Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

Opening of the Camp

• Built in 1940, originally built as POW camp 
• Opened as Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp April 1943

Location

• It is near the town of Bergen-Belsen
• It's in Saxony, which is in northern Germany

Number of prisoners

• 4,000 Jewish prisoners (mostly Dutch)
• 1,600 (Hungarian jews) 
• 15,000 (Polish Men and Women)

Number of Deaths

• 50,000+ deaths
• 6,851 death certificates were given
• Death certificates were given until 1983
• Mostly sick and elderly were killed

Method of Death

• Many died on the death march to Bergen-Belsen
• Starvation
• Over worked
• Medical experiments
• Many died of diseases (up to 35,000 people)

Body Disposal

• Were buried in mass graves
• Also would throw bodies into fires
• They removed flesh and organs

Type of work

• Saved shoe leather (shoe commando)
• Non-Jewish woman who were sent here, were sent to a German factory
• 500 people were used in contruction jobs at a time

Leaders

• Josef Kramer
• Josef Rosensaft
• Irma Grese (22 year old female)
• 45 of the staff were tried
• 14 were found unguilty

After Liberation

• Currently there is a grave yard here
• The British troops burned the camp to prevent disease

Interesting Facts

• 1944 a woman's support center was added
• Anne Frank died here
• First major camp to liberate