On my last day in Germany we visited The Bergen Belsen Memorial site. Back then this was the first ever permanent exhibit anywhere in Germany on the topic of Nazi war crimes. With only a caretaker as permanent staff, the memorial events were only organized by the survivors themselves. On entering the site, I noted the absence of bird song. A sobering and lifeless place, it was like things didn’t want to be there. Stone markers merely stating here lay 5,000 dead. April 1945. The weather that day was dull and grey, matching the surroundings. I read somewhere that the reason there are no birds near the mass graves was the high alkaline content levels in the soil, caused by the quick lime used to cover the corpses. Worms and other insects cannot live in this environment, making it hard for the birds to feed. Bergen-Belsen or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp, originally established as a prisoner of war camp. In 1943, parts of it became a concentration camp. The number of people killed there, is still to this day unknown, but it is thought to be more than 50,000 in the concentration camp alone. The camp was liberated by the British 11th Armoured Division on April 15, 1945. The soldiers discovered around 60,000 prisoners inside, most of them half-starved and seriously ill, and another 13,000 corpses lying around the camp unburied. After liberation 13,994 people died in spite of massive efforts to help the survivors with food and medical treatment. The British comedian Michael Bentine took part in the liberation of the camp. There is also a Memorial for Margot and Anne Frank at the former Bergen-Belsen site. Following financial help from the Federal Government, the memorial was redesigned and opened to the public in 2007. From my book Bumpers & Bed Blocks. www.clivewardauthor.com
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