Union. In the spring of 1942, 18,000 of them died from hunger, cold and disease, whereas 2097 of the people survived.

Discussion

In April, 1943, a POW camp was closed and converted into a concentration camp for the detention of those prisoners, who owned a foreign passport and that can be exchanged for German prisoners filed, contained in the camps of the Allies. Section for sick prisoners, who could no longer work in labor camps, was established, in March 1944. In 1945, when the end of the Second World War became apparent, prisoners from other camps were transferred to the Bergen-Belsen camp, though the Bergen-Belsen was not equipped to receive such a large number of prisoners (Trimmer, 1984).

In the camp, there were no gas chambers. However, between 1943 and 1945, there were approximately 50,000 prisoners out of which, more than 35,000 prisoners suffered from typhus a few months before the liberation of the camp. As a result, due to the outbreak of the epidemic typhus, in December 1944, 350 people died. In January, the number of dead reached around 800 to 1000 people. On the other hand, 6000 to 7000 people died in February, 18,168 in March, and 18,355 died in April. Among the dead were a Czech painter and writer Josef Capek, Anne Frank and her sister Margot.

In February, 1945, the situation in the camp was due to a catastrophic outbreak of typhus epidemic. On March 1st, camp Commandant Josef Kramer, sent Richard Glücks, head of the administration of concentration camps, a written request for assistance in dealing with food and other problems. The camp was voluntarily handed over to allies and the survivors were released on 15 April, 1945 the 11th Division of British armed forces.

The Experiences of the Camp

The facilities had a lack of appropriate requirement of hygiene and sanitation and there were many deaths caused by severe infections. Only in the winter, between 1941 and 1942, more than 14,000 prisoners of the war were killed. In April 1943, the area of prisoners of war was dissolved and the remaining prisoners from Belgium and France were brought to the town of Fallingbostel. Once cleared, the field where these prisoners were housed stood a hospital for all prisoners of war. Due to the high death rate among them, there was a specific cemetery for the prisoners (Shephard, 2005). There was a constantly varied prison population due to the relocation of prisoners from other camps evacuated or closed, in December 1944 had 15,257 registered prisoners, in February 1945 reached 22,000, the ...