The German Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen was liberated by British troops 70 years ago. Around 20,000 thousand corpses lined the streets of the camp as the British troops arrived at the camp on 15 April 1945.
Thousands of skeletal figures, ravaged by hunger and disease stumbled through piles of unburied bodies.
April 1945: Starving internees wait at the cook house gate for their rations of potato soupKeystone/Getty ImagesApril 1945: A prisoner in Belsen concentration camp, too weak to walk any furtherKeystone/Getty ImagesApril 1945: Prisoners eat their first meal after the liberation of the camp while sitting by a barbed wire fence dividing the various sections of the campNo 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Oakes, H (Sgt)/IWMA British soldier talks to emaciated British prisoner, Louis Bonerguer, who had been dropped by parachute to work in German-occupied territory in 1941. After his capture, he was interned at BelsenNo 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Oakes H (Sgt)/IWMApril 1945: Female deportees, suffering from typhus, starvation and dysentery, wait to be evacuated by the Allied authoritiesAFPApril 1945: Women suffering from typhus lie closely packed together in one of the hutsNo 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Oakes, H (Sgt)/IWMApril 1945: A woman inmate suffering from typhus sits in one of the camp's hutsNo 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Oakes H (Sgt)/IWMApril 1945: Portrait of a inmate at Bergen-BelsenNo 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Oakes H (Sgt)/IWMApril 1945: Portrait of a camp inmate eating breadNo 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Oakes H (Sgt)/IWMApril 1945: Two young boys after being bathed and clothedNo 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Oakes H (Sgt)/IWM
Bodies lie in a mass grave at Bergen-BelsenKeystone/Getty Images
April 20, 1945: Female prisoners remove the clothing from corpses at Belsen concentration camp, to be burnt as fuelKeystone/Getty Images
October 1945: Nazi officials are forced by British authorities to exhume and then give proper burials to 100 bodiesAFP
Although Belsen was not officially an extermination camp, one hundred thousand Jews, Poles, Russians, Gypsies and other victims perished there including Jewish teenage diarist Anne Frank.
On liberation, SS forces were ordered to bury the dead, inmates were transferred to a British camp a couple of miles away and the camp was burnt down at the end of May to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
April 1945: Women inmates collect their bread ration from one of the five camp cookhousesNo 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Oakes H (Sgt)/IWMMay 1945: After being bathed, women inmates are helped aboard a truck which will transport them to their new temporary homeHewitt (Sgt), No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit/IWMMay 1945: Crowds watch the destruction of the last hut at Belsen after the camp was finally evacuated. British troops used flamethrowers to burn the camp downHardy, Bert, No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit/IWM
The commander of the camp, Joseph Kramer, also known as "the Beast of Belsen" was arrested soon after the liberation. He was sentenced to death by a British military court and later hanged.
Josef Kramer, commander of the Belsen concentration camp, is assisted down from a truck as he arrives at court for trial. He was executed in November 1945Keystone/Getty ImagesApril 1945: Female guards, including Herta Bothe (right) – who was sentenced to 10 years, served 6 – and Irma Grese (second right) – who was hanged – are seen after capture by British troops who liberated the campAFP
A further 13,000 people died after the liberation.
A memorial and Jewish memorial museum dedicated to all the victims is now open on the site of the old camp. The Bergen-Belsen camp was only one of many Nazi camps where millions of people lost their lives in horrific circumstances.
The memorial and graves at Belsen now stand as testament to one of the worst atrocities in human history.
A memorial stone is pictured at the former Bergen-Belsen Nazi death campChristian Charisius/ReutersA man walks through a memorial at the former Bergen-Belsen Nazi death campChristian Charisius/ReutersA symbolic tombstone commemorates Anne Frank and her sister Margot on the site of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration campSean Gallup/Getty Images
