63rd Anti Tank Regt.,  First in,  News

Maj Benjamin George Barnett (63rd ATR)

Major Ben Barnett, one of the first British officers to arrive at Belsen, wrote: “There are no words in the English language that can give a true impression of the ghastly horrors of this camp.”ben barnett belsen
BARNETT, Maj Benjamin George (b 1912)
Born in 1912; 2nd Lt, 100 Army Field Bde, Territorial Army, 1936; Lt, 1939; Capt, 1939; Officer Commanding, 249 Battery, 63 Anti-Tank Regt, Oxfordshire Yeomanry, 1944-1946; Maj, 1946.

Ref 1
https://www.dw.com/en/bergen-belsen-survivors-warn-of-rising-anti-semitism-on-70th-anniversary-of-liberation/a-18409868

Ref 2
Papers relating to his military service, 1944-1945, principally comprising war diary including maps and photographs, Sep 1944-Jul 1945; copy of report on the liberation of Belsen written for the Director of Military Government by Lt Col R I G Taylor, Officer Commanding, 63 Anti Tank Regt, [1945]; orders relating to the occupation and administration of Belsen, from Brig General Staff of 8 Corps, British Liberation Army, April 1945; report on Belsen by Capt Barker, Royal Army Medical Corps, 63 Anti Tank Regt, Jun 1945; letter to British officers from a group of Czech women prisoners describing their treatment in Belsen, 1945; Barnett’s notes for a talk on Belsen, ND; photographs showing inmates and conditions in Belsen, 1945; newspaper cuttings relating to Victory in Europe Day, the liberation of Belsen and the Belsen trial, May-Oct 1945; ‘Report by the Supreme Commander to the Combined Chiefs of Staff on the operations in Europe of the Allied Expeditionary Force, June 1944-May 1945’, issued by HMSO, 1946.

https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/688548c2-5747-3f51-949d-fc72cc6e8f7d

Liberation of Bergen Belsen
B Troop. 63rd ATR – Could that be Barnett in the centre of this photo?

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This archive has been established after my own relative, Reg Price, took part in the liberation and subsequent humanitarian effort of Bergen Belsen in April 1945. Reg produced this famous sign at Belsen. As part of the 113th DLI, Reg and his comrades were at Belsen for 5 weeks and left when the last hut was empty and ceremonially burnt down. This archive compiles all available resources to build a lasting tribute to all the men and women who helped - any unit, any nationality. If you have a relative, or any info, on the relief effort at Belsen, we’d love you to please get in touch. Email us: liberator@belsen.co.ukThank you Nick Price CreativesFacebookTwitter