Creation of the Bergen-Belsen camps
The camp complex was significantly expanded in the spring of 1941. Following Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, more than 21,000 prisoners were sent from the Soviet Union to the Belsen camp by the autumn of 1941. From August 1941 until April 1942 alone, a total of 14,000 Soviet POWs died mainly of hunger, epidemics, and cold.
In April 1943, the SS ("Protection Squadron") took over the southern section of the camp complex and turned it into an ‘exchange camp’ for Jewish prisoners. In the spring of 1944, the SS decided to use the grounds of the camp for other purposes and groups of victims as well. This resulted in dramatic changes to the character of the camp, the structure of the prisoner society, and, above all, the prisoners’ living conditions. When the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated on 15 April 1945, British soldiers found thousands of unburied bodies and tens of thousands of critically ill prisoners.
A total of around 120,000 people from many different European countries were imprisoned in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Of these prisoners, 52,000 perished in the camp itself or died from the effects of their imprisonment immediately after the liberation.
After the war
The nearby Wehrmacht barracks was initially used as an emergency hospital set up by the British Army. It subsequently became a camp for Polish and Jewish Displaced Persons. The Jewish DP camp was the largest in Germany, holding up to 12,000 Holocaust survivors at times. It existed until 1950.
In the first months after the liberation, survivors already began establishing commemorative sites in the grounds of the former camp. A wooden monument dedicated to the Jewish victims was unveiled in September 1945, and a large wooden cross was erected by Polish survivors in November 1945. Between 1946 and 1952, a section of the former camp complex was transformed into a memorial with an inscription wall and an obelisk.
However, many more years passed before an exhibition about the crimes committed in Bergen-Belsen was established at the historical site. The first exhibition opened in 1966, and in 2007 an extensive permanent exhibition opened in the new Documentation Centre.
Chronology
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1935-1937
As part of the National Socialists’ preparations for war, the Wehrmacht establishes the Bergen Military Training Ground, which covers an area of 280 square kilometres in the southern Lüneburg Heath. Two large barracks complexes are erected at its eastern and western edges to hold a total of 32,000 soldiers.
Around two kilometres south of the Belsen military base, a camp of huts is set up to house the workers assigned to build the barracks complex.
June 1940
The Wehrmacht uses the camp of huts to hold 600 French and Belgian POWs.
May/June 1941
The camp is expanded to become a Stammlager (main POW camp) and military hospital for Soviet prisoners of war known as Stalag XI C (311) Bergen-Belsen.
July 1941
The first transport arrives with 2,000 Soviet POWs. By the autumn, more than 21,000 prisoners are brought in from the Soviet Union. Very few dormitory huts have been completed, so the prisoners are forced to live in the open, in earthwork dens and shelters made of branches.
From August 1941
A Gestapo (Secrect state police) task force carries out ‘selections’ amongst the prisoners of war. At least 500 Jews and political functionaries are transported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where they are murdered.
Start of April 1942
From July 1941 to April 1942, a total of 14,000 Soviet POWs perish mainly from hunger, epidemics, and cold.
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April 1943
The Wehrmacht hands over the southern section of the camp complex to the SS, which establishes an ‘exchange camp’ there. This camp is intended to hold Jewish prisoners as hostages to be exchanged for Germans interned abroad. The exchange camp is part of the National Socialist concentration camp system.
The POW military hospital in the northern section of the camp complex remains under the control of the Wehrmacht.
June 1943
Stalag XI C (311) is disbanded, and the military hospital for POWs becomes a branch of Stalag XI B Fallingbostel.
July 1943
More than 2,300 Jewish prisoners from Poland are transported to the Bergen-Belsen exchange camp. By the end of 1944, a total of at least 14,600 Jews are transported there, most of them from Hungary and the Netherlands.
October 1943
Some 1,800 Polish Jews are transported from Bergen-Belsen to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they are murdered upon arrival.
From March 1944
A new camp section is established in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The SS uses this men’s camp to hold thousands of sick prisoners transported from other concentration camps who are unable to work.
End of June 1944
A transport carrying 222 Jewish prisoners leaves the Bergen-Belsen exchange camp and sets off for Palestine. A total of around 2,560 exchange prisoners are released by April 1945.
End of July 1944
The military hospital for Italian military internees, with 500 patients suffering mostly from tuberculosis, is moved from Fallingbostel-Oerbke to the Bergen-Belsen POW camp.
From August 1944
A new camp section is established for female prisoners in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Thousands of women arrive, mainly from Auschwitz. Most of the women are subsequently transported to other concentration camps and to three satellite camps of Bergen-Belsen for forced labour.
October/November 1944
After the Warsaw Uprising is crushed, some 1,000 members of the Polish Home Army – half of them women – are sent to the Bergen-Belsen POW camp as prisoners of war.
Several thousand civilians from the Warsaw Uprising – exclusively women and children – had previously been transported to the women’s camp of Bergen-Belsen starting in August.
December 1944
The former commandant of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Kramer, is appointed as the new commandant of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
From December 1944
As concentration camps near the front line are cleared, at least 85,000 prisoners are transported to Bergen-Belsen by mid-April 1945.
January 1945
The Bergen-Belsen POW camp is disbanded after its prisoners have been transferred to other POW camps.
Beginning of April 1945
Three transport trains carrying around 6,700 prisoners from the exchange camp leave Bergen-Belsen presumably bound for the Theresienstadt ghetto.
More than 15,000 prisoners from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp and its satellite camps are sent to the Wehrmacht barracks not far from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The barracks thus function as part of the concentration camp.
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15 April 1945British troops liberate around 53,000 prisoners from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Between 1943 to 1945, at least 52,000 men, women, and children perished in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp or as a direct result of their imprisonment. More than 19,700 people perished in the Bergen-Belsen POW camp from 1941 to 1945.
April/May 1945
More than 20,000 victims of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp are buried in mass graves. Nearly 29,000 survivors are moved from the former concentration camp to an emergency hospital set up by the British in the former Wehrmacht barracks. The survivors are given the status of Displaced Persons (DPs).
To prevent the spread of epidemics, British soldiers burn down the prisoner huts in the grounds of the former concentration camp.
June to October 1945
The emergency hospital becomes a Displaced Persons camp which is soon divided into a Polish and a Jewish DP camp.
September to November 1945
The first Belsen Trial is held before a military tribunal in Lüneburg.
September 1945
The first congress of liberated Jews in the British zone takes place in the Bergen-Belsen DP camp. At the start of the congress, a wooden monument is erected in the grounds of the former camp to commemorate the Jewish victims.
October 1945
The commander of the British military government orders that plans be drawn up for a suitable memorial on the site of the former camp.
Until autumn 1945
Most of the DPs from northern, western, and southern Europe are repatriated to their home countries. Soviet survivors are forced to return to the Soviet Union.
November 1945
Polish survivors dedicate a large wooden cross in the grounds of the former concentration camp in memory of the Polish victims.
On the order of the Soviet military mission, a monument is erected in the Bergen-Belsen POW cemetery.
Start of March 1946
The United Nations Relief & Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) takes over the administration of the DP camp from the British Army. The Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the British Zone is based in the DP camp and acts as the self-governing organization for the Jewish DPs.
April 1946
On the first anniversary of their liberation, Jewish survivors unveil a stone monument on the site of the provisional wooden monument.
June to September 1946
The Polish DPs are transferred elsewhere and the Polish DP camp is disbanded. Bergen-Belsen becomes the largest Jewish DP camp in postwar Germany.
1946 to 1952
A section of the former camp is transformed into a memorial, and an international monument is erected.
From 1948
After the State of Israel is founded and other countries, including the USA, loosen their immigration restrictions, most of the Jewish DPs are able to emigrate.
May to July 1950
The Bergen-Belsen DP camp is disbanded and its remaining residents are moved to Upjever.
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November 1952
The Bergen-Belsen Memorial is inaugurated and handed over the state of Lower Saxony.
1960 to 1961
The memorial grounds undergo extensive landscaping.
1964 to 1968
The Bergen-Belsen POW cemetery is extensively redesigned.
April 1966
The first Document Building opens with an exhibition on the history of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
April 1990
A new permanent exhibition opens in the expanded Document Building at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial.
October 2007
The new Documentation Centre of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial opens with a permanent exhibition on the POW camps in the Lüneburg Heath, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and the Displaced Persons camp.
2009
The Bergen-Belsen Memorial is included in the institutional funding programme of the Federal Republic of Germany.
June 2012
The redesign of the external grounds of the former camp is completed, including a visitor guidance system with information pillars and bookmarks to explain the history of the site.