German military authorities established the Bergen-Belsen camp in 1940. It was in a location south of the small towns of Bergen and Belsen, about 11 miles north of Celle, Germany.
How many people died at Bergen-Belsen?
British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945. Soon after liberation, Bergen-Belsen gained international notoriety as a site of Nazi mass murder. Approximately 50,000 people died in the Bergen-Belsen camp complex. Among them was Anne Frank, the most well known child diarist of the Holocaust era.
Who was the first commandant of Bergen-Belsen?
SS-Hauptsturmführer Adolf Haas became the first commandant of the Bergen-Belsen camp in the spring of 1943; SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Kramer replaced him in December 1944. The number of SS functionaries in Bergen-Belsen varied over the course of the camp’s existence.
Why was Anne Frank deported to Bergen-Belsen?
Beginning in fall 1944, the SS deported to Bergen-Belsen large numbers of prisoners evacuated from Nazi camps further east. As a result of overcrowded and horrific living conditions, where disease and starvation flourished, tens of thousands of people imprisoned there died. Anne Frank was one of the people deported to Bergen-Belsen.
