Bergen Belsen concentration camp

Does anyone know what units went into Bergen Belsen?

The reason i ask is that my mother tells me that my Great uncle George H Foster, went into BB and apparently shot some nazis. Ive no idea what unit he was with. I understand that the British 11th Armoured Division liberated the camp on April 15th 1945, and was the first unit in there.

Yet another relative, i have to search for!

 

Reading the threads on this subject over the years I think everyone in the British Army went there. Seeing as he is a relative of yours apply for a copy of his service records. They will tell you the units he served with and when. You can then look at his units war diaries to see what they were doing on a day to day basis.

Cheers
Andy

 

I was told by my late friend that the Irish Guards Armoured went into Belsen and some drove their tanks through a fence into the camp guards accommodation area.,Some of the guards came out who were armed, and were machine gunned. The Cheshires were also at the liberation I believe.

 

http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/15255-help-needed-british-units-at-liberation-of-belsen/

 

Have a look at this old thread still running.

http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/15255-help-needed-british-units-at-liberation-of-belsen/

You will see that a lot Claim to be one of the first to enter the camp.

Regards
Tom

 

Tom, The Irish Guards (Micks)were one of the first to enter as its recorded in their regimental war diary!

 

As I see it the Belsen concentration camp was surrendered by truce to the British Army when typhus broke out.The Germans initially proposed that the camp should be bypassed by the British Army who rejected this proposal.Elements of the Hungarian army serving in the Wehrmacht were requisitioned to aid the British Army in its initial occupation of the camp.A number of SS guards had fled the camp, however Kramer and his small group of male and female SS staff remaining,completely ignorant to the charges of war crimes that would follow, remained at their posts to "welcome" the British Army units.I have seen it mentioned that the Oxford Yeomanry were one of the early units to enter Belsen........report by Patrick Gordon Walker who later became a politician

The horror that was revealed with large numbers of dying and unattended dead and the fact that Kramer and his SS guards "paraded" must have drawn the anger of the British military units who entered the camp.A study of news reels revales Kramer with a puffed face....no doubt there must have been a spontaneous response from some towards SS guards on entering the camp.One of the problems that the Britsh Army faced was to keep the inmates away from their previous captors.

British Army medical teams who accompanied the first British troops to enter Belsen were aided by final year British medical students called to service when the gravity of the situation unfolded.

Sydney Bernstein who later headed Granada TV was at the time a member of the Psychologic Warfare Division and took the opportunity to film the state of the camp as found by the British Army.His record of what was found at Belsen must be the best coverage of the events at Belsen.Was last screened on TV about 10 -15 years ago.

Three weeks after the liberation of the whole of the hutted camp,to deal with the typhus outbreak,was spectacularly torched.

 

I know a Dutch lady whose family were interned there when she was a very young child - her parents died of typhus but all her siblings survived.
I think there's a thread somewhere on here which reports the work of some doctors within the camp who separated the young children and made sure they got the best of the small amount of food available.

 

Yes there was a typhoid epidemic at the camp and that is why the had to burn all the huts.The British Officer in charge ordered all the local bakeries to use up all their flour to make bread.The inmates had to be separated from each other because many were too far gone as their stomachs had shrivelled up and nothing could be done to save them.All the trees in the camp had been stripped of their bark,and not a single blade of grass or weed could be found inside the camp.As far as the human arm could reach outside the fences the ground was stripped bare of any type of vegetation.A team of doctors started to treat the inmates that could be saved,and it was noticed that many of them had gaping wounds on their arms.When asked if the Germans had caused the wounds they said no but,the cause of the wounds were self inflicted as they had started to eat their own body flesh.In the so called cookhouse bags of fine powdered glass were found on the shelves,and it turned out that the German cooks were mixing it with the inmates food to cause them internal bleeding.It seems that this practice was carried out at all of the death camps.So sad that a human being could do such things to another human being.Those who were already dead were laid into mass graves by the SS Guards who had been captured.Others were just bulldozed into the graves which were then covered over with soil which was heaped up.A pipe had been inserted into each mass grave,and this was to release the gas from the decomposing bodies.When I visited Bergen Belsen in 1968,the pipes were still protruding from the graves.My visit there has haunted me for years.And yes it is true,my group of soldiers never saw or heard a bird inside the perimeter fence.

 

It is a common fallacy that ingesting ground glass will kill you or cause bleeding in the intestines. Perhaps the German cooks thought that it would be lethal so the intention would have been malicious.

 

In memory of Yvonne Rudellat (Jacqueline of the SOE Prosper sub circuit Physician) who died in the chaos and horror of Belsen on 23 April 1945 or the day after under the alias of Mme Gauthier.

 

The fact that Kramer and members of his staff remained at the camp for the arrival of the British forces is a stunning revelation. To be completely oblivious to the likely reaction of those troops is a telling and disturbing indication of their state of mind.

 

Transcript of 'The Story of Belsen' by Captain A. Pares, Adjutant of the 113th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment The Royal Artillery;-


http://www.durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/Pages/TranscriptTheStoryofBelsen.aspx

Of course its just one mans story I`m sure there`s many more. as a side note the TV company in the North east did an interview with the `Durhams` who liberated belsen although affiliated they had ceased to be Durhams in 1937. I read there was Durhams at Belsen but these were clerks and medics (volunteers) from 9DLI who were not too far away at the time. Another Northeast paper told the story of The 114th Durham Light Infantry??? Bad research and didn't even get the right RA unit. 114th LAA RA, 113Th LAA being the ones he should have mentioned. Old 5th and 7th DLI but an old affiliation in name only.Perhaps the reporter should join here he may learn something! strangely enough he was advised by two ex DLI Colonels!!

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/northdurham/durham/10993628.Talk_on_DLI_s_part_in_liberating_Bergen_Belsen/

Kyle

 

There is youtube clip on a news item "Canadian forces at the liberation of Bergen Belson"
I always thought that it was the 6th Airbourne that were the first there, explaining the presence of Canadians at the camp.
Matt

 

My Great Grandad CMK Parsons was a chaplain at Bergen Belsen. He took a series of photos there which I got published recently in various papers for the 70th anniversary. If you'd like to read my blog about him and his pictures please click the link below. Thanks, Tom

http://www.photogra-fix.com/#!A-Chaplain-at-Belsen-Unseen-Photos-of-Hell-on-Earth/ccsx/55212bee0cf21933cd3995fb

 

Many thanks for sharing

 

Quite a while back I received an email from a gent (Tom Bauwens) in Belgium. He also provided me with photographs from his father, a doctor, who was amongst the first into Belsen. To cut a long story short here is my link:

http://www.39-45war.com/belsen.html

There are a couple of images of others camps to illiustrate a point.

 

thank you for showing us this, I have added a link to you on my own page.