The Lost Train
April 15 is the 80th anniversary when British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. That is the camp where I spent 14 months of my life, as a 4-5 year old. British troops surrounded the camp and negotiated a peaceful handover and on April 15, 1945, British troops entered Bergen-Belsen without a shot being fired. The German SS guards were keen to leave the camp as SS soldiers were dying of typhus.
After the British entered, they found 10,000 unburied bodies scattered throughout the camp. and 50,000 to 60,000 ill and starving prisoners, including about 500 children under the age of 14. Prisoners were dying of starvation and typhus.
Bergen-Belsen was not just a camp for Jews. It also held POWs, political prisoners and gay community prisoners. Most Jews were kept in an area called Star Camp, where my mother, my........
© The Times of Israel (Blogs)
