|
|
|
|
Bergen- Belsen in northern Germany was one of the concentration camp Germany that the Jewish people were sent to. In the beginning conditions in the camps were tolerable and food was adequate however, good the Bergen-Belsen camp was in the beginning, it fell victim to overcrowding, poor living conditions, and food shortages. What had been probably the best camp a living hell for the Jewish people |
|
|
In northern Germany near the towns of Bergen- Belsen a POW camp was built for French and Belgian prisoners. Later its name was changed to Stalag 311. Unfortunately the camp would be changed again in 1943 to be used as a concentration camps for the thousand of Jews and renamed Bergen-Belsen, which started as a holding camp for Jews with valid passports. The prisoners that were already sick were sent to labor camps. The camp was set up in eight different sections detention camp, two women camps, special camp, neutrals camps, star camp, Hungarian camp, and a tent camp. The polish Jews were in the special camp, Dutch Jews where in the star camp since they all had to wear the star of David instead of uniforms in the Hungarian camp originally there were about 1,600 Hungarian Jews. The tent camp served to hold the sick female prisoners from the hospital. |
|
|
In general the camp condition at Bergen-Belsen were better than other concentration camps till late 1944. Marika Frank Abrams a Jewish survivor from Hungary remembers arriving at Bergen-Belsen from Auschwitz, relieved and surprised to be given two blankets and a dish, edible food there was even running water and restrooms. At that time prisoners were given three meals a day, coffee and bread served with cheese in the morning and evenings. Lunchtime they were given one liter of stew. Men and women were in separate barracks and families were even allowed to stay together. Unfortunately, these conditions were about to come to an end. From December 1944 the 15,000 thousand prisoners increased to 42000by March 1945 at Bergen –Belsen. The conditions quickly went from bad to worse. Food became scarce water supply proved inadequate. Many became ill and died from typhus. |
|
|
Supposedly, Commandant of the camp Josef Kramer tried to quarantine the camp to save lives, but the SS insisted it remain open. The death toll quickly rose to 400 people a day. Kramer says he continued to fight for assistance before the situation got completely out of control. He told them “I don’t know what else I can do, I have reached my limit. The huts built to hold a100people now there were 600-1,000 people in each hut without sanitation and no medical treatment for the thousands ill with typhus and typhoid. The women’s compounds were by far the worst containing up to 23,000 people. Again no working rest rooms, dead bodies beginning to pile up, and disease spreading faster. Medical supplies were so inadequate for the large numbers. The doctor had maybe 300 aspirin tablets for every 17,000sick people in a week. |
|
|
. During the last six weeks of German control of the camp the Allies bombed the electric plant cutting of their water supply. Even though Commandant Kramer kept saying, there was no way to get water, when the Allied 21st came to liberate the camp they were able to quickly built a makeshift pipe system to pump water from the river. However, in spite of the relief workers efforts still more than 10,000 inmates died after the camp was liberated. |
|
|
On April 15, 1945 when Belsen was officially turned over to the British troops their officers beat, kicked and stabbed and shot many of the remaining German officers. The British liberators also evicted the residents in the town of Belsen and looked the other way as some surviving prisoners looted their homes and businesses as they had done to the Jews. Then much of the town was burned to stop the spread of typhus |
|
|
Commandant Kramer, who kept saying he killed no one and was only doing his job, was later charged and tried for his war crimes. Many survivors referred to him as “The Beast of Belsen”. He was referred to as the “Beast of Belsen was tried and executed along with camp. Dr. Fritz Klein and as many as forty-five staff members at Bergen-Belsen were tried, fourteen were acquitted. |
|
|
Today on the grounds of the Bergen-Belsen camp somewhere a young girl by the name Anne Frank is buried, possibly Hitler’s most famous victim of the holocaust. |
|
|
Nikki Garretson 7th social Studies Holocaust project Spring 2003 |