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Joyce Parkinson. (FRS)
Of lasting influence on my aunt Joyce Parkinson, who has died aged 94, was the time she spent in Germany at the end of the second world war, initially with a Quaker relief team, which was one of the first civilian teams to enter the concentration camp at Belsen. Their job was to clothe, register and begin to rehabilitate survivors. 11,766 total views
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Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Paybody
For nothing could have prepared them as they liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945. 13,060 total views
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Friends Relief Service
Following the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, relief workers and medical staff entered the camp to provide emergency support. In this blog, Education Officer Jenny Carson looks at the reflections and memories of those who made up the Friends Relief Service. 12,468 total views
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Clement Edwards
As a newly qualified doctor, Edwards was attached to an 11th Light Field Ambulance (LFA) unit which landed on Sword Beach soon after D-Day; he and his colleagues then joined the Guards Armoured Division as it advanced through France and Belgium to northern Germany. 11,447 total views
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Lt. T.D.J Finnie (13 Regt. RHA)
My Grand-father is Maj.T.D.J.Finnie RA (Retd.) but not sure of the dates he would have been there. I’ll let you know what he says. He also wrote an article on the liberation that appeared in “Gunner” magazine, the RA magazine. He was in 13 Regt. RHA (Honourable Artillery Company). 9,859 total views
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Lilian Impey (FRS)
On the 21 April 1945, Friends Relief Service (FRS) Team 100 became one of six relief teams (five British Red Cross Commission) to enter Belsen. The team remained at the camp until the 25 May 1945. As the relief body of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), most who joined were committed pacifists. 12,249 total views
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Alfred Holmes (RAF)
Alfred James Ben Holmes R.A.F wireless, signal Morse code operator. 11,644 total views
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Norman Ernest Scarsbrook
Born in August 1920, Norman had worked as a builder’s labourer before the war. He enlisted into the Royal Army Service Corps and was in France with the British Expeditionary force, being evacuated from Dunkirk in May 1940. 11,188 total views
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Eryl Hall Williams (FRS)
On April 21st, 1945, a team from the Friends [Quakers] Relief Service arrived to help clear the camp, to comfort the many dying inmates, and to care as best they could for the surviving ones. 11,112 total views
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James Ernest Thompson (437 Sqn RCAF)
My grandfather, F/O James Ernest Thompson (Ernie) of 437 sqn RCAF was there shortly after it was overrun by the Brits. His and two other Dakotas picked up Brass and Medical personell in Belgium and landed next to the camp in a field. They took some people of interest who had been prisoners there to a hospital in France before they realized the extent of the Typhus epidemic. 12,845 total views