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On the division's line of advance lay a camp at a place called Belsen. The German envoy explained that diseases such as typhus were endemic there. His plan was to declare it an open area, thereby avoiding any fighting that might allow the inmates to escape and spread disease to soldiers of both sides as well as local civilians.

The truce was accepted, and on 12 April a square-kilometre exclusion zone was placed around the camp, and the area declared neutral. No shots would be fired in its vicinity. The Germans, and the Hungarians they were employing, would remain only to guard the camp until the British arrived. After that, they would be allowed to march back to their own lines with their weapons. On 15 April, three days after the truce, and with strong German resistance continuing in the area around the neutral zone, the first British troops entered the camp.

Together with a loudspeaker truck from the Intelligence Corps commanded by Lieutenant Derrick Sington, a journalist in civilian life, they made their way down roads that led away from nearby villages and deep into the woods. They were utterly unprepared for what they found. There were more than 60, emaciated prisoners in desperate need of sustenance and medical attention. Worse still, 13, corpses lay around the camp, unburied and rotting. Despite being experienced soldiers familiar with the horrors of war, they had never encountered anything like this.

As well as many Jews, the camp contained a cross-section of those the Nazis deemed inferior and enemies of their state. There were 20 nationalities altogether, in the most horrific conditions. Many had been marched from camps further east and then simply dumped at Belsen by their captors.

Additionally, there was a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp attached, the inmates of which were also in an appalling state. Veteran BBC journalist Richard Dimbleby, accompanying the troops, produced a radio report based on what he saw. Initially, his superiors in London refused to believe it and would not broadcast it. Only after he threatened to resign did they relent.

Despite still being at war, the British took on the humanitarian crisis. Emergency medical aid was organised under the direction of Brigadier Glyn Hughes. Attempts were made to clean up the camp by burying bodies and implementing a form of quarantine to prevent the further spread of disease among the weakened population. Aiding the living was a major task. By the end of 16 April, 27 water carts had been provided, along with enough food for an evening meal, all delivered by VIII Corps.

But it was not simply a case of handing out the food. In fact, the Army rations had a negative effect on the weakened prisoners - their malnourished bodies could not cope as the food was so much richer than what they were used to.

Limited amounts of milk, sugar and water were given, either by medical volunteers from Britain who had arrived on 29 April, or by those internees strong enough to feed themselves and others. Despite these efforts, a further 14, people died after the camp's liberation. The surviving internees were stabilised, deloused and moved to the nearby tank training barracks at Bergen-Hohne, which became a Displaced Persons DP camp.

The Round House there, which would become so significant for the British after the war, was used as a hospital. In Bergen-Hohne, the internees were registered, medically treated, clothed and prepared for repatriation.

View full image. Lesson at a glance. Download: Lesson pack. What did the British find when they entered Belsen concentration camp? Tasks History Hook — Starter Activity. Read Source 1. What are the different causes of death described in this document? Read Source 2. This is a report about SS Guards shooting prisoners after the liberation of the camp.

Give your own account of what had happened at the cookhouse. How did the incident end? What does it tell you about the attitude of the British towards Kramer and the SS? What does the writer say which tells you this? Read Source 3. This section of the document describes how the problems of feeding the prisoners at Belsen was handled initially. How did the British army set about meeting the basic needs of the prisoners?

What effect did this have? Why do you think he used this word? Read Source 4. This is a witness statement from one of the prisoners at Belsen. What had Hilde Lisiewitz done? What had Karl Egersdorf done? People arrested for resisting German rule were mostly sent to forced-labor or concentration camps. The Germans deported Jews from all over occupied Europe to extermination camps in Poland, where they were systematically killed, and also to concentration camps, where they were used for forced labor.

Transit camps such as Westerbork, Gurs, Mechelen, and Drancy in western Europe and concentration camps like Bolzano and Fossoli di Carpi in Italy were used as collection centers for Jews, who were then deported by rail to the extermination camps.

According to SS reports, there were more than , prisoners registered in the concentration camps in January We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia.

Thousands of corpses lay unburied on the camp grounds. Between May and April 15, , between 36, and 37, prisoners died in Bergen-Belsen. More than 13, 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, persons died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp complex including Anne Frank and her sister Margot.

Both died in the camp in February or March Most of the victims were Jews. After liberation, British occupation authorities established a displaced persons camp that housed more than 12, survivors. It was located in a German military school barracks near the original concentration camp site, and functioned until The number of SS functionaries in Bergen-Belsen varied over the course of the camp's existence.

The SS succeeded in destroying many of the camp's files, including those on personnel. The tribunal sentenced eleven of the defendants to death, including camp commandant Josef Kramer. Nineteen other defendants were convicted and sentenced to prison terms; the tribunal acquitted fourteen. On December 12, , British military authorities executed Kramer and his co-defendants. Bardgett, Suzanne, and David Cesarani, editors. Belsen New Historical Perspectives.

Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, Herzberg, Abel Jacob. London: I.