'...

trying to count
the stars':
using the story of Bergen-Belsen
to teach the Holocaust
Maria Osowiecki's search for
the right questions to frame
her students' study of the
Holocaust was driven initially
by the proximity of her school
to the site of Bergen-Belsen,
and the particular interests
and concerns of her students
as members of British
Forces families. But, as this
article richly demonstrates,
the process of framing a
stimulating and challenging
enquiry that does justice to
the past also depends on
rigorous historical scholarship.
Here she draws on her
own extensive reading and
research to offer the reader
not merely a powerful series
of well-crafted enquiries but
also a concise and compelling
account of Betsen's complex
history that is necessary to
underpin them.
Maria Osowiecki is an
A(dvanced Skills Teacher and
Head of History at Gloucester
School (11-18 Service School
for the children of British
Forces), Hohne, Germany
Accepting a position at a school almost next door to Belsen came with, as far as I was concerned,
a responsibility to do justice to the place of Belsen in the school's history curriculum. This meant
finding a way to teach Belsen that went beyond using it as a case study ofthe Holocaust; a way
which would involve pupils gaining a secure sense of the historical significance of the site and
of its role in the 'flow' of history. The necessity of doing so stretched beyond the fact that we
live and work so close to the site. Most ofthe pupils I teach are Forces children. Their world is
one in which they have to deal with the fact that their parents can be deployed to places where
they face real danger and from which they may not return; places in which parent and child
alike sometimes cannot see the logic of British involvement. For my pupils, Belsen holds a real
relevance; at another time and in another places, parents of other British children left home,
found this place and tried to do something to make a wrong right, /had to get this right. I needed
to understand Belsen thoroughly and that meant reading, lots of reading. This was not an easy
experience, considering the subject matter, and there was much that I read that brought me to
tears; but an immersion in primary and secondary literature was vital to my ability to craft the
right questions and shape a meaningful journey to and beyond Belsen.
Emphasising the importance of scholarship in shaping history enquiries and paying due attention
to the complexity of history are issues which have been raised most recently and adeptly by Wilson
and, specifically in relation to the Holocaust, Salmons.- Without in-depth subject knowledge,
our ability to achieve a meaningful level of pupil challenge and engagement with historical issues
is severely hampered. If we want complex thinking, we have to build that complexity through
our own subject knowledge and then give it some sort of shape; but the knowledge comes first.
Belsen's story is certainly complex and cannot be realised fully without looking outwards to
national and international events and developments. The British connection to the camp can
oft'er an entry point and can also help to reduce the problematic distance of time between pupils
and the Holocaust. Certainly for me, to be able to say to pupils that the liberators of Belsen were
British soldiers has proved a powerful tool for engagement. Using the testimonies and stories
of Belsen survivors, such as Paul and Rudi Oppenheimer, and victims, of whom Anne Frank is
the most famous, gives pupils an insight into what the Holocaust looked like, felt like, smelt like,
sounded like.' What follows is intended as a 'package': a concise version ofthe story of Belsen to
sit alongside suggested lines of enquiry which embrace the complexity surrounding the history
ofthe camp itself and its place in the wider context ofthe Holocaust and World War Two.
Bergen-Belsen: an introduction
The name 'Bergen-Belsen' looms large in the British psyche. It was the first and only operational
concentration camp to be liberated and therefore truly 'seen' in detail by the British army
during the final stage of World War Two (see Figure 1). Although Auschwitz had been liberated
three months before, the Russians did not immediately publicise what they found there. This,
combined with the attempted destruction ofthe physical evidence of human suffering and the
mass evacuation of prisoners by SS officers ahead of the Red Army's advance, meant that the
full horror of Auschwitz was left to sleep for a little longer. "* In contrast, when soldiers ofthe 11'''
Armoured Brigade were diverted from their advance through Lower Saxony to take possession of
an internee camp at Belsen, what they discovered was little short of a hell on earth. The horrific
38 Teaching History 149 December 2012 The Historical Association
Figure 1 : A sign erected by British Forces at the entrance to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany, 29 May 1945
THIS IS THE SI TI or
Mmtid b^ ik British m
10 ,0 0 0 UNBURiED DEAD WERE FOUND HERE,
ANOTHER 13 ,0 0 0 HAVE SINCE DIED,
ALL OF THEM YICTIMS OF THE
GERMAN NEW ORDER IN EUROI^I, I
A ND A N EXAMPLE OF NA Z I KULTUR. J
images of starved corpses and inmates captured on still and
moving film by the British in April 1945 were published
and screened in cinemas across Britain and succeeded in
shocking a nation which, after nearly seven years of war,
thought it was beyond being shocked. They also, for many,
provided the final and unshakeable justification for those
seven years of warfare: 'This is what we have been fighting
for' was a phrase uttered by soldier and civilian alike."^
The great irony of Belsen was that it was never conceived as,
designed or intended to be a death camp. In fact, the Jewish
people, the majority of whom were women and children,
sent there from 1943 onwards were meant to be harboured,
preserved and maintained so that they could be exchanged
for German nationals abroad. The ultimate scale and nature
of the deaths experienced by many thousands at Belsen was
unplanned, although by no means unavoidable. In the wide
spectrum of experience and suffering that is the Holocaust,
what happened at Bergen-Belsen is not only compelling, it is
unique. This has led to the argument that "The Holocaust was
not Belsen' and that what was found by the British at Belsen
on 15 April 1945 'should not be allowed to overshadow the
murder of millions more, in entirely different circumstances,
in Eastern Europe'.*"
Technically speaking this is of course true. There were no gas
chambers at Bergen-Belsen, nor was an 'official' form of mass
execution or systematic genocide carried out by SS officers
there. But the word 'overshadow' is troubling. To place Belsen
outside the story of the Holocaust, to relegate it and other
non-death camps to some form of lower rank of historical
significance restricts our vision of the diversity and complexity
of the Holocaust. Belsen was part of the Nazi concentration
camp system. Jews and other groups were sent there because
they had been identified by the Nazis as Untermenschen and
many thousands died there mainly as a result of this racial
persecution. The power of Belsen's story lies precisely in the
fact that it was not a death camp, and yet death camp it most
certainly became. Exploring how and why this happened can
highlight for pupils the difficulty in simplifying the fate of
victims of the Holocaust and in ring-fencing responsibility
for it, while the various metamorphoses of the camp between
1940 and 1945 reflect the impact of national and international
events on the development of Bergen-Belsen.
Teaching History 149 December 2012 The Historical Assodation 3 9
Figure 2: POW camp Stalag XI C (311) at Bergen-Belsen
POW camp "Stalag XI C (311) at Bergen-Belsen
Main camp ^ Wooden hut
Hospital ^ 1 Stone hut
Entrance section (Volanger) | | Building under construction
Administration
Innocuous beginnings: 1935-39
Chance, national events and geography all played a part in
determining the location and development of the Bergen-
Belsen site. The position of Belsen (a small hamlet) amidst
the heath and forest land of the sparsely populated Lneberg
Heide proved ideal for the adjacent siting of one of the
numerous Wehrmacht training grounds constructed in the
wake of Hitler's rise to dictatorship and subsequent plan for
German re-armament. The Bergen military training area -
later renamed Bergen-Hohne - built there from 1935 was to
be the largest in Germany and it was the need for barracks to
accommodate those Wehrmacht troops engaged in training
there which led to the first stage of building on the site.^ Thus,
Bergen-Belsen first entered the historical record as 'Bergen-
Belsen Army Construction Camp' and consisted of 30 huts
housing 3,000 of the workers employed in building the
Bergen garrison. When construction was complete by 1938
the camp was abandoned, but its existence was not forgotten
by the Wehrmacht now based less than two kilometres away.
The advent of war
At the outbreak of war in 1939, a prisoner-of-war camp
- Stalag XI B - was established at nearby Fallingbostel.
Initially, Polish prisoners were sent there to work for the
German war economy on various work
details. By 1940, the swift advance of the
German army across Western Europe
meant the arrival of French and Belgian
prisoners. As prisoner numbers increased,
the Wehrmacht were faced with a growing
need for accommodation and satellite sites.*
In June 1940 the workers' huts at Belsen,
which had lain dormant since 1938, were
brought back into use as accommodation
for 600 French and Belgian POWs placed
on a work detail at the neighbouring
Wehrmacht military base (Bergen-Hohne)
and munitions factory. Bergen-Belsen was
still not a prisoner-of-war camp in its own
right, but the site had now been identified
as having the potential to become one,
particularly as a railway loading platform
had already been built to serve the Bergen
garrison and could easily be utilised to
transport prisoners.
The Soviet connection:
Stalag XI C (311)
The change in direction of World War Two
brought about a new use for Bergen-Belsen.
With Hitler's invasion plans for Britain
in tatters by the end of 1940, he set his
sights on the USSR. The initially successful
German invasion led to the capture of
almost three million Soviet soldiers by
late 1941. By now the German labour
authorities had identified a serious labour
shortage in the German war economy
and so Bergen-Belsen became one of 12
specifically Soviet camps in German-occupied territory.
Bergen-Belsen was now a prisoner-of-war camp in its own
right: Stalag XI C (311). The existing huts at Bergen-Belsen
were set aside, as shown in Figure 2, to be used as a hospital
and although 24 new huts were planned for construction,
very little progress had been made by the time that 21,000
Soviet prisoners began arriving at the camp from mid-July'
The Nazi contempt for their former allies was such that
they deemed the 1929 Geneva Convention not to apply to
Soviet prisoners. What happened over the harsh winter of
1941-42 was no less horrifying for its predictability. As the
winter set in many prisoners were forced to dig holes in
the ground and build simple 'dens' to protect themselves
from the cold. In such conditions, dysentery and typhus
soon became rampant. Forced labour in quarries, draining
swamps and other such manual tasks combined with harsh
discipline, shootings, poor hygiene, exhaustion, disease,
starvation rations and a lack of suitable shelter led to the
death of approximately 14,000-18,000 Soviet prisoners at
Bergen-Belsen by March 1942. ' It was these Soviet prisoners
who were the first victims of Bergen-Belsen and their corpses
were buried in a special cemetery outside the camp. The
appearance of Gestapo officers at the camp periodically from
August 1941 also reveals the camp's early links with the SS.
Between 3,000 and 4,000 'undesirable' Soviet prisoners from
Bergen-Belsen and the neighbouring camps of Wietzendorf
Teaching History 149 December 2012 The Historical Association
Figure 3: Plan of Bergen-Belsen when if was liberated in 1945
and Oerbke were selected by these officers
for transportation to Sachsenhausen
concentration camp where they were
shot. Such prisoners usually included
Jews and those linked to the Communist
Party. No Wehrmacht soldier was ever
tried for the deaths of the Soviet prisoners
at Bergen-Belsen. Indeed, this Soviet
chapter in Bergen-Belsen's history is
often overlooked, despite its obvious and
stark similarities to the better-known
fate of the later concentration camp
inmates. The onset of the Gold War in
1946-47 which brought with it a lack of
Western sympathy for the Soviets and the
simultaneous squirreling away of Soviet
prisoner-of-war records in Gommunist
Bloc archives can explain this lack of
attention to a large degree.
The arrival of the SS:
Jewish exchange
camp
Soviet labour continued to be important
to the German war economy, but the
reversal of German fortunes at Stalingrad
in January 1943 marked a turning point
in World War Two. The supply of Soviet
prisoners-of-war was no longer buoyant
and Himmler had decided that there
was a better use to which Bergen-Belsen
could be put." Stalag XI G (311) was
dissolved in April 1943. Only a hospital
erected for Soviet troops on the original
site of the camp was left in the hands of
the Wehrmacht. This hospital became the final destination
of many fatally ill prisoners-of-war from across the entire
area (Military District XI). Gontrol of the rest of camp to
the south of the hospital area was transferred to the SS and
became the 'Bergen-Belsen Waffen SS Detention Gamp'.
Although a concentration camp run by the SS, it was here
that Jews selected by the German Foreign Office were sent
until they could be exchanged for Germans held abroad. It
was, therefore, a 'privileged' camp in which those Jews who
possessed citizenship of western Allied countries, British
immigration papers for Palestine or who were important
members of Jewish organisations were granted a reprieve
from the death camps. Between July 1943 and December 1944,
around 14,600 Jewish prisoners from Greece, Westerbork
transit camp in the Netherlands and from ghettos in Poland
arrived at the exchange camp and were billeted into the various
sections of the camp: the 'Star Gamp' held mostly Dutch Jews,
the 'Special Gamp' for Polish Jews, the 'Neutrals Gamp' for
Jews from neutral states and the 'Hungarian Gamp'.'^
We have no photographs of conditions within the exchange
camp before the arrival of the British in 1945, but we do
have numerous drawings, poems and diaries, as well as the
testimonies of survivors like Ladislaus Lob who arrived at
Bergen-Belsen as a child in July 1944 and was interned in the
'Hungarian Gamp'. He describes conditions in the exchange
Concentration camp
Concentration camp
Man's camp
Women's camp
Exchange camp
Administration
Wooden hut
Stone hut
Under construction
camp as being tolerable and better than those experienced by
other internees. Prisoners were, for example, allowed to keep
their luggage, wear their own clothes and to have a certain
degree of autonomy and self-organisation. Nonetheless,
exchange camp internees were not exempt from anguish
and misery or persecution from their SS guards. Death
from disease, primitive accommodation, a twice-daily roll
call which could last for hours in all conditions and hunger
were all features of daily life: '...we were always hungry. Our
daily ration consisted of 330 grams of bread, 15 grams of
margarine, 25 grams of jam, 1 litre of soup, 1.5 litres of coffee
substitute...As time passed, the rations became smaller'."
At least 1,400 exchange camp inmates died and only around
2,560 prisoners were ever freed as part of official exchanges."
The camp implodes: 1944-45
When Richard Dimbleby wired his famous despatch
reporting on his findings at Bergen-Belsen to the BBG on 17
April 1945 - two days after liberation - the BBG refused to
broadcast it. This was simply because they could not and did
not believe it. An edited version was eventually broadcast on
19 April and remains for me one of the most moving pieces
of journalism written during the Second World War. Mindful
of the fact that no one in Britain had seen or even imagined
the horrifying and fantastical scale of suffering in the Nazi
Teaching History 149 December 2012 The Historical Association 41
concentration camps, Dimbleby moves in masterly fashion
from hard-hitting statistics to a sharp focus on individuals:
one face, a girl who was '...a living skeleton. Impossible to
gauge her age because she had practically no hair left on her
head and her face was only a yellow parchment sheet with two
holes in it for eyes'. Back out his literary lens goes to the piles
of human corpses and the abject squalor and then he focuses
in again on the SS guard who has no memory whatsoever of
the faces, names or number of prisoners he has killed. In this
camera-like way of zooming in and out of the big picture,
Dimbleby ensures that listeners connect to individuals and
are not merely overwhelmed by incomprehensible numbers
of the nameless dead or dying. He finishes by revealing the
cannibalistic lengths taken by some prisoners to survive and
the raw fury provoked in British soldiers.
So, what happened to Bergen-Belsen? What had led to this
seeming implosion of humanity at the camp? The SS destroyed
all of the concentration camp documents as the British
advanced towards the camp, but there is a wealth of source
material, including Dimbleby's despatch, which can give pupus
a sense of what had happened to Bergen-Belsen by 1945.'^
The British had been led to believe in the negotiations
surrounding the surrender ofthe camp and the establishment
of an area of truce that there was a typhus outbreak at the camp
which needed to be contained."* What Brigadier R.B.T. Daniell
found when he was sent to report upon conditions at the camp
on 15 April was a camp that had far exceeded its capacity
and in which three-quarters ofthe inmates (mostly women)
were either suffering or in the process of dying from typhus,
typhoid, dysentery or starvation. He found 38,000 survivors
in 70 huts, with a further 15,000 in 30 huts in an extension
of the camp at the Wehrmacht barracks next door. What
particularly struck Daniell was what the survivor Ladislaus
Lob later described as the scale of'criminal negligence' at the
camp. Daniell could not make sense ofthe fact that the Camp
Commandant had apparently left the inmates to die slowly of
disease and starvation when the camp 'was situated in part of
the most fertile farmland in Germany, abounding in cabbages,
potatoes, beans and wheat, yet not a cartload was delivered
to the Camp'.'' Speaking at the opening ofthe Bergen-Belsen
Gedenksttte (Memorial) in 1952, Theodor Heuss, the first
President of the Federal Republic of Germany, bravely
attempted to address what had happened at Bergen-Belsen.
While emphasising the undoubted guilt of Germany, he fell
short of assigning specific blame to groups or individuals
and chose instead to highlight the fact that '.. .in Belsen, war
reigned with hunger and pestilence as its unpaid helpers'."
This tallies to some degree with Lob's statement, but not
entirely. The war certainly exacerbated problems at Bergen-
Belsen, but the numerous witness statements we have testify to
less abstract and more human perpetrators playing their part.
The situation at Bergen-Belsen began to change in 1944
when the SS implemented plans to extend the use and
capacity ofthe camp (see Figure 3), seemingly on account
of the deterioration of the German position in the war.
In March 1944 a new men's camp was instituted for the
internment of those deemed too sick to work. Many were
transferred here from other camps, including a satellite
camp of Buchenwald.'* Between August and November 1944
began the evacuation of other concentration camps near the
front line which led to the creation of a women's camp at the
western end, comprising 18 tents for accommodation and
open holes in the ground for toilets. The Nazi invasion of
Hungary in March 1944 and the deportation of Hungarian
Jews which followed in July also contributed to the swelling
of prisoner numbers at Bergen-Belsen. Among the transports
evacuated to Bergen-Belsen and housed in the new camp
section were 8,000 Polish and Hungarian Jewish women
and girls brought from Auschwitz, including Anne and
Margot Frank who died at Bergen-Belsen in March 1945,
and approximately 2,100 Polish females who had rebelled
during the Warsaw Uprising and their children.
In late 1944 two significant events occurred. A torrential storm
in November 1944 destroyed the tent camp and necessitated
the establishment of a more permanent and larger women's
camp as the problem of over-crowding worsened and more
women and children, including Roma and Sinti, arrived
from camps near the front. In January 1945 the Wehrmacht
prisoner-of-war section ofthe camp which housed the Soviet
hospital was handed over to the SS for this purpose. This
coincided with the second major development of this period:
the arrival ofthe new Camp Commandant Josef Kramer and
his team of SS personnel (including women) in December.
This is said to have marked the point at which Bergen-Belsen
ceased to be a 'privileged' exchange camp and became a true
concentration camp. Kramer - a former commandant ofthe
Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp - became known
as the 'beast of Belsen' owing to his brutal regime and the
swift downturn in conditions at the camp which followed
his arrival. Kramer implemented the kapos system at Bergen-
Belsen in all parts of the camp, using inmates to run the
barracks through a regimen of fear.'"
Despite the expansion of the camp, overcrowding meant
that conditions had become intolerable by 1945. Eighty-
five thousand prisoners had arrived at Bergen-Belsen
after December 1944 and these numbers far exceeded the
capacity of the camp: the delousing and hygiene facilities
were woefully inadequate and the crematorium was not large
enough to keep up with the numbers dying from disease and
starvation. In 'Star Camp' in November 1944 one washroom
with 12 taps served 4,000 inmates.-' Evidence suggests that
medical treatment was almost non-existent and Kramer's
staff ranged from indifferent to sadistic in their supervision.^^
It is likely that no food or water was delivered to prisoners
for days before the camp's liberation and Kramer did little
if anything to prevent guards from carrying out random
shootings and acts of abuse. Thirty-five thousand in total
are thought to have perished at the camp in the four months
before liberation.
The relief of Bergen-Belsen
The problems were:
1. To stop the typhus spreading.
2. To bury the dead before the hot summer started cholera.
3. To feed the sick in the horror camp who were dying of
starvation more rapidly than of their illness.
4. To remove from the horror camp those who might live
with some form of systemized feeding and nursing.
5. To help those who lived to regain their humanity.
Tjarhinn Wictnn/ ^ AQ noromhor 9019 Tho ai A<:c:nrj:itinn
Such was Lieutenant-Colonel M. W. Gonin's assessment of
the priorities of the British units assigned to deal with the
relief of Bergen-Belsen in April 1945.^^ Typhus and starvation
were the two primary issues to overcome. The task was huge
and it took many setbacks and many more deaths before any
measure of success could be claimed. Only a relatively small
group of prisoners had been evacuated by the SS from the
camp before the handover to the British. Three trains left
the railway loading platform at Belsen with approximately
6,700 prisoners from the exchange camp bound probably
for Theresienstadt, although only one ever arrived.'"* This
left at the camp 53,000 living inmates - of whom as much as
three-quarters were either sick or dying - as well as 10,000
dead bodies which had been left exposed by the SS who had
long since given up the task of burying them. These bodies
and the poor hygiene conditions generally were exacerbating
the spread of typhus. It took two weeks to bury the dead, for
which task the British utilised bulldozers and the SS officers
responsibility was hard to assign when most victims and
witnesses had either died or knew neither the names of
victims or perpetrators. Unlike the later Nuremberg Trials,
the Bergen-Belsen trial did not charge defendants with
crimes against humanity and peace. For the over 50,000
deaths and countless acts of torture, neglect and cruelty at
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, the tribunal sentenced
11 individuals to death and 29 to prison sentences of between
one and fifteen years. Fourteen were acquitted, while over
400 were never called to account."
A 'partial liberation':
Displaced Persons Camp
The story of Bergen-Belsen does not end with the evacuation
of the camp. Indeed, for some the 'liberation' was only a
'partial liberation' since freedom did not in itself restore
their lives or their homes. By the end of September 1945,
Pupils are challenged to consider the relationship
between the Holocaust and World War Two, as well
as the issue of responsibility.
who remained at the camp. They did the latter partly as a
form of retribution, but mostly through necessity. A serious
lack of trained manpower and supplies plagued the British
relief effort until well into May. Deputy Director of Medical
Services for the British Second Army, Brigadier H. L. Glyn
Hughes had asked for medical aid from Second Army and
VIII Corps upon his first inspection ofthe camp on 15 April.
He received men from 11* Light Field Ambulance, 32"''
Casualty Clearing Station and 30"' Field Hygiene Section, but
the numbers sent were not enough and were subsequently
supplemented by German doctors and nurses. Red Cross
nurses and the arrival of 96 medical students two weeks
after liberation.^"^
Evacuation ofthe camp survivors to the improvised hospital
at the adjacent Wehrmacht barracks (Bergen-Hohne) via the
'human laundry' where they were cleaned and deloused was
not completed until 20 May.'*" By this time, approximately
13,000 had died post-liberation, some from eating rich
compo rations given to them by British soldiers immediately
after liberation, but most because they were too sick to be
saved in the time it took the British to evacuate the camp.
When the evacuation was complete the British turned their
attention towards the camp personnel in their custody.
Between 17 September and 17 November a British tribunal
sat in Lneburg to hear evidence against 44 out of a total
of about 480 people who had staffed the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp. Commandant Kramer, 16 SS guards,
16 female guards and 11 kapos were accused of war crimes
committed at Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz. Conscious of
its responsibility to act within the realms of the law and to
weigh evidence scrupulously according to the confines of
the Royal Warrant under which it operated, the tribunal
struggled to assign specific blame to specific persons for
what happened at Bergen-Belsen. The law required that
victims and perpetrators be named and this kind of singular
I
there were still 25,000 Jews and Poles living in the barrack
buildings now converted into residential accommodation.
The Wehrmacht barracks had evolved into a Displaced
Persons (DP) camp - a collection point for Jews across the
British Zone of occupation in Germany. Many ofthe Jews no
longer had any material or personal connection with their
countries of origin, while the Poles had no desire to return
to what had now become communist Poland. Committees
for both groups had been set up after liberation to act as
the voice of the survivors. These committees later formed
the basis of the self-administration operating in the DP
camp by 1946. As Chairman of the Central Committee of
Liberated Jews in the British Zone, Josef Rosensaft oversaw
the provision of schools, hospitals, theatres and a police
force for the population ofthe camp which was in a state of
constant growth owing to the infiux of Jewish refugees from
across the British Zone and a baby boom within the camp.^*
The Polish DP camp was disbanded in August 1946, but the
Jewish population remained in what was now the largest
Jewish DP camp in post-war Germany. The relationship
between the Central Committee and the British occupying
authorities was by now strained. The Central Committee
had three key aims: the pursuit of Zionism (self-determined
Jewish hfe in Palestine), the provision of leadership for all
Jews in the British Zone and the return of normal structures
of life. It was the first of these that caused the greatest friction:
the British had mandatory power in Palestine and they
refused entry to most of the Bergen-Belsen Jews.-' It was
not until the State of Israel was founded in 1948 that the
situation really moved forward. In early 1949 most ofthe
DP Jews at Bergen-Belsen began to emigrate to Israel. The
almost concurrent relaxing of immigration restrictions to
countries like Canada and the USA also enabled DP Jews
to resettle in such places, while others chose to re-establish
Jewish communities in Germany. The DP camp at Bergen-
Belsen was finally closed in the summer of 1950.
Teaching History 149 December 2012 The Histoncal Association 43
Figure 4: The scheme of work, structured as a seguence of three enguiries, investigating the evolution of Bergen-Belsen
Enquiry 1 : Why was Hitler bothering to build on Lneburg Heide in 1935?
The aim of this brief lesson seguence is to create a mystery in which pupils make links between the
location of Belsen and national events from 1933 in determining its usage post 1939.
Lesson/lesson sequence focus Links to the story of Belsen
was Hitler bothering
to build on Lneburg
Heide in 1935?
(2 lessons)
Introduction of the location
of Lneburg Heide using the
mystery technique as an ISM
(map of location and clues about
area - what could this be used
for?)
Construction of Bergen military
training ground and workers'
camp.
Links to overview
Hitler becomes Chancellor and
Dictator (how and why).
Hitler's policy of re-armament and
its role in his popularity
Enquiry 2: How far is Heuss right to blame the war for what happened at
Bergen-Belsen between 1939 and 1945?
This highly contentious issue, which Theodore Heuss admirably grappled wi th in his 1952 speech, forms
the backdrop to this sequence charting the development of Belsen during World War Two. The aim
here is to explore again the interconnectedness of national and local events, but also to begin to make
judgements about the relative significance of causal factors at Belsen: the war, the Holocaust, individuals,
chance and so on. The final activity draws all of these issues together through a structured debate in which
pupils have to balance their knowledge of events wi th a sophisticated approach to Heuss's 1952 speech
and the circumstances surrounding it. Did 'war reign' at Belsen or was there more to it than that?
did the French co
to Belsen?
(1 lesson)
How did Operation
Barbarossa affect Bergen-
Belsen?
(2 lessons)
In 1940 Bergen-Belsen becomes
a satellite PoW camp housing a
work party of French and Belgian
PoWs from the Fallingbostel
camp.
Use of maps to show network of
PoW camps on Lneburg Heide.
The arrival of 21,000 Soviet
PoWs transformed Bergen-
Belsen into a fully operational
PoW camp-St al ag XI C (311),
one of only 12 designated for
Soviet prisoners.
The harsh treatment of the
Soviet prisoners resulting in
many thousands of deaths at the
camp.
I
Outbreak of WW2.
Use of Blitzkrieg tactics and swift
German advance across Belgium
and France.
German success in war in Western
Europe.
The Battle of Britain as a turning
point leading to Operation
Barbarossa.
What was Operation Barbarossa
and how successful was it by late
1941?
The need to drive the German war
economy and methods for doing
this (PoWs).
Possibly link to Nazi race theory
(Slavs as Untermenschen).
4 4 Teaching History 149 December 2012 The Historical Association
Wannsee or War: Why
were Jewish people
brought to Bergen-Belsen?
(3 lessons)
Did Commandant Kramer
lose control at Bergen-
Belsen?
(2 lessons)
Did President Heuss lie in
1952?
(2 lessons: one to prepare
and one to hold a structured
debate about whether the
war could essentially be
blanned for what happened).
1943 Wehrmacht disband Soviet
PoW camp at Bergen-Belsen and
hand most of the camp over to
the SS.
SS establish an exchange camp
at Bergen-Belsen for Jews who
were to be kept and exchanged
for Germans interned abroad.
Use of maps to see the
expansion of the camp and its
division into different subsections
for different nationalities.
Sources from survivors to show
conditions.
Descent into concentration camp
proper from 1944 to 1945.
The arrival of prisoners from
across the Reich and the
consequent overcrowding of the
camp.
Conditions in the camp at
liberation from the viewpoint of
survivors and liberators.
Sources to encourage pupils
to grapple wi th the issue of
responsibility: murder? neglect?
lack of control over events?
Was neglect the result of war or
Nazi racial policy or both?
The opening of Bergen-Belsen as
a memorial in 1952.
Heuss' interpretation of events at
Belsen ' ...in Belsen, war reigned
wi th hunger and pestilence as its
unpaid helpers.'
Stalingrad as a turning point in
German fortunes in WW2.
Nazi race policy against the Jews
and the persecution of Jews in
Germany from 1933 onwards.
The significance of the Wannsee
Conference and the Final Solution.
Pupils should make links between
what happened at Bergen-Belsen
in 1943 and Nazi race theory, as
well as events in the war, in order
to establish why Jews at Bergen-
Belsen were 'privileged'.
Advance of Allied troops into
Germany and the impact of this
on Nazi command.
The liberation of other
concentration camps and death
camps.
The British advance through
Western Germany.
I
The political situation in 1952.
Pupils should only be given
enough information to help them
to make a sensible judgement on
Heuss's speech: who was Heuss?
Who was his audience in 1952?
Why did Heuss have to be careful
about what he said?
Enquiry 3: A 'partial' liberation?
How can a person be 'partially liberated'? What did life look like for nnany people at the end of World War
Two and how could shattered lives lead to the creation of a new beginning? In this brief sequence the aim
is for pupils to gain a sense of the impact of war on individuals and the world at large and how Belsen
post-1945 can throw light on the circumstances surrounding and leading to the creation of Israel.
Why were Jews still living
at Belsen in 1946?
(2 lessons)
Bergen-Belsen trial.
Bergen-Belsen as a Displaced
Persons Camp.
The role of individuals at Belsen
in the creation of Israel.
Migration of Jews after the war:
restrictions.
Zionism.
The founding of the State of Israel
in 1948.
Consequences for today.
Teaching History 149 Decennber 2012 The Historical Association 45
Crafting enquiry questions
The story of Bergen-Belsen can be and has been used in
whole or in part to enrich Holocaust teaching in numerous
ways: as a case study of the Holocaust, through a cross-
curricular English project focusing on Anne Frank or
through the use of other survivor testimonies, such as those
of the Oppenheimers. What follows is an attempt to put
Bergen-Belsen at the heart of an enquiry, summarised in
Figure 4, that merges overviews of World War Two and the
Holocaust and which uses the various stages in the evolution
of Bergen-Belsen as a window into key moments in these
events (and vice versa). Pupils are challenged to consider the
relationship between the Holocaust and World War Two, as
well as the issue of responsibility in the manner of Theodor
Heuss whose quote earlier in this article points to the
'uncontrollable' consequences of war as a partial explanation
for the escalation of death at Bergen-Belsen.
In fact, the wider rationale behind this scheme of work was
to encourage pupils to deal with history on two levels: to see
that 'big' history events happen to real people in real places
and to explore the relationship between the two. It is almost
Dimbleby's literal camera lens again, zooming in from the big
picture to the events at ground level: from macro to micro
and back again. Can the piece tell you more about the whole
than vice versa'? This was a question we were discussing by the
end of the lesson sequences. Each of the three sequences in
Figure 4 explores in different ways the relationship between
national and local events, the significance of place, person
and the complexity surrounding cause and effect. The first
sequence delves into the specific reasons behind Belsen's rise
to notoriety by examining, through the medium of a mystery,
the features of its location, which took on an altogether more
useful and significant quality after 1933. The second sequence
is by far the most complex and can be adapted by teachers
to suit their teaching and learning objectives. I have used it
in part to stretch and challenge the most able by placing an
extract from Theodor Heuss's 1952 speech at the heart of
the culminating activity - a carefully scaffolded debate in
which pupils consider, explain and evaluate the accuracy of
Heuss's interpretation of events at Belsen. In order to do this
well, pupils need to draw upon their knowledge of events
at Belsen between 1933 and 1945, the source material they
have examined, a conceptual understanding of the nature of
responsibility and the particular circumstances surrounding
Heuss's 1952 speech at the opening of the memorial at Belsen.
The third and final lesson sequence asks pupils to reflect
upon the meaning of'partial liberation'. My classes have often
assumed that the end of the war was the end of the story of
Belsen. They are surprised to find that people didn't just 'go
home' and carry on as before when the fighting stopped. It is
important for pupils to see Belsen not just as a place of victims
and endings, but also as a place of struggle and beginnings;
that the war had consequences beyond whether or not people
were being killed. The place of Belsen in the post-1945 world
and its links to Zionism offer another way of reflecting on the
multi-layered consequences of events and the way in which
national history can be driven by events at a local level.
I would like to thank Martina Staats and Dr Thomas
Rahe of the Gedenksttte Bergen-Belsen for reading and
commenting upon a draft of this article.
REFERENCES
' This quotation is part of an interview wi th Dr J. R Dixey. a medicai student
invoived in the relief of Belsen. referring to the thousands of dead bodies he
encountered: Kemp, R (1997) 'The British army and the liberation of Bergen-
Belsen Aprii 1945' in Reiliy, J., Cesarini, D., Kushner, T and Richmond C. (eds.)
Belsen in History and Memory, London: Routiedge, pp. 138-9.
^ Wilson, F. (2012) 'Warrior queens, regai trade unionists and warring nurses:
how my interest in what i don't teach has informed my teaching and enriched
my students' learning' in Teaching History, 147, Teacher Knowiedge Edition,
pp.52-59; Salmons, P. (2010) 'Universal meaning or historical understanding?
The Holocaust in history and history in the curriculum' in Teaching History,
141, Hoiocaust Edition, pp. 57-63.
^ I would like to thank Rudi Oppenheimer for his inspirational visit to pupils
at Gloucester School, Hohne in June 2012. Rudi's brother Paul (now sadly
deceased) has published (2000) From Beisen to Buckingham Paiace, Newark:
Quill Press and their testimony can be found on the Holocaust Educational
Trust website (www.het.org.uk/index.php/survivors-ro).
" Shepherd, B. (2006) 'The medical relief effort at Belsen' in Bardgett, S. and
Cesarini, D. (eds.) Beisen 945; NewH/sfor/ca/Perspectives, London: Vallentine
Mitchell, p. 35.
' Gring.D.andTheilen.K.(2009)'Fragmentsofmemory:testimonyatthenewpermanent
exhibition at Bergen-Belsen' in Schulze, R. (ed.) The Holocaust in History and Memory
Volume 2 Bearing Witness: Testimony and the historical memory of the Hoiocaust,
Colchester: University of Essex; Haggith, T (2006) The filming of the liberation of
Bergen-Belsen and its impact on the understanding of the Holocaust' in Bardgett and
Cesarini, op. dt, pp. 89-122; Margry, K. (1995) 'Bergen-Belsen' \n After the Battie, no.
89: Williams, D. (2006) "The first day in the camp' in Bardgett and Cesarini, op. dt,
p. 27; Flanagan, B. and Bloxham D. (eds.) (2005) Remembering Belsen: Eyewitnesses
Record the Liberation, London: Vallentine Mitchell, Introduction and p. 17.
'' Salmons, P (2001) ' Mor al dilemmas: history, teachi ng and t he Holocaust' in
Teaching History, 104, Hoiocaust Edition, pp.34-40.
' Rmmer, C. (201 ]) Bergen-Belsen Historicai Site and Memoriai (Lower Saxony
Memorials Foundation, 2011), p. 60; Lattek, C. (1997) 'Bergen-Belsen: from
'privileged' camp to death camp' in Reiliy et ai., op. cit., pp. 37-71.
" Rmmer, op. cit., p. 13.
' Around 500,000 Soviet prisoners-of-war in total were brought to Germany for
forced labour. As well as the 21,000 brought to Bergen-Belsen by the end of
1941, approximately 68,000 had been imprisoned at the nearby Wietzendorf
and Oerbke camps. These three camps together ran over 500 external work
details: ibid, pp. 13-14.
' 41,000 Soviets are thought to have perished at Bergen-Belsen, Wietzendorf
and Oerbke by March 1942: ibid, pp. 14-16.
" The majority of the Russian PoW camps in Germany were disbanded in 1942.
Bergen-Belsen survived for a year longer than this. See Breitman, R. (1997)
'Himmler and Bergen-Belsen' in Reiliy ef a/., op. cit., pp. 72-84.
' ' Margry, op. cit., p. 2-3; Cesarini, D. (2006) 'A brief history of Bergen-Belsen',
in Bardgett and Cesarini, op. cit., pp. 14-15; Lattek, op. cit., pp. 44-46.
" Lob, L. (2009) 'Life in the privileged camp', p. 99 in Schulze, op. cit.
" Rmmer, op. cit., p. 22; Margry, op. cit., p. 4.
'5 For example. Oppenheimer, op. c/f.; Flanagan and Bloxham, op. cit., pp. 22-30,
51-61, 79-83, 123-88; Reillyef a/., op. dt, pp. 209-49.
"^ The British expected 1500, rather than the 10,000-20,000 they found:
Flannigan and Bloxham, op. cit., pp. 7-8, 20; Margry, op. cit., p. 8; Breitman,
op. cit., pp. 81-2; Kemp, op. cit., p. 134.
" Flanagan and Bloxham, op. cit., p. 8. See also Williams, op. cit., p. 30 for the
massive bakery and supplies of food in the nearby Wehrmacht training barracks.
" A translated version of Heuss' speech is printed in Flanagan and Bloxham, op.
cit., pp. 119-122.
" Rmmer, op. cit, p. 22. Rudi Oppenheimer recollects that such men were
told that they were being sent to Bergen-Belsen to recuperate, but in reality
received little in the way of medical attention or care and the death rate was
consequently very high (memories spoken of during a visit to our school).
^ Rmmer, op. cit., p. 25; Cesarini, op. cit., p. 19; Lattek, op. cit., pp. 32-59.
^' A British lieutenant colonel assessed one hut as being suitable in size for
approximately 83 soldiers and was shocked to discover 1426 women inside,
not including the dead, while the crematorium could only cope wi th 10-15
bodies per day See Lattek, op. cit., p. 57.
2^ Gena Turgel's eyewitness testimony highlights the sadistic nature of the female
guards at the camp, while evidence from camp liberators states Kramer allowed
guards to shoot prisoners indiscriminately. See, Flanagan and Bloxham, op. cit.,
pp. 12-13. The sadistic behaviour of kapos and SS guards was also brought
out at the trial of Belsen staff in September 1945: Lattek, op. cit., p. 39 and
also pp. 47-8, 58-9.
" Gonin was Commanding Officer of the 11 * Light Field Ambulance: Flanagan
and Bloxham, op. cit, pp. 23-4.
" Oppenheimer, op. cit., pp. 105-110; Lattek, op. cit., p. 60.
^^ Kemp, op. cit., pp. 134-7.
'^ Shepherd, op. cit.; Steinert, J. D. (2006) 'British relief teams in Belsen
concentration camp: emergency relief and the perception' in Bardgett and
Cesarini, op. cit, pp. 62-78.
" Flanagan and Bloxham, op. cit, pp. 99-113; Rmer, op. cit., pp. 36-9.
2" Kemp, op. cit., p. 145; Lavsky, H. (1997) 'A Community of Survivors: Bergen
Belsen as a Jewish Center after 1945', pp. 164-5 and Reiliy, J. (1997)'Cleaner,
carer and occasional dance partner? Writing women back into the liberation
of Bergen-Belsen', pp. 155-58 both in Reiliy et ai., op. cit.
^' Lavsky, op. cit., pp. 165-9; Rmmer, op. cit, pp. 28-35.
46 Teaching History 149 December 2012 The Historical Assodation
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