Who died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp?
The victims included individuals from all groups who had been declared enemies by the National Socialists and were excluded from the ‘people’s community’: Jews, Sinti and Roma, political dissidents, gay men and women, people stigmatized as ‘anti-social’ or ‘professional criminals’, Jehovah’s Witnesses, forced labourers deported from occupied countries, former POWs, and many more.
The SS was responsible for the deaths of these men, women, and children from all over Europe. SS members tried to hide their crimes by burning the bodies of the dead or burying them in hastily dug pits. The SS also destroyed the camp registry, leading to the irrevocable loss of transport lists, lists of inmate deaths, and individual prisoner documents.
Since 1990, the Bergen-Belsen Memorial has compiled extensive information about the prisoners in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from other sources. Despite this intensive research, the names and details of only around 11,500 victims have been found thus far. These names have been published on a special website in the form of a digital Book of the Dead. In addition to the names and the places of burial (if known), the site provides information about where the prisoners died and which source material exists.
Because the perpetrators destroyed so many original documents, it will never be possible to determine the names of everyone who perished in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Nonetheless, the Book of the Dead is an expression of the ongoing effort to remember the names of all the dead. The book is not yet finished.