Footsteps of WWII · Berlin & eastern Germany
Bergen-Belsen Memorial
Camp memorial · 1940–15 Apr 1945
The story
Bergen-Belsen began in 1940 as a Wehrmacht camp for prisoners of war; almost 20,000 Soviet prisoners died there. From 1943 the SS used part of it as an exchange camp for Jews, but in the last months it became a dumping ground for prisoners evacuated from other camps. Typhus spread through the overcrowded huts; Anne and Margot Frank died there in February or March 1945. On 15 April 1945 British troops, including 11th Armoured Division, found about 60,000 prisoners and more than 13,000 unburied bodies. Around 14,000 more died after liberation. The British burned the huts, and BBC reporter Richard Dimbleby's broadcast shocked Britain.
What to look for
Nothing of the camp stands. A documentation centre opened in 2007 leads onto open heath with grassed mass graves marked by stones giving numbers buried, an obelisk and inscription wall, the Jewish monument and memorial stones, including one for Anne and Margot Frank.
Plan your visit
Daily 10:00–18:00 April–September and 10:00–17:00 October–March; grounds open daily. Free. No dogs or bicycles on the grounds; large bags go in lockers. Car is easiest.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
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Footsteps of WWII: Europe 1939–1945
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The whole Second World War in Europe, from the first shots at Westerplatte on 1 September 1939 to the German surrender in May 1945: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Normandy, Arnhem, Bastogne, Stalingrad, Berlin and the camps, in 15 areas from Britain to Russia.
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