Relief of BELSEN

[JOHN JONES]

Been and gone on Channel 4 in the UK. ( last Night )
Drama documentary using reconstruction and old footage.
All the standard shots seen before, ( they can never be seen often enough )
and I never tire of seeing the quaffered women gaurds and M.36 clad SS
Sgts with their nice bright tresse, after a few hours moving corpses.

However, there was very interesting film of the RAMC attempts to save the
lives of those liberated.

What I did not know was a local truce agrred to 3000 WH types staying
armed to prevent prisioners with Thypus wandering across the area.
It was agreed they could reurn TO THE FRONT line after a couple of weeks,
and some film showed them marching out fully armed to participate in the
last weeks of the war.

It also noted that barracks was the Panzer Lehr training centre? and showed
as such signage, some of the period film showed the above mentioned WH
wearing full field gear with black wraps.
It was 2 hours long, which did it justice.

Well worth a watch if you see it sold on to USA or Europe.

Cheers.
John.

[Simon O.]

I visited Belsen about 13 years ago. A very eerie place indeed.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi John, I watched it.

I had mixed feelings at times about the dramatised documentary style. Perhaps a straight forward documentary would have been better? I know I had not seen footage of the WH troops before either leaving the area. (See the guy in the tropical cap carrying a K43?)

The fate of the SS guards was hardly mentioned and the CO of the camp, Kramer, (Nicknamed "The Beast of Belsen" by the British, never even got a mention at all I don't think?)

Certainly worth watching though.

Cheers, Ade.

[Simon O.]

These drama documentaries seem to be all the rage back home at the moment. I saw the Dunkirk and D-day to Berlin ones, are there any other WWII ones out there i should look for?

[JOHN JONES]

Hi Simon,
The only one I can think of is the double escape from Auschwitz,
based on the book ' I escaped from Auschwitz ' I felt 1 hour was a bit of
a squeeze and of course cannot beat the several hours read of the book.

Hi Adrian,
I suppose with so little film and few participants still alive, you have
to go with a mixed option, although a bit of leaway has to be given in
relation ships and converations some 60+ years ago.
I spotted the rifle but not the cap, but did see a SS camo cap on a guy pushing
a cart. Were many of the gaurds brought to trial, or died of the Typhus?

All in all, a good fist of covering a period not often reported.

Cheers
John.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi John, the guy in the camo cap can be seen in several pics, one of which is in one of Robin's books I think?

Many of the guards died of Typhus. Kramer was hung.

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Bergen...nBelsen09.html

Cheers, Ade.

[JOHN JONES]

Thanks for the link Adrian....

One cap I would not want...

Bothe's still with us...........

[LDR]

Does anyone know if this Belsen footage, taken by the British, is all available on one DVD? I am very interested to see it all after seeing small bits in the documentary the other night.
Would rather it be a dvd without any other footage just the Belsen stuff.

Yes, saw the guy in the camo hat, didnt have any insignia on the front by the looks.

I also didnt know these guys were allowed to go off to the front lines again!

Lewis

[john moody]

Hello all,
I visited Bergen-Belsen in July of last year, it is indeed a strange place.
Most of the camp was burned down by the British Army to deter the typhus epidemic and only the excavated foundations of some of the blocks remain; however the mass graves still exist and several monuments to the victims can be seen.
Several post-war gravestones have been placed there, one to the memory of the Frank sisters although obviously they do not cover the remains of the named dead their remains residing in unknown mass graves.
Whilst I was there several groups of school children were visiting with their teachers and a group of Bundeswehr cadets were also on an organised visit.
All available wartime shot footage has been assembled in a twenty-four minute film which is shown to visitors before they go to roam through the camp itself, but this was not available on DVD or video for purchase.
I do not believe all the footage shown has been compiled into a single feature as presented to visitors to the camp; most being split across several mre well known documentaries about the Holocaust or WW2 in general.
The tour guide pamphlets are free, but rightly so a donation is expected for these and you can buy issue 89 of the magazine "After The Battle" which covers the liberation of the camp comprehensively.
Oddly enough the camp does not seem to have an "atmosphere" as all the original buildings are long gone, and in most places it seems as if you are walking through a quiet country park.
Only when you see the foundation bricks of the barracks with remnants of shattered porcelein toilet bowls lying around do you feel that this must have been a terrible place.
Schoolchildren have done research on the prisoners and many of these bricks bear the name and KZ number of the prisoner on the face; and their date of death on the reverse.
The most unsettling memory I have of the camp is that the Wehrmacht training facility which is literally a few hundred metres away still is used by the modern Bundeswehr; and every ten to twenty seconds one hears the boom of cannon or tank shell fire coming through the trees.
I believe the camp also has a website which informs you of new projects for the camp and whilst I has there a multi-million euro visitor centre was in the process of being built.
Free of charge to gain admission, and an interesting but sobering way to spend a few hours whilst in Germay.


Regards to all,

John.

[JOHN JONES]

Hi John,
Thanks for moderm day perspective.
With the truce meaning no fight for the Panzer Lehr barracks,
they must have been handed over intact.
And thus taken over by the modern German Army I can quite
imagine what the storesrooms held at that time.

Lewis,
I suppose we felt we had to honour the terms of the truce, but
I wonder if any of them meet a needless death or took any allied soldiers
with them ,in those last few weeks.

The SS of course, were cut no such quarter and got there just desserts.

John.

[Bob Coleman]

Thanks for the link Adrian....

One cap I would not want...

Bothe's still with us...........

I SAW A GERMAN PRODUCED DOCUMENTARY ABOUT BELSEN SEVERAL YEARS AGO. AMONG THOSE INTERVIEWED WAS THE WOMAN GUARD SHOWN IN THIS PICTURE. IT WAS QUITE AMAZING THAT EVEN TODAY, SHE WAS TOTALLY UNREPENTENT AFTER ALL OF THIS TIME. IT SHOWS HOW WELL THESE YOUNG PEOPLE WERE INDOCTRINATED.

[MeinhardcFJR2]

Hi John,
Thanks for moderm day perspective.
With the truce meaning no fight for the Panzer Lehr barracks,
they must have been handed over intact.
And thus taken over by the modern German Army I can quite
imagine what the storesrooms held at that time.

Lewis,
I suppose we felt we had to honour the terms of the truce, but
I wonder if any of them meet a needless death or took any allied soldiers
with them ,in those last few weeks.

The SS of course, were cut no such quarter and got there just desserts.

John.

Hello,

The Barracks are still occupied by the British Army to the rear of which is the WH hospital that was eventually used for the treatment of the inmates.

I used to be based in a small place called Fallingbostel a few miles around the range road from Bergen-Hohne Barracks and used to visit regularly.

The old hospital (re-named the Glynn Hughes Hospital after the British occupied it) has remained derelict but fenced off since the RAMC pulled out in the early 90's. I have quite a few pictures of this site one of which shows a huge WH Eagle still clutching a Swastika right over the main entrance!

If anyone would like to see the pictures would they kindly host them for me as I am not a paid up member of the forum.

Thanks,

Mark.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Mark, I would be happy to post the pics for you. Sending you a PM.

Cheers, Ade.

[Simon O.]

Mark

Are you familiar with the garrison? I was on a recruiting tour at the time and did a presentation for the artillery regiment there in what looked like a former ballroom or something. Very officer'ish if you know what i mean. I wondered at the time what the building used to be back in the day.

[Adrian Stevenson]

I have a large wartime German map about 3 feet square of the Bergen training area. I will try and photograph the relevent bits. I picked this up from a British Royal Signals Vet who was a motorcycle despatch rider based there in 1945.

Cheers, Ade.