• bergen belsen concentration camp

    Pipers – Liberating Belsen?

    We are grateful to Bruce Hitchings MBE BEM, Kirknewton, Scotland and to Bob Shlaer of Santa Fe, New Mexico, for the following story. Last November, Bob read an obituary that appeared in American newspaper, The Week. The deceased was Branko Lustig (87) who, as a 10-year-old Croatian Jew, had been imprisoned at Auschwitz. The obituary describes how one day the youngster was ordered to stand in the front row at a hanging.  25,097 total views

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  • John Crosbie (Jack) Lt. 113th LAA DLI

    This article was written by John J. Crosbie (known as Jack) in March 1964. Jack was born in Girvan in 1915 and after the war he lived in Giffnock with his wife and two sons until his death in 1995.  27,308 total views

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  • bergen belsen concentration camp

    Mady Gerrard – Survivor

    On 15th April 1945, British Soldiers entered the gates of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp for the first time. They found more than 50,000 prisoners, suffering from disease, starvation, neglect and torture – as well as the bodies of thousands who had already died.Immediately, a major relief effort began, with British troops trying to save as many lives as possible, but even after liberation, 14,000 more people would die. Today, 75 years on, SSAFA remembers the actions of the British soldiers, who did what they could to rescue and revive the thousands of people on the verge of death, from the worst terror imaginable. The first men to enter the camp were…

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  • Clifford Beckwith – Green Howards

    My dad Clifford Beckwith was among the first British soldiers to enter Belsen. He never spoke of it other than to say they were told not to give food to the prisoners as it would make them ill. He said he never felt so helpless.  28,161 total views

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