Belsen: The Liberation of a Concentration CampPsychology Press, 1998 - 248 pages The first book in English to focus on Belsen, this examines British responses to Belsen's liberation, its importance as a landmark in British History and ideas about the Holocaust. It includes fascinating testimonies from survivors.In April and May 1945, Belsen concentration camp was liberated and entered Western consciousness for the first time through unprecedented and disturbing images. In March 1945 there were tens and thousands of prisoners in Belsen and an estimated 35,000 lost their lives in the four and a half months before liberation. Reilly examines British responses to the liberation of Belsen and its importance as a landmark in British History and its ideas about the Holocaust. She also includes survivor testimony to illustrate life in the concentration camp and the experience of liberation.By examining Belsen's place in the Holocaust, as well as Anglo-Jewish and popular responses in the media, the author provides the context for Western reactions to concentration camps and analyses descriptions of Britain's part in the Second World War. She argues that Belsen played a key part in post-World War II perceptions of Nazism, becoming a symbol of the righteousness of the British war effort and hence a justification of "saturation" bombing of cities. |
Contents
The military and medical liberation | 19 |
British popular responses | 50 |
British state responses | 78 |
AngloJewish responses | 118 |
The survivors | 145 |
Common terms and phrases
19 April 20 April AJDC Allied American Anglo-Jewish community anti-semitism army arrived atrocity Auschwitz Belsen camp Belsen DP Bergen-Belsen Bernstein Britain British authorities British zone Brodetsky Buchenwald Central Committee Central Jewish Committee centres chapter concentration camps concerned CRREC diary Displaced Persons DP camp Europe experience extermination fact Final Solution Foreign Office German Hardman Hertz Höhne Holocaust horror hospital ibid illegal immigration internees issue IWM Docs JCRA Jewish Agency Jewish Chronicle Jewish community Jewish DPs Jewish relief Jewry Jews in Germany Josef Rosensaft July June Kushner leaders Leivick letter liberation of Belsen lives London majority Manchester Guardian Military Government months National Nazi Nevertheless nurses organisations Palestine political postwar prisoners Rabbi recognise refugees relief workers religious repatriated response role Rosensaft Schonfeld Sept Sington soldiers story survivors testimony tion Trepman UNRRA weeks Wiener Library women World Zionist