Bergen-Belsen
The Holocaust was the mass killing of Jews, Roma or Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses and many other groups of people considered “inferior” to the Nazi party. The concentration camps and death camps were set up to kill the Jews and other “inferior” people. The Nazis wanted certain races of people to be isolated from the people who were “superior.” Hitler’s “Final Solution” was worse than anything that had happened before. It was worse than the all the persecution that had occurred when Hitler came into power. The “Final Solution” was the plan to eliminate the people who Hitler saw as “inferior.” After the persecutions, Hitler resorted to genocide. It is important to study the tragic events that took place during the Holocaust, because it would be horrible if this event were ever repeated. So many innocent people lost their lives. They didn’t do anything to deserve it. No one should be thought less of because of who they are, who their parents were, or who their great-great-grandparents where. So many precious children weren’t even given a chance to live. Just because they couldn’t work they were killed. About 6 million Jews died in the period of a few years. That doesn’t even account for the other “inferior” races. Bergen-Belsen was a concentration camp located in northern Germany. It was considered one of the better ones, but it was still a horrible place. Overcrowding was a big problem due to the fact that the prisoners who were evacuated from eastern camps were sent there. Also, sick prisoners from other camps were sent there, even though they did not receive the care they needed. Bergen-Belsen was also where a young Jewish girl, Anne Frank, died. During the war her family and a few other people went into hiding and she kept a diary. The diary has been translated into many different languages and she is now world-renown. Her sister Margot Frank also died in Bergen-Belsen. They both died from Typhus when the epidemic broke out. The Holocaust should never be forgotten. No one should ever endure that pain and suffering again. “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.” ---Elie Wiesel.
Bergen-Belsen was a concentration camp located near Celle, Germany. It was located south of the villages of Bergen and Belsen. It was established in 1940 as a prisoner of war camp for about 600 French and Belgian soldiers. In April of 1943 sections of the camp were given to the SS. There they establish a detention camp for Jews for the intention of exchanging them for imprisoned German soldiers. But very few exchanges were made. It remained in operation until liberation on April 15, 1945. After that, Bergen-Belsen was a displaced persons camp for over 12,000 people displaced after the Holocaust. All that remains is the graveyard because the camp was burned to the ground to prevent the spread of Typhus. The camp mostly contained Jews. The camp was divided in to eight sections: a detention camp, two women’s camps, a special camp, neutrals camp, “star” camp, Hungarian camp, and a tent camp.
Bergen-Belsen wasn’t a killing camp. It didn’t have a gas chamber. For concentration camp standards, Bergen-Belsen was fairly good. But it wasn’t paradise either, especially after it started overcrowding. The camp was designed to hold about 10,000 people, but the Nazis were evacuating eastern camps that were closer to the front lines. Tens of thousands of prisoners from other camps, including large numbers from Auschwitz, came to Bergen-Belsen after excruciating death marches. Since the population increased, conditions decreased. They suffered poor sanitary conditions, lack of adequate food and shelter and there also was a Typhus epidemic that killed thousands. They resorted to lethal injections due to the overcrowding. In the first few months of 1945, about 35,000 died. 60,000 prisoners were found when the camp was liberated.
Renée H. was a young girl in Bergen-Belsen. She was around 11 years old. She remembers some of her experiences. “When I was in the camp, I managed to find a roll of toilet paper. And I managed to also barter something I had for a pencil. And I started to write and I was writing down everything that was happening to me, about my longings, my fears, conversations I overheard, things people had said. At one point, this roll of toilet paper was found in one of the searches by the soldiers. I remember coming back from Appell [roll call] seeing a soldier with the toilet paper, and rolling it and reading it to someone else---and laughing and finding it very amusing. Suddenly I rushed up to snatch it. He pulled it away and he said ‘NO! This is too good for you.’ And he took it with him and, of course I heard the conversation. I heard what they were describing. One of the things I remember him saying to the other was, ‘She has a wonderful sense of humor!” And I didn’t remember writing anything funny in it. I remember feeling, saying, ‘You may have taken that toilet roll, but you haven’t stopped me from writing.’ And that was when I vowed to spend the rest of my life writing.” She had something that was hers taken away from her. She decided to spend the rest of her life writing because that was hers and no one could take that away. She also tells what she remembers of liberation. But sadly, she was too sick to remember it. “One of the saddest things in my life has been that I have no recollection of the liberation because I was totally ill with the Typhus. I have no recollection of what happened when the English came to Bergen-Belsen, none of the things that people told me afterwards about the joy and the sense of being moved from where I was to what was converted into a hospital which was outside---right in the place where the Germans themselves were billeted. One of the men who was liberating us was a Dr. Collis, and he told me later on that I was very near death. Had I to wait another two days for the English, I would not have survived.” It is really sad that she doesn’t have any memories of her own of what would have been the happiest moments of her life.
On April 15, 1945, the British liberated Bergen-Belsen. About 60,000 people were found at the camp. Many were sick and near death. Thousands died after liberation because they were so sick they could not recover. 10,000 to 14,000 died from liberation to June 20, 1945. Conditions were horrible when the camp was found; no words could describe them. Louis L. Snyder said, “Battle-hardened veterans inured [used] to the sight and the smell of death were sickened by what they saw in these pestholes. They could scarcely believe their eyes…staggering out to meet them were the walking skeletons---human beings whose bodies were stripped of flesh, their eyes staring in disbelief, their voices hollow, their minds crippled by starvation and disease. Strong men wept in the presence of this miserable army of unfortunates.”
The Holocaust was the one of the worst cases of cruelty to humans in history. No one should ever suffer that way again. The events that took place not too long ago in the whole scheme of thing are too atrocious for words to describe. Even if someone tried, it wouldn’t even be close to describing the pain, suffering, and agony that these blameless people were forced to go through. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was an American commander, said while he was entering one of the camps, he had “never at any time experienced an equal sense of shock.” We need to learn about what happened so that it will never happen again. No one would want to go through that, so why should anyone else have to?
“Never shall I forget that first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night….” from Elie Wiesel’s Night.
1 comment:
I don't have time to read it, but I bet it is good. Perhaps I will have time to read it later.
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