Creation of the Bergen-Belsen camps
In spring 1941, the camp area was considerably enlarged. After the invasion of the Soviet Union, more than 21,000 prisoners were brought in from the Soviet Union by autumn 1941. In the period from August 1941 to April 1942 alone, 14,000 Soviet prisoners of war died, mainly from hunger, epidemics and cold.
In April 1943, the Schutzstaffel SS ("Protection Squadron") took over the southern part of the camp grounds as an "exchange camp" for Jewish prisoners. In spring 1944, the Schutzstaffel SS ("Protection Squadron") decided to use the camp grounds for other purposes and other prisoner groups. As a result, the character of the camp, the structure of the prisoner society and, above all, the living conditions of the prisoners changed dramatically. When the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated on 15 April 1945, British soldiers found thousands of unburied bodies and tens of thousands of terminally ill people.
In total, around 120,000 people from numerous European countries were imprisoned in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Of these, 52,000 concentration camp prisoners perished in the camp or died immediately after Liberation as a result of their imprisonment.
After the war
After emergency hospitals had been set up by the British army, a camp for Polish and Jewish Displaced Persons was established in the nearby military barracks. Until 1950, up to 12,000 survivors of the Shoah lived here at times in Germany's largest Jewish DP camp.
In the months following Liberation, former prisoners erected memorials to the deceased on the former camp grounds: In September 1945, a wooden memorial was erected in memory of the Jewish victims and in November 1945, initiated by Polish survivors, a large wooden cross was erected. Between 1946 and 1952, part of the former camp site was turned into a memorial with an inscription wall and obelisk.
However, it was years before an exhibition was organised at the historic site of the crimes. This was first done in 1966 and since 2007 in a comprehensive permanent exhibition in a newly built Documentation Centre.
Chronology
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1935-1937
As part of the National Socialist preparations for war, the "Wehrmacht" (German armed forces) establishes the Bergen military training area in the southern Lüneburg Heath, covering an area of 280 square kilometres. Two large barrack complexes for a total of 32,000 soldiers were built on its western and eastern edges.
About two kilometres south of "Truppenlager Belsen" (Belsen Military Base), a Barack Camp is used as a housing estate for construction workers who build the barrack complexes of the military base.
June 1940
The "Wehrmacht" (German armed forces) uses this Barack Camp to house 600 French and Belgian prisoners of war.
May/June 1941
Expansion of the camp into a POW main camp and hospital for Soviet prisoners of war - Prisoner of War base camp (Stalag 311 XI C) (311) Bergen-Belsen.
July 1941
Arrival of the first transport with 2000 Soviet prisoners of war. By autumn, more than 21,000 prisoners from the Soviet Union are brought in. As hardly any accommodation barracks have been completed, they have to live in open fields, caves and leaf huts.
From August 1941
A Secrect state police, Gestapo task force carries out "selections" among the prisoners of war. At least 500 Jews and political functionaries are transported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and murdered there.
Beginning of April 1942
Between July 1941 and April 1942, 14,000 Soviet prisoners of war die, mainly from hunger, epidemics and cold.
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April 1943
The Wehrmacht cedes the southern part of the camp site to the Schutzstaffel SS ("Protection Squadron"), which sets up an "exchange camp" there. Jewish prisoners were to be held hostage here so that they could be exchanged for Germans interned abroad. The exchange camp is part of the National Socialist concentration camp system.
The Prisoner of War hospital in the northern part of the camp grounds remains in operation under the direction of the "Wehrmacht" (German armed forces).June 1943
Dissolution of Stalag XI C (311). The hospital for prisoners of war becomes a branch camp of the POW base camp XI B Fallingbostel.
July 1943
Transport of more than 2,300 Jewish prisoners from Poland to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp exchange camp. In total, at least 14,600 Jewish people are transported there by the end of 1944, most of them from Hungary and the Netherlands.
October 1943
Around 1800 Jewish prisoners from Poland are transported from Bergen-Belsen to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they are murdered immediately upon arrival.
From March 1944
A new section of the camp is set up in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The Schutzstaffel SS ("Protection Squadron") transported thousands of sick and unfit prisoners from other concentration camps to this Men's Camp.
End of June 1944
A transport with 222 Jewish prisoners leaves the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp exchange camp for Palestine. A total of around 2560 Exchange Prisoners are released by April 1945.
End of July 1944
Transfer of the hospital for Italian military internees with 500 mostly tuberculosis patients from Fallingbostel-Oerbke to the Bergen-Belsen POW camp.
From August 1944
Establishment of a new camp section for female prisoners in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Arrival of thousands of women, mainly from Auschwitz concentration camp. Onward transport of most of the women to other concentration camps and to three subcamps of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp for forced labour.
October/November 1944
Following the suppression of the Warsaw uprising, around 1000 members of the Polish Home Army - half of them women - are taken to the Bergen-Belsen POW camp as prisoners of war.
Several thousand civilians from the Warsaw uprising - exclusively women and children - had already been transported to the Women's Camp at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp since August.
December 1944
The former commandant of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Kramer, becomes the new camp commandant of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
From December 1944
As part of the evacuation of concentration camps close to the front, at least 85,000 prisoners are transported to Bergen-Belsen by mid-April 1945.
January 1945
Closure of the Bergen-Belsen prisoner of war camp. The prisoners had previously been transferred to other POW camps.
Beginning of April 1945
Three train transports with 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 subcamps are housed in the Wehrmacht barracks not far from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which thus functions as part of the camp.
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15 April 1945British troops liberate around 53,000 prisoners of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. From 1943 to 1945, at least 52,000 women, men and children died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and as a direct result of their imprisonment. More than 19,700 people died in the Bergen-Belsen prisoner-of-war camp between 1941 and 1945.
April/May 1945
Burial of more than 20,000 victims of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in mass graves. Transfer of almost 29,000 survivors from the concentration camp to an emergency hospital set up by the British in the former military barracks. The survivors are given the status of "Displaced Persons" (DPs).
To prevent the spread of epidemics, the British burn down the barracks of the prisoner camp on the former camp grounds.
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
First Belsen-Prozess in Lüneburg before a British military court.
September 1945
The first congress of liberated Jews in the British zone takes place in the Bergen-Belsen DP camp. A wooden memorial is erected on the former camp grounds to commemorate the Jewish victims.
October 1945
The commander of the British military government orders the planning of an appropriate place of remembrance on the former camp grounds.
Until autumn 1945
Repatriation of most of the Displaced Persons from Northern, Western and Southern Europe to their countries of origin. Forced repatriation of Soviet survivors.
November 1945
Polish survivors dedicate a large wooden cross on the site of the former concentration camp in memory of the victims.
On the orders of the Soviet military commission, a memorial is erected at the Bergen-Belsen Prisoner of War cemetery.
Beginning of March 1946
The UN Relief & Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) takes over the administration of the DP camp from the British army. The Central committee of the liberated Jews in the British sector, based in the DP camp, acts as the self-administration of the Jewish DPs.
April 1946
To mark the first anniversary of their Liberation, Jewish survivors unveil a stone memorial at the site of the temporary wooden memorial.
June to September 1946
Transfer of the Polish Displaced Persons and dissolution of the Polish DP camp. Bergen-Belsen becomes the largest Jewish DP camp in post-war Germany.
1946 to 1952
Part of the former camp site is converted into a memorial site. Construction of an international memorial.
From 1948
With the founding of the state of Israel and the easing of entry regulations to the USA and other countries, most of the Jewish DPs are able to emigrate.
May to July 1950
The Bergen-Belsen DP camp is dissolved. The remaining residents are moved to Upjever.
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November 1952
Dedication of the Bergen-Belsen memorial site and handover to the state of Lower Saxony.
1960 to 1961
Extensive landscaping of the memorial site.
1964 to 1968
Extensive remodelling of the Bergen-Belsen Prisoner of War cemeteries.
April 1966
The first house of documents with an exhibition on the history of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is opened.
April 1990
Opening of a new permanent exhibition in the extended house of documents at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial.
October 2007
Opening of the new Documentation Centre of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial with a permanent exhibition on the POW camps in the Lüneburg Heath, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the Displaced Persons Camp.
2009
Inclusion of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial Centre in the institutional funding of the Federal Republic of Germany.
June 2012
Completion of the exterior design of the former camp site and a visitor guidance system to explain the historical sites with information steles and bookmarks.