Video: 20 shocking photographs from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp immediately after its liberation
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
When British forces liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in the spring of 1945, they were unprepared for the horrors they would see. These shocking photos were taken by LIFE photographer George Rodger in April of that year. The photographer accompanied the 11th British Division and was one of the first to enter the concentration camp after the German fascists left it.
In the summer of 1941, about 20 thousand prisoners from the USSR entered the Bergen-Belsen camp, of which a little more than two thousand survived by the spring - 18 thousand people died from various diseases, cold and hunger. In 1945, there were many more people in the camp than he could accommodate, and therefore a typhus epidemic began. The disease mowed thousands of people down, including Anne Frank with her sister Margot and the Czech writer Josef Czapek.
In total, more than 50 thousand prisoners died in the Bergen-Belsen camp. There were no gas chambers in the camp, people were dying from harsh conditions. A lot of people died just a few months before their release. Due to the typhus epidemic, no one began to defend the camp, it was voluntarily surrendered to the allies.
On April 15, 1945, the 11th Division of the British Armed Forces entered the camp and began transporting prisoners to settlements. In the two weeks after their release, 9,000 more people died, never recovering from their injuries and damage to their health. By the end of May, another 4,000 had died.
Unfortunately, this moment in history is not the only one for which humanity can be ashamed. One of our previous reviews presented 10 historical photographs that capture the darkest pages of history.
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