The Liberation Of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
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- čas přidán 11. 02. 2022
- As the Allies made advancements into German-occupied lands in the Second World War, they encountered a number of different concentration camps. Many of these showed the true evil of the Third Reich, and after liberating them, the Allies and the Red Army discovered the mass murder that had occurred within them. As World War Two turned against the Germans, they began to move prisoners from many different camps close to the front lines to Bergen-Belsen. Belsen was initially planned to house 10,000 prisoners, but huge overcrowding saw it house at one point around 90,000.
Bergen-Belsen was one of the worst concentration camps, and due to the overcrowding there was a huge lack of food and resources. Many of the SS guards who worked here were also known for their barbaric torture and treatment of prisoners, and up until its liberation around 500 people were dying a day from disease, starvation or dehydration. Typhus swept through Belsen and caused thousands to be killed. In 1945, the Germans negotiated with the Allies to hand over Bergen-Belsen to them, but when the liberators went into the camp they were appalled and disgusted by what they saw.
There were 13,000 unburied bodies left around the camp, and 60,000 survivors who were close to death. The British and Canadians sought to save as many people as they could and immediately organised medical supplies to go to the camp. There was some bloodshed after liberation as some guards took the fight to their former guards, but captured at Belsen were a number of guards including Josef Kramer, Irma Grese and Elisabeth Volkenrath. These were placed on trial and were sentenced to death.
So join us today as we look at, 'The Liberation Of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.' Remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
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Music - I Am A Man Who Will Fight For Your Honour - Chris Zabriskie.
My uncle was a medic in the British forces and entered Belsen to liberate. I wasn't told a lot by him but my aunt told me my Uncle never closed his eyes when he slept. It took years for him to finally sleep with eyes closed and no nightmares. Bless all those who perished and bless those who cared for the survivors and those who survived to tell of the horrors they were put through.
Bless your uncle ❤️
Ii can't imagine the horror of those places. God bless your uncle and his comrades.
My mother was a prisoner at that concentration camp. She was just three and a half years old when she was captured by the Nazis.
Amen
@@mendisegal56 I am glad she made it out. Blessing to you and your family
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
My dad was one of the first through the gates to liberate Belsen, he was only just 20 years old at the time. I cannot imagine what the sight that greeted him was like, he would never really talk about it, just the odd comment every once in a while. He taught us to never complain about the little things in life, because there are those who have experienced true hell on earth and remember them in our prayers.
Bless your dad ❤️
Very sad …your dad was very smart 🍀🌈
I recently visited Courtroom 600 in Nuremberg. Here's a video of my visit. czcams.com/video/zsXV-YM4C4I/video.html
So was my Dad. He was 23 😪
@@148chrissy I cannot imagine the horrors that they saw.
My grandpa was a US Bomber gunner. He was shot down over early and parachuted on to a farm house. Luckily he was in friendly territory, but had a broken leg. The British found him and took him to their nearest field hospital, Bergen Belsen which had been liberated just 3 days before. What he saw there changed him forever and made him very religious.
Its funny how it works out, my granddad booted religion after what he went through, totally agnostic
@@SniffMyDeadwaxPerhaps the support of the Roman Catholic Church, who supported Hitler , influenced him..?
My Uncle was a Doctor in the British Army. ..a Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was the first in on liberation... he was 28 yrs old. My Auntie said he had nightmares every night for nearly three and a half years.. screaming. I have the letter he wrote from there..... my most treasured possession. My HERO.
I had the opportunity to visit this place while serving in the US Army in 1985. While on maneuvers we had some free time. We had to post weapon guards and were not permitted to bring even our sidearms into the camp remains. The images that most people see on the internet of camps like Belsen don't even compare with the photos that were taken there. It was enough to make me want to be sick to my stomach. Walking through the remains and viewing the mass burial pits was a very sobering sight that remains in my memory until this day. Thank you for this presentation. Your channel is truly a gem!
its like Dissnee world...a few carefully chosen pics......a patch of ground with a sign telling u 6 mill are beeyd here...even handing in side arms to reinforce thenotion of the "evil" that occured...but the US army arent known for having brains are they?
@@WillyEckaslike Your a sad little person.
@@WillyEckaslike keep discharging your wisdom. You might convince someone!
@@WillyEckaslike
Heh ?
@@ralex3697 goreed.....The Liberation of the Camps: Facts vs. L eyes
by The0 dore J. 0'Keefe
When I was in high school, a man in our community who had participated in the liberation of Dachau gave a sanitized account of the event to my history class. He left out the most horrific details but it was obvious that he was still deeply affected 30 years later.
Jackanory....u are putting ur own slant on it
@@WillyEckaslike bellend!
@@WillyEckaslike Doesn't everyone when they make a comment?
@@iriscollins7583 no Iris...the thing is i have studied the real story for 10 years and if u wish to know what is the realstory then spend 2hr watching
Europa the
@@iriscollins7583 1a5t8att1ePart8
I remember my great grandmother telling us how affected my great grandfather was upon returning from the war. She said the horrors he witnessed changed him
Completely. He died when I was quite young. I remember him as be a big Man but he was very quiet and would treat us little ones like are were the most precious thing. As an adult I asked his daughter, my grandmother why he was always so quiet and she said because his head was filled with the noise, terrible smells and sights he’d witnessed 🙏🏽❤️🇨🇦
💙
🤍 🙏 🕊
I’m writing my friend’s bio this year. Her mother and grandmother suffered terrible things at Bergen-Belsen and barely survived the experience.
God bless all who suffered and passed🙏…..
Sadly, these personal stories still need so much to be told. I found that out just recently. Very much to my shock.
My grandfather (foster family) was liberated from Bergen Belsen, he said one of the liberators offered him a hammer to beat a camp guard.
When I asked him if he did it he said "I was to weak to lift the hammer"
If you met him you would never believe he could even consider violence.
I’m so happy for you that your grandfather survived. I can’t imagine what he endured. It hurts my hurt so much that millions of people had to suffer so much just because they were Jewish. I don’t know how people can be so cruel.
Thank you for sharing ❤ Sadly, these personal stories still need so much to be told.
What one of the liberators offered him a hammer to beat a HUMAN?!! It is a WAR CRIME and your grandfather should be locked forever together with his comrades LIBERATORS!!
They are truly that bad
My grandfather served in the British forces and was part of the group that liberated Belsen. He would have only been 19 or 20 at the time and, whatever he saw there, he took with him to the grave. My mum said he refused to talk about it with anyone, not even his wife. I'm glad that PTSD and trauma is better understood now because no one should have to carry that around with them for their whole adult life without being able to process it.
This was so hard to watch. But it has to be told, lest we forget and repeat. So many people today have no idea what horrors took place during that time. Thank you for showing this.
I'm afraid they may see horrors soon in Ukraine.
@@richardlawson4317 Richard, very true words. What frightens me is that the Ukrainian war could escalate so easily into WW3. It seems we do not learn lessons from history, I feel sorry for the young people of today. Born in 1954, loving the sixties and seventies in the UK, where we were truly free, thanks to the previous brave and selfless generation, in school, we were taught about the British Empire, (good and bad), the 2nd WW, why it started, the extermination of the Jewish race, for being Jewish. We were taught respect and honour for EVERYONE WHO FOUGHT AGAINST HITLER!!! This is what I have passed onto my 2 sons, it is my duty, and they have an excellent grasp of history. That is my small part in thanking those who died to protect freedom. And my utter disdain and outrage at the poor calibre of gutless politicians we have today, they are traitors and should be in jail cells!!!! I believe in God, during the blitz in 1940, people packed the Churches asking for His strength and protection, that Britain would not be invaded. He answered those prayers. As soon as everything is going well we turn our backs on Him! Well, shame on us! Thankyou for your comment, may God bless you and your family. Amen
My father was in R-Force and it operated in advance of the main British Army. They came upon Belsen and my father went to offer some chocolate to a survivor and was stopped and told that, if he did, the shock to the person's system would kill the person. My father's comrade bulldozed the bodies into pits but the experience left him on tranquillisers for decades. He had fought the Germans and was relatively fine, mentally, but nothing had prepared him for this. My father saw the former head of Auschwitz Birkenau, Josef Kramer and the sadistic female guard Irma Grese, also from there, brought out in chains. Later, my father was at Hamlin prison where they were due to be hanged and chatted to the man building the gallows. He asked my father whether he wanted to bang a nail into the gallows that would hang these individuals. I don't know whether he did. I once went to Berlin to visit some friends and my father was disgusted that I had friends who were German. He couldn't forget those years and sometimes seemed to be continually living through them.
I once worked on a BBC documentary about Auschwitz and I had the privilege of having lunch with a lady who had been in Auschwitz. It cannot describe what it was like to be close to a person who had witnessed the unimaginable. She was very elegant, kind, and charming - the exact opposite of her former captors.
Read a story once written by a young woman who made the mistake of showing a new Japanese car she'd just purchased to her grandfather. He never once rode in that car. I guess everyone can guess where her grandfather was during WW2.
Most the culprits were not brought to justice. I don't know how any human being could live a normal life after committing these crimes.
Thank you for this presentation.
That pisses me off to this day. Too many who were not held accountable at the Nuremberg trails and got off with a slap on the wrist. No justice was served.
My great grandad was one of the first people, who liberated Belsen, to enter the camp. There's a photo of him on wikipedia and he can be seen on a bulldozer moving the many bodies in the mass grave.
One of the British Army chaplins at Belsen Rabbi Leslie Hardman was my parents neighbour for many years up until his death around 13 years ago. He once told me that he lost his faith for a while until he saw how some of the healthier inmates who rather than get away from the camp as fast as they could, stayed to work as hospital orderlies and nurses.
never trust anything a Due tells you
Ignore the jerk who posted earlier.
Thank you for sharing your story. Reading that gave a tiny bit of hope for humanity.
@@equarg “No l eye is too big for a Due, no i eye is too small… Dues live by lying, and die with coming in contact with the truth.” “They’re lying bastards. Dues were always lying bastards throughout their history. They’re a filthy, dirty, disgusting, vile, criminal people. ”
- Bobby Fischer, chess champion ..a Due so he should know
@@equarg To a Due, there is nothing more offensive than the truth." -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn....Nobel prize for literature 1970
@@WillyEckaslike Quit beating around the bush and being a coward. Stand up for what you believe and say exactly what you mean. This is America, where you have freedom of speech, use it.
My grandfather was a high ranking Canadian-British soldier charged to clean up this camp. My father tells a story of finding a box of photographs of the camp in the basement when he was a child. My grandfather was unable to talk about the photos and they soon disappeared.
I am extremely proud to say that my father Private Edward Varey of the 'Polar Bears' The 49th West Riding (Mechanised) Infantry Division did his part at Bergen Belsen even though it haunted him to the day he died. He attained EIGHT campaign medals for his service in Norway,France,Germany, Italy and North Africa..Africa. He also served in Japan AFTER the surrender. He did NOT demobilise and stayed in the Army and fought in Malaya and Korea. He left the Army on the mid 1950s.He had joined in 1935 to escape poverty. Lying about his age to join at 15 years old. He was born on 20th Feb 1920 and he died on Midsummer's day, the 21st of June 1999.
He lives on in the hearts of his sons, myself Craig, Paul and Lee Varey as well as his grandchildren.
Rest in peace Dad! A true hero like those of his generation! He would spin in his grave if he could see how much his country has been allowed to rot.What did they fight for? Anyone with the eyes to see know full well of what I speak!
My Great Great, Grandfather was James Johnston, The man who had thought of how to clean and free the prisoners of this camp Bergen Belson. His feats are featured in the movie 'The Relief of Belson'. My father watched the movie and said the photos displayed in the movie are eerily similar to what his Great Uncle Johnston had showed him when he was a child. James said it was just part of the job, nothing more.
That's something to be extremely proud of. I'm so glad you have the knowledge of this wonderful deed performed by your great-great-grandfather.
My grandfather was there as part of the Durham light infantry, i remember him telling me he was told not to feed them as it probably would of killed them. He said he could still smell the dead even years after if he thought about it.
I worked in Israel on a Kibbutz as a volunteer. I wanted to live among the people of the Bible who survived such cruelty. I remember one elderly woman who had been in a concentration camp who would go into the bins to retrieve rotting food because she wanted to feed the children. She was a great character and everyone treated her with such love and tolerance. She asked me why I hadn’t learnt any Hebrew and to my shame I said everyone speaks English. She snorted in disgust but there was no more to be said. I’m not Jewish but I can identify with the diaspora considering my own roots coming from South Africa and Britain and living in different places like Malta and Libya. The pain of the Holocaust will never be forgotten while I am alive. Hopefully future generations will keep the bitter lessons learned and fight against the smoothing over of history. The Germans were not responsible as a nation but deep antisemitism still exists and all of us must guard against the next pogroms, the next genocides like the Ukraine and in the developing nations like Sri Lanka and within the established super powers like China who believe they can eradicate whole nations by locking them up and torturing the poor inmates until their self worth is driven into submission and they forget who they were and forget what their values were.
How are the Germans not responsible as a nation?
My dad told us about sharing their army rations with the inmates and how these were too rich for them. He felt so bad for so many who died as a result. He also mentioned the local people being marched through the camp
Shameful that not everyone responsible for these dreadful atrocities was ever brought to justice.
what atrocities are u talking about....no historian today says there were GC in any of the camps in Germ many
The Red Cross visited the camps and found them to be adequate.
@@WillyEckaslike
🤦🏻
@@sonsen25
Sure...Buddy...whatever
@@kayvan671 ask yourself why 50+ Germ man guards and workers would stay at the camp if they thought that they had been breaking the rules of the Geneva Convention?
Thank you to the ones sharing their personal family stories ❤ Sadly, these personal stories still need so much to be told. I found that out recently, very much to my shock. And maybe more now than ever with history repeating itself...
Thanks for your channel, today more then ever we need to remember what could happen if we allow it. Have you ever thought to doing a video on the romonov family, I would be interested in that one. Thanks again.
Look at China right now, nobody cares
@@FakeRights sadly the people who care have no power, bc i care a lot
They were killed ritually killed by the tribe.
We saw the start of the process under Trump. The US wasn't in danger of becoming a fascist state, I don't think Trump is competent to do that. But he used some of the same propaganda techniques the Nazis did. Repeat a lie long enough, people will believe it. "Rigged election" anyone? Long rambling speeches that don't make a lot of sense but play to the basest instincts of his audience. Demonize your opponents. Discredit the media. Make an identifiable group into the "real enemy". Trump started the process, but I don't think he intended to go all the way with it. He just enjoyed manipulating and gaslighting an entire country. But those tendencies exist everywhere.
@@wfcoaker1398 yes, and it's heartbreaking to see the american people buying into the big lie, arming themselves to fight....each other
Keep expecting to see my dad , he was 18 or 19 and with the troops who found Belsen . He told my mum once and could never speak of it again 😢😢😢
My great grandfathers unit passed through there just after it’s liberation began. My mother asked him about the place when she was learning about the war… he never told her, but after that day he n his unit became very harsh on any SS men that caught and that was also the only time she’d even seen him shed tears when talking about the war
I think noone else but these soldiers who liberated Belsen can understand the horrors they were faced with.
As one of them said- they were at war and used to fight the enemy but they were not used to be confronted with pure evil on earth.
Belsen was one of the most horrific inventions by the Nazis as we're all the other camps.
I visited, Dachau, Belsen, Buchenwald and Auschwitz and it still has a big impact on me.
So I can't even slightly imagine how it must have been for these brave liberators.
Thank you for this video xxx 🙏
So proud of the British soldiers, so sorry you had to deal with this. My mum was Hungarian, my dad British I was brought up in Britain. It hurts me to say, shame on the Hungarians who were stationed there!
My dad served with the first Medics to enter this hell hole during the liberation. He couldn't talk about it for 20 years and then he began to tell us a little of what he'd seen. I don't need to repeat it, because i think we all know, but to know that he saw it with his own eyes, smelt it, felt it and could never forget it, made me incredibly sad and proud. He was 25 then and died at the age of 83, so he spent nearly 60 years reliving daily, the horrors of what humans can inflict on each other. God bless anyone touched by the evils of war.
I went there to pay my respects to Ann and Margot Frank and the many thousands more murdered there. What struck me the most is how quiet it is. Not even the birds can be heard. It's as if even nature is observing silence in respect to those that at Bergen Belson.
Why do people like you keep repeating the lie about birds not singing lol.
I went there when I lived in Nienburg for many years. It was a summers day and the birds were indeed singing in the trees. The whole area is heavily wooded. Same as people who tell you that "not a blade of grass grows there" which is another lie.
@@PhyllisGlassup2TheBrim CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! You called me a liar, but when I went there, there were no sounds. I am not making it up. It was the silence that most made an impression on me.
@@PhyllisGlassup2TheBrim .Why do you care what people think or feel there? Delia Morris
The birds may not be heard because although there are trees, there are vast tracts with none
Very few prisoners were murdered at Belsen the main causes of death were hunger, exhaustion IF had to walk hundreds of miles to get there AND of course Typhus and other illnesses. Until the closing months of the War, records showed enough food and there were no factories to work in or gas chambers. The deluge of people arriving meant no running water after Celle was bombed, insufficient food for even soup and only large tents to protect newcomers BUT on the bare ground. That is where ANNE FRANK , her sister and hundreds of others passed
Watching that woman in the beginning not wanting to let go of her liberators hand was absolutely gut wrenching.
My late Farther was one of the first one's to liberate Belsen Barden and until I saw the old film from that Camp I couldn't understand why he had Nightmare's for over fifty years until his own Death in 1996 and I was Horafide and how anyone could do such a thing to another Human being doesn't bear thinking about and it Must never be allowed to happen again in any Country
I recently learned that my great grandfather, Henry Williamson was part of one of the first units to liberate Belsen. He had the task of driving one of the bulldozers to help bury the deceased. I hope I can find more information about him someday.
My great grandad drove bulldozers at Nelson too was lucky enough to spend time with my great grandparents when I was younger. He never spoke about the war my nan said it effected him a lot he built runways most of the war and stayed afterwards working on the autobahns I believe
Great footage.Thanks for posting!
My grandad was one of the first soldiers in to the camp he ended up marrying a camp survivor 😢
Many of those responsible escaped justice, but by now, every one of these people are likely dead. They are facing justice right now.
Yes ! They cannot hide from God 🙏
@@janemcfadden4801 how?
@@phoebevanderhorst7760Hide behind a Bush...!
I am relatively new to watching this channel.
You’ve shared content that I’ve not-before seen, and I have studied WWII- European theatre- for years.
I’ve seen other footage from Belsen, but not this.
Thank you for caring enough to share these videos, which horrible to watch, are necessary to know.
Agreed.Let's just hope they don't censor it!
It was filmed by two Hollywood producers, it’s fiction.
@@sonsen25 read a damned book.
@@JaimeMesChiens how about Schindler’s list it’s also fiction.
My grandad was part of the first liberation force that went into Belsen concentration camp.
He told me about everything he saw.
As he walked into the camp...there were people lying around...human skeletons...dying, and puking, and sh*tting.
He said that they weren't even allowed to give them a boiled sweet, as the toxic shock would kill them
He was in such a rage that he walked outside the gates, pick up a cot that was lying in the road...and threw it through a German's window.
It was a strange and lawless time.
As all wars become. 😔
My relative, Margot Heumann b. 1928 Hellenthal Germany , born to Carl Heumann and Johanna Falkenstein was liberated from Bergen_Belson in April 1945. Margot never saw her parents and sister. Lore Heumann again. She was liberated at Bergen-Belsen in April, 1945. The Red Cross brought her to Sweden to recuperate, and in 1947 she moved to America. Never again, Never forget!
Thank you for this latest video about Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The scenes of starving, suffering inmates were shocking and very ugly indeed. It is hard to believe that some human beings could be as cruel to others as the SS guards at those camps were. If we as humans do not learn the lessons that history offers us, then it seems that the deaths of these innocent victims are in vain. This video also teaches us how dangerous anti-Semitism and other kinds of hatred against our fellowmen are. Again, thank you for sharing this educational video. Anyway, hats off to all the liberators of those hell-like places.
i suggest u go look for H// C liberation pics...then u will see that 95% of the people being liberated looked well fed and healthy.....the PG was to film the sick and dying from Tie fu55 and dis entry
Look at China right now
Conditions were good until the final months of the war after allied bombing of supply lines.
That is confirmed by British doctor Russell Barton who worked at the camp. It's also confirmed by Jewish virtual library...and the commander of the camp himself Josef Kramer.
@@cyberhermit1222 are you honestly saying that conditions at Bergen Belsen camp were good, that innocent people imprisoned there were well fed and healthy?
Dude, like WTF?
@@JaimeMesChiens it was much safer in the camps then the city’s like Dresden that were bombed to pieces by the peace loving Americans.
It must have been so difficult as a liberating soldier not to shoot or punish guards.
@@dietrich7090 I know that. But when faced by such evil it must have been very difficult to not seek revenge for the hundreds of thousands of victims of German superiority complex.
Conditions were good until the final months of the war after allied bombing of supply lines.
That is confirmed by British doctor Russell Barton who worked at the camp. It's also confirmed by Jewish virtual library...and the commander of the camp himself Josef Kramer.
@@cyberhermit1222 that's OK then. I'm sure the guards were only there as waiters for the guests in the hotel sheds.
@@iandamianluciferwilson7385
As were guards in British, US, Soviet concentration camps for enemy aliens.
Whatever you think of enemy alien camps...conditions were good until allied bombings destroyed supply lines.
@@dietrich7090
So what?
Thanks ❣️
My grandfather also became part of the Berlin Brigade, and remembered being part of the guard on Rudolf Hess. He said he remembered him pacing around the yard all the time.
The guards were not allowed to talk or look at him. Hess probably would have been released in the 70's but the Russians refused.
Thanks for another interesting and fact filled video .
Thank you!
Thank you!!
My Granddad was 19 when he went to Bergen-Belson, I'm not sure if he was there for the Liberation, but he was part of the clean up operation. It haunts me to think of what he must of witnessed and how that impacted his life.
my grandad died at Belsen ..he fell out of the machine gun tower and broke his neck....he never got a penshon for life
Conditions were good until the final months of the war after allied bombing of supply lines.
That is confirmed by British doctor Russell Barton who worked at the camp. It's also confirmed by Jewish virtual library...and the commander of the camp himself Josef Kramer.
@@cyberhermit1222 heres a good article worth reading......Bergen Belsen, Himmler's big pre 5ent to the Allied anti-na21 prop .a. ganda
so grateful for info.
The footages accompanying this account are phenomenal visual testimonies.
I visited, Bergen/Belsen, when stationed in Germany from, 89 to 91. The site where mass graves of 6000 was shocking. Though what really haunts me to this day was, when walking in forested area's. I'd come upon single graves. These really hit home how personal the killings where. Not just faceless number's, but one person taking another out. To destroy them. I think on this often. As is right. These places must remain. Not to shame normal German people, but to stop us forgeting that it was normal people of many races. That lived & died here.
I know that sounds very revisionist, but Bergen Belsen was not an extermination camp. The dead result from the 2 well-documented typhoid epidemics, which also killed Anne Frank. I mean there is a difference between intentional annihilation and an epidemic caused by circumstances. Reconciliation and peace can only be achieved through truth. Deepening the narrative of the dividers is not very helpful.
Greetings and best wishes....:)
@@mikeromney4712 ur correct. It was one of the many labour camps in the area. Though dead is still dead. Wether through work & starvation rations. Or gassing. The very second these unfortunates where of no use. They where sent to be killed. Or disposed of ad hoc.
Edit. The mass graves i talked of where of ppl who died from deseases & starvation. As well as being fed by overwhelmed troops who hadn't a clue how to help. It was allied troops that dug & filled these graves to prevent more suffering. As it was who razed it to the ground for same reason.
I've no doubt though. That the single graves i came across where murder victims of Nazis.
Enjoyed ur comment. Gratitude.
@@Teknophobe I assume you are a righteous person with no evil ulterior motives. That's why I think it's fair if you listen to the arguments of the "opposite side". The situation has necessitated the internment of certain people hostile to the Reich, as it is also common practice in other countries. Germany's war fronts melted together in all theaters by hammer blows from all sides (even from above). When the Red Army offensive reached eastern Poland, many of the main camps had to be evacuated. This led to catastrophic overcrowding in the other camps. Then there were the traffic attacks from the air. Even if the camp management had a serious intention to maintain the workers, they would not have been able to restore the old, halfway normal conditions at all. The death rates, which are well documented for some camps, skyrocketed towards the end of the war. But even with the best of intentions, there was no longer any possibility of orderly delousing or the transport of food by wagon. You can certainly imagine what a camp with tens of thousands of inmates needs every day. Imagine the position of the Japanese internees in the US when only Oklahoma and Kansas remained, relentlessly attacked from the air and banzai attacks from every side....How would the victorious Japanese find the camps then? What would they claim?
It certainly doesn't matter to those affected how they died. War always sucks and the innocent go down first. Unfortunately....
edit: Sorry for the wall of text, but this is a topic which is very important to me. ...demonizing only one side does not bring peace and unity.
@@mikeromney4712 you've not said anything i find disagreeable in the slightest. And i always try to get as many perspectives as possible.
There's a quote i'm fond of, that goes; "There are no truths. Only interpretations".
It's all about perspective. I excuse no-one, but when ur own army is without food & basic necessities. How would ur citizens react to that aid being given to, "enemies of the state".
Of course there are monsters everywhere. And they don't respect frontiers. The allies committed untold atrocities. Not just soviets either. Good propaganda, before, during & after the fact allows these facts to be erased. And REALLY good propaganda is of the type that nobody even realises they've been affected by it.
Only a fool, (or politician), would say the aggressor has all the sadist's & murderer's. I'm almost positive that you'd find that these types are pretty well evenly spread through the World by the percentage of population. U say ur invested in this in some way? Do u study history? Or perhaps had relative's who fought in WW2 ? I did. I don't mean to be nosey & certainly not to judge. I simply want to further the conversation. As i've enjoyed ur comments thus far. There born of reason & not rhetoric. Sorry bout this comments length.
@@Teknophobe Sir, I wasn't wrong in your assessment. I dont study history - or at least not professional....And yes, as I can say for the most Germans, my ancestors were involved in in this unfortunate war. Some as officers, soldiers, firefighters, students and small kids...others as Wehrmacht or Marine secretaries, housewives and refugees and internees (after the war in Denmark). Just normal people in abnormal times....
"There are no truths. Only interpretations".
I love this citation.....:)
I went there several times while serving in BAOR. Anyone who thinks war is a good idea needs to go and see just how depraved humans can be in letting this happen. Could it happen again; you bet if those prosecuting the war do keep guard over those of dubious moral behaviour. If you get the chance go and see what's left of this dubious place.
I too went there several times while posted at nearby Fallingbostal in the 80s. It was grim but had to be done.
I was posted to the Bergen-Hohne garrison just down the road from Bergen-Belsen and your absolutely right, it shows you the reality of war! There’s nothing glamorous or glorious in war. Just death!
if u did some real digging Andrew u would know that u have been taken for a fool
@@WillyEckaslike You must be illiterate if you consider "u" to be an English word.
"......if they DON'T keep guard over those of dubious moral behaviour"......is what you meant surely.
Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up for support
My brother in law was one of the soldiers who liberated Belsen never got over it.
@@dietrich7090 he was a decent man who spent his life caring for others.
That's the problem today, filling our armed services with weak people.
@@dietrich7090 a few dead ppl? What a completely ignorant comment jfc
@@dietrich7090 Try thousands you ignorant Pratt
@@danran100 those today that can be said for. They grew up having a meltdown everyone supposedly "bullied" them calling them a "bad" name. They dont have the spine to punch a "bully" in the mouth, they try to shoot up the whole school. Of course the zero tolerance policy had some cause for it too, when you can be arrested for sticking up for yourself. Or couldnt handle the negative consequence of a spanking without hollaring "child abuse". It would not be true for the majority of men back then. They werent coddled & were raised to be grown ass men not grown ass kids as they are now
One of the few videos I have seen that addressed the logistical issues such as Typhus and camp negotiations.
Never forget. History repeats when we don't see the signs. Learn from the mistakes. Don't think this isn't murking around us now.
My grandfather was a Sapper with the Royal Canadian Engineers, and he was part of the Liberation.
There's a Frontline PBS documentary about this called Memories of the Camp. It's incredibly graphic but you do see the guards get some comeuppance.
It aired 25+ years ago, but I saw it.
Because it was the British who liberated the camp one of the filmmakers who documented it was a young Alfred Hitchcock..
@@HailAnts yes he was there to help create nonsense propaganda that simple minds still believe.
@@sonsen25 troll
why did those guards stay at the camp if they had behaved badly to inmates?....can u do critical thinking?
@@WillyEckaslike that’s right and also why did prisoners leave by choice with the Germans when the Russians approached the camp?
my grandfather was there on liberation day, his raf unit was diverted into the camp when they were moving to an airfield nearby, needless to say he never spoke to anyone about what he saw inside, thanks for uploading
probably because he had a brain and realised he was seeing the results of allied bombing..lack of suplies to the camps and sickness and disease...not the PG that the idiots on here believe
@@WillyEckaslike mate war is war, id imagine when he seen the piles of bodies starved to death and childrens faces black with lice taking part in dresden sat that bit easier with him but as i say war is war
@@whitetroutchannel your american arent you?....too many John Wayne movies....the Germ mans didnt starve people to deatyh...the allies bombed the place to bits attacking transport links food and meds production ( remeber u lot bombing the electric supply in Baghdad?) its a weapon of war....i suggest u read,,,,,, Bergen Belsen, Himmler's big present to the Allied anti-nazi propaganda
@@WillyEckaslike your wrong mate the germans began to transport prisoners from other camps, belsen was for prisoners to regain there strength so they could be sent back to do hard labour once they were fit enough, american?? im from northern ireland, no john wayne just balaclavas and bombs
My Grandad was part of the British army liberating this camp. He died when I was young, I don’t know a lot about him or what he did during the war 😞
i despair at the stupidity of the people that comment on videos like this....its wartime PG....cue bono u more ons?
Twit
I dont’t understand the tenure of the two comments, G Dogg. My dad landed on Juno beach along with the Canadians and was one of the first soldiers to go into the camp. I hope your grandad didn’t suffer with the PTSD that haunted my dad for the rest of his life. Sadly he felt the need to share it with us. All the people making trite and stupid comments should be ashamed of themselves. What the narrater missed out is that after digging out massed graves the bodies were bulldozed in and covered with quick lime. That is as much detail as I feel fit to share.
@@wendyrowland7787 the scenes ur Dad relayed to u were people who died of tie fu55..dis entry coupled with no supplies reaching the cmps because of allied control of the sky
@@wendyrowland7787 now listen carefully and then check out what i am saying...NONE of the cmps in Germ many are alleged to have had G ...///C ....although the can gar roo cort of Nberg ex ee cutd people on the lies of Due wish inmates...if u can find me evidence to the contrary let me know
I knew a man called Alistair Tate who was there at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. I have also visited the site. What a place it is!!!
One of many problems the military endured there was no debriefing of the young soldiers and officers after their service who did their utmost to liberate these horrendous camps. The soldiers took these atrocities through their lives to their graves.
Amazing how such horrors are passed on to future generations because I am certain soldiers that may have been so affected that perhaps it impacted their ability to raise their children.
@@antonioacevedo5200 I worked in a nursing home where one resident was a survivor of Auschwitz. His daughter described him as an extremely abusive parent. I have a serious desire to punch those who claim this stuff never happened .... I saw that tattoo on his arm.
Several years ago I took a Holocaust tour of Europe. This was the first concentration camp we visited. None of the buildings remain as they were burned down, but you see burial mound after burial mound, each with a sign stating how many people are buried under each mound. They don't know which mound Anne Frank and her sister Margot are buried in, but they do have their names listed on a headstone in a special area. This camp brought me to tears very quickly.
Is there any way I can find out which regiments liberated Belsen. I ask because I think my mother said that my father was one of them. He could never talk about his role in the war so I couldn't ask him.
Good presentation of the liberation of Bergen Belsen. FYI fact: Anne Frank died in this camp 3 weeks before liberation. Also, film footage taken by the British of the camp was used as evidence against Joseph Kramer and Irma Grese at their trial.
No one will escape God's judgment
Nonsense
Preach!
@@elster3012 what you said is nonsense
I heard from WW2 Veterans who Liberated POW Camps, more so Death Camps! Quite a number of Native Americans from Canada, help free POWs, and also helped in their Liberation and to their Health, months later. The Female Military, who were POWs, didn't want to go home after getting pregnant by Nazi Captors. Also, quite a few came home with these Canadian Indigenous Soldiers. I only knew of one who was captured by the Japanese and tortured, and some stayed back in Europe, coming home after the Trials were over. I am proud, a Canadian Indigenous Sniper chose to be my Godfather. His name was Fred Favel, he died in the mid-70s, so I never saw him, just his many Photos while in WW2, as he was very Photogenic, an attractive man, from my community. 15 had Volunteered to protect our Democracy which is now crumbling under Protests and Anarchy.
the people desstroying ur world now are the people u are crying over in these camps..how ironic
Conditions were good until the final months of the war after allied bombing of supply lines.
That is confirmed by British doctor Russell Barton who worked at the camp. It's also confirmed by Jewish virtual library...and the commander of the camp himself Josef Kramer.
Nonsense, Willy. Why do you continue to deny that the Holocaust happened?
I do not think so, Cyber Hermit. Look at the videos of concentration camps being liberated by Allied forces.
It's no different today. Those truly responsible, those knowingly complicit almost never pay the price. Sad but true.
They will on judgement day when God determines their fate
My Grampa Philip Langdon was part of the 11 division and was the first to arrive and liberated Belsen. He always talked about the war but when he mention Belsen he’d burst into tears. He said he assessed and treated the women’s barracks. A woman asked him to put his hand around her thigh, which he did. She asked him to use his hand to show people when he returned to the uk how think she was. His hand fit around her thigh bone. He said they were covered in lice. He never ever recovered from Belsen.
He also said the SS had ‘eyes as dark as sharks eyes’ he said they looked like psychopaths
R.I.P To all those that perished in all these death camps, It's sickening not only that it happened but people still spread the lie that it never happened, They should be forced to watch these scenes on an endless loop til they learn & develop some Humanity however long that takes Shame on them all Jim, Surrey, UK X
I get so angry at people who insist it never happened.
Those people who claim that the Holocaust never happened are a lot of willfully ignorant dummies who do not want to hear the truth. That is exactly why General Eisenhower had camera men film and document as many scenes of Nazi brutality at concentration camps as possible so there would be no excuse not to acknowledge the reality of those atrocities.
I read somewhere the the great comedian Eric Sykes was at Belsen when he was in the army. For battle hardened troops to be moved by the sight of these camps shows you how horrific it really was.
The actor Dirk Bogarde went there as well during his military service , and the grandfather of Elliot Rodger , the Isla Vista mass shooter was a photographer there.
Pure evil to the core!!!!!!!
I went past there when I lived with my late husband as he was in the army. It is said no birds fly over there and no animals build their homes there.
What absolute nonsense.
Have been to Dachau .... it is strangely quiet there.
Love this channel, it has taken the place of The History Channel, in which turned into a reality channel .
See if you can get AHC on your cable.It's replaced the History Channel for history.
I’ve just come back from there this afternoon.
Outside, this Thursday afternoon, I was literally the only person there…it’s a chilling experience. Standing amongst the mass graves of thousands of people even today, nearly 80 years later, it has a lost , bleak and despairing atmosphere.
I remember listening to Richard dimblebee's description of the liberation of Bergen belson and all he could say was it was the smell of death and rotten flesh Can you imagine what these young men must have seen when they have liberated the outcome
May Almighty God grant Eternal Rest to the souls of the unfortunate victims who perished during these dreadful days. May He punish the evil-doers.
My father was there be died in 1958 aged 35 he never got over the terrible things that he saw
My father liberated or was one of the men that was there. He sad it was a nightmare he couldn’t talk about it much.
I love to see the people in recovery smiling with warm beds and food.
My grandfather was in the 63rd Anti Tank regiment - Royal Artillery, one of the first through the gates. (He drove a half track)- Unfortunately he died not long after I was born. When I was young I found a hidden stash of black and white photos of the horrors that went on behind the barbed wire, my dad has since donated these to the Soldiers of Oxford museum but I believe they are too graphic to display. Like many others, my grandfather didn't talk about his experience in the war, which is quite understandable.
We say every year, we shall not forget, and yet, I fear, humanities memory is fading, and the world will once again experience the depravity that humankind can inflict on one another on such a grand scale.
My father told me how he arrived after a camp was liberated and his orders were to go to the nearby town and get the camp inmates who were healthy enough and were in the town killing the locals.
After I got out of high school I lived across the street from world war II veteran American soldier he took part in liberation of one of these camps he was a corporal he was a Jew
One day I found him crying and keep in mind by the time I was talking to him he was a very old man I asked his wife what was wrong with him and I used to go over there and buy him beer and stuff like that you know because I respected him he's long since passed
Well I asked his wife why he was crying and then she proceeded to tell me it took her 40 years to get it out of her husband he was crying because of what he saw when he saw it the horrors of the crimes that were committed by the third Reich
Him and many of the soldiers in his unit were instantly stricken with grief sadness and rage I mean absolute rage hatred for people for the German officers in charge of that camp
They had to hold back everything they had from what I was told by this man's wife not to find these people in liquidate themselves because of what they did
But to this day or at least the last time I talked to her she's long since passed as well he showed restraint he didn't do it he wanted to and I'm sure not many people would have blamed him if he did but he figured he would be more humane then the officers of the third Reich
My father was there as one of the liberating British soldiers, he sadly passed away on 1st April 2023. We hopefully will NEVER know what his eyes saw with our own eyes. He told me of the smell that he remembered and how long it stayed in his clothes.
Everyone who worked there should have been executed, disgraceful that many escaped justice. Can't imagine finding this, truly appalling.
Good video, thank you 👍🏻👍🏻
You may be right, you may be wrong. in the deepest of night, i will sing you a song.
thats because ur a cheep who knows nothing but what the meedeea tells u to think...baa
@@WillyEckaslike you’re ridiculous
@@klausmuhlbach1869 you’re ridiculous
@@lisamoroney3036 no its the fact that i have studied what really happened for the last 10 years and the establishment version is just PG..cue bono
I think out of respect the 20000 odd Soviet POWs straved to death by the regular German Army prior to the SS taking over Belsen should be mentioned
The above photo that accompanies this episode is a classic of WWII. The British Tommy with the rifle would probably have killed Kramer in a heartbeat.
It's so unbelievable, and unimaginable the horror that happened on this area.. Just seeing the video and photos of the people being skinned and boned by hunger, being tortured, dead in every place, makes me cry.. Let's hope or pray that this will never happen again, especially now that there is another war brewing in the air between Russia and Ukraine together with NATO..
China has death camps right now if the media is to be believed.
and why were SOME people emaciated?....tie fuss..dysentry..lack of food due to allied bombing of supply lines...tortutre is just hearsay from due wish liars wishing to get even and collect penshons.....see i have just explained the truth to u in one sentence
Conditions were good until the final months of the war after allied bombing of supply lines.
That is confirmed by British doctor Russell Barton who worked at the camp. It's also confirmed by Jewish virtual library...and the commander of the camp himself Josef Kramer.
@@cyberhermit1222 To take the word of someone like Josef Kramer defies belief. Probably one of the most vile POS to ever walk the earth.
@@WillyEckaslike You are just like the Russians today who refuse to see the atrocities their government is committing. Yes the Nazis tortured and murdered Jews, gay people. people they viewed as disabled, socialists, etc.
Could you cover the liberation of Landsberg?
My great grandfather was a member of the British special forces who arrived ahead of the army. All he could do was radio in what he found there, he couldn't help, couldn't do anything. Refused to say more than that.
This kind of thing happening again isn’t that unthinkable today. It’s showing itself already in this country
Wich country is that? But you're right that such things periodically repeat themselves. Look at the civil war in the Balkans in the 90s.
@@daveanderson3805 the U.S 😔
@@ghostriderx916 Thanks for replying. I admit that things are a bit grim in the US at the moment, but you have two things we lack in Britain. You have the constitution and the bill of rights. The american people will come to their senses. America is a great country. It is great because of its people. One of your darkest times was the civil war. But the american people got through it, they preserviert. I have faith in the american people. I know a lot of my fellow brits will disagree with me, but you know what? It doesn't matter. America is still a great nation, and it will continue to be so because of it's people. Never mind the government of the day. Presidents only stay in office for four years. Nixon was a low point in your post war history, but no-one actually remembers him now. You'll be fine, I certain of that.
@@daveanderson3805 Not sure I'd agree with you there! Bill of Rights was based on our Magna Carta. And we have - for all its periodic problems - Parliament.
Amazing.
The scene from 49" where the woman is kissing the hand of the soldier is the most moving image from WW2 I've ever seen. It makes me cry every time I see it. I always wonder who the soldier and woman were, and what became of them?
The look of hatred the young soldier with the gun fixes on Commandant Kramer is well caught in still photos.
Conditions were good until the final months of the war after allied bombing of supply lines.
That is confirmed by British doctor Russell Barton who worked at the camp. It's also confirmed by Jewish virtual library...and the commander of the camp himself Josef Kramer.
@@cyberhermit1222 Jeez, what a dilemma, especially since the Allies didn't know the camp's existence. I dunno, maybe the Nazis shouldn't have decided to incarcerate and exterminate European Jewry, ya think?
@@TyrSkyFatherOfTheGods the Jewish population of Europe increased in that period not decreased.
@@sonsen25 Since you are knowledgeable on the subject, what was the Jewish population of Europe in 1939, what was it in 1945, and what are the sources for your rather bold claim?
@@TyrSkyFatherOfTheGods The World Jewish Almanac for 1940 gives the world's Jewish population as 15,319,359. The World Almanac for 1949 puts the number of Jews in the world at 15,713,638.
All the respect to Hannah ,Rachel, Freidel and many others, members of the 8th army Jewish Brigade who were parachuted into the nearby forest in order to help clear the route for the 11th army armoured. Unsung heroes.
"When you see people who were a living skellington"....................*skellington*????? @ 8:10
Irritating narration
Makes me wonder about human beings.
And I'm one . Incredible what people can do.
One of the darkest times for human beings.
COVID
The worst
Radio broadcast from camp should be heard again. Deniers need hear the emotion in that man's voice
My father was in the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp he went in with the 11 Armoured Division he could smell the place from 5 miles away... what the Nazis did isn't human 😔
Vengeance is mine, I will repay , saith the Lord