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Ken Allen – 58th Light Anti Aircraft Regiment
“The stench of death could be smelt miles away – even before the concentration camp came into view. The horrible smell was so thick in the air, you could almost slice it with a knife and it made us gag.” 12,865 total views
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Laurence Wand – Medical Student (St. Barts)
“You see, there was a war still being fought…There was a CCS, there was 32 CCS, there was an anti-aircraft regiment and there was a control unit, there were a few British Army units which had been allowed to be in reserve at Belsen, but their primary function was not to look after Belsen, their primary function was to back up the 21st Army Group in trying to get that war over and there was very little that could be spared.” 11,245 total views
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Edmond (Eddie) Williams 32nd CCS
Edmond (Eddie) Williams 32nd CCS (32nd Casualty Clearing Station) 1916-1998 seen nere on his wedding day. 11,796 total views
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Ian Forsyth – Polands Top Honour
ONE of the first Allied soldiers to witness the horror of Belsen will today join in Poland’s Remembrance Day after being given the country’s highest honour. Ian Forsyth, 85, has become one of only 15 people and the first Scot to receive Poland’s Officer’s Cross of Merit for his role in liberating the notorious concentration camp in north-western Germany. Today, he will wear his medal for the first time in public when he joins a special service at St Simon’s RC Church in Partick, Glasgow. The church was the focus of the Polish community in exile during World War II and masses are still said today in Polish. Ian vowed…
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Rev. Charles Parsons
My Great Grandfather, The Reverend Charles Martin King Parsons CF was an army chaplain with the 9th British General Hospital during WW2. 11,882 total views
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Janet Vaughan
Dame Janet Vaughan, (1899–1993) the well-connected daughter of the headmaster of Rugby, great great niece of Sir Henry Halford (1766–1844), president of the Royal College of Physicians, and second cousin of Virginia Woolf, was an expert on blood disorders, specifically pernicious anaemia. 10,710 total views
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Alex Paton – Medical Student
My friend Alex Paton, who has died aged 91, was a distinguished physician who never sought high office in medicine but did good quietly, mentoring junior doctors, influencing the profession, and using his knowledge of liver disease to improve alcoholism treatment. When still a medical student, he spent May 1945 assisting in the liberation of Belsen. 11,624 total views
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James Gosling
An extract from a 1986 interview with Norfolk born James Gosling, describing his memories of the Second World War. During his interviews, Mr Gosling shared his first-hand experiences of assisting with the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in northern Germany. 13,775 total views
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Roll of Honour
The 113th Durham Light Infantry, Royal Artillery, Roll of Honour (Listed by date order) x19 KIA from July to November 1944 (x15 found) and x10 in Training accidents prior to June 1944 (x1 found) 13,594 total views
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Medical Students: At the Camp
The first students arrived at Belsen at the end of April 1945, with the remaining students reaching the camp at the beginning of May 1945. Following a briefing by Meiklejohn on 2 May 1945, they began work at Camp 1 the following day. 11,393 total views