Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation Bergen-Belsen Memorial Barracks Camp (1945) In early April 1945 the SS evacuated most of the Mittel- bau-Dora concentration camp in the Harz Mountains. They took around 20,000 prisoners to Bergen-Belsen by train and sometimes on foot. Since the main camp was overcrowded, the SS used the southern section of the Bergen-Hohne barracks as a satellite camp to house most of these prisoners. The majority were political prisoners from the Soviet Union as well as Poland, France and Belgium, but there were also Hungarian and Polish Jews among them, and Sinti and Roma people. The prisoners in the barracks camp were liberated along with their fellow prisoners in main camp on 15 April 1945 by the British Army. Displaced Persons Camp (1945–1950) After the liberation, the British took the survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to the nearby Wehrmacht barracks to give them medical attention. The concentration camp prisoners, forced labourers and POWs who had been deported to Germany from all over Europe were given the status of “displaced persons” (DP) by the Allies. This status gave them the right to special care. After the majority of survivors had returned to their countries of origin, most of those who remained in Bergen-Belsen were Jewish former prisoners and non-Jewish Poles. In the second half of 1945, separate living areas were established for these groups. At times, there were more than 10,000 people living in the Polish DP camp in Bergen-Belsen. This camp was disbanded in September 1946. The Jewish DP camp held up to 12,000 people. It was closed in mid-1950. Places of Remembrance The Loading Platform The loading platform between Bergen and Belsen was built in 1936 for delivering goods to the military training grounds. Between 1940 and 1945, well over 150,000 prisoners arrived here and were forced into the Bergen- Belsen POW camp and concentration camp. They are commemorated with a replica goods wagon, a memorial stone and a steel sculpture at the entrance to the platform. Parts of the railway complex have been placed under a preservation order. Cemeteries in the Grounds of the Barracks The prisoners from the barracks camp who died before and immediately after the liberation were buried on the southern edge of the barracks (Small Cemetery). The collective grave here also holds prisoner functionaries (“Kapos”) who were lynched by their fellow prisoners shortly after the liberation. During the construction of a gymnasium in 1982, another collective grave was found nearby with the remains of 64 prisoners from Mittel- bau-Dora. They were reinterred in the so-called Tent Theatre Cemetery not far away. More than 4,000 former prisoners had been buried there in the first weeks after the liberation. Later on this cemetery was also used for the Bergen-Belsen DP camp. Unlike the mass graves in the grounds of the Memorial, most of the graves here hold the bodies of former prisoners who are known by name. Bergen-Belsen POW Cemetery Most of the victims of the POW camp were Soviet soldiers. They were buried in the nearby POW camp cemetery. Today they are commemorated by a Soviet monument from 1945 and several memorial stones. Bergen-Belsen Memorial By late May 1945, the British had burned down all of the wooden huts in the liberated Bergen-Belsen concentra- tion camp because of the threat of epidemics. They also dug and marked mass graves. A section of the grounds was designated as a memorial on the orders of the British military government. In 1952, German President Theodor Heuss dedicated a memorial complex with an obelisk and inscription wall. Today Bergen-Belsen is both an international place of remembrance and a centre of education and research with a permanent exhibition, archive, library and wide range of learning opportunities. Bergen-Belsen and the Bergen-Hohne Barracks The Memorial is open daily. Exhibition and Documentation Centre: October to March, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April to September, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation Bergen-Belsen Memorial Anne-Frank-Platz 29303 Lohheide Germany Tel.: +49 (0) 5051 – 47 59-0 Fax: +49 (0) 5051 – 47 59-118 E-mail: [email protected] www.bergen-belsen.de Stand: Juli 2016 View of the liberated barracks camp, 18 April 1945 • Sgt Oakes, Imperial War Museum (Photograph Archive, BU 4037), London Commemoration ceremony on 17 April 2016 at the Bergen-Belsen POW Cemetery • Helge Krückeberg, Bergen-Belsen Memorial / Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation Entrance to the Documentation Centre, 2007 • Klemens Ortmeyer, Bergen-Belsen Memorial / Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation Demonstration in the Bergen-Belsen DP camp, 7 September 1947 • Yad Vashem Archive, Jerusalem, The Josef Rosensaft Collection, FA 186-315 Monument on the loading platform, designed by Hans-Jürgen Breuste • Rainer Knäpper, Free Art License (http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en/) View of the so-called Tent Theatre Cemetery • Sabine Bergmann, Bergen-Belsen Memorial / Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation