Name Directory

American Field Service Robert L. Barrel [CM 56, C Platoon, 567 Company (Coy)] arrived at Belsen the day it was discovered by British troops and was completely unprepared for the scale of mass murders, deprivation, and degradation he encountered. Inmates, who were too weak to communicate with their rescuers, were carefully removed from their bunks. They were taken to a field hospital where they could recover for a time before they were transported by air to England for further treatment. “My AFS experience changed the course of my life. I grew up tremendously. My attitude towards other nationalities did not change. I’ve always thought that people are people wherever they are or wherever they come from.”—Robert L. Barrel

11 Light Field Ambulance From Grays, Essex More

63rd Anti Tank Regiment (QOOH) Queens Own Oxfordshire Yeomanry

3 May 1926 - 22 Jan 1946

Belgian Doctor

British Red Cross. Woman at Belsen Just returned to Germany after a holiday at home is Capt. Miss Myrtle Beardwell, of the British Red Cross, daughter Mrs. Beardwell, of Avenue Road, Witham. Miss Beardwell was one of the first British women to enter Belsen.

Red Cross More Sometimes reffered to as Bardwell.

DLI

Green Howards (Yorkshire) More

(113th LAA)

Head of Section 4 C Platoon 567 Coy American Field Service This consisted of seven men and five ambulances

JDC Relief Worker More

After the wing arrived in Germany, Mr. Berger and some friends borrowed a Jeep to visit the just liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He was shocked to find that, because of manpower shortages, Hungarian guards who had been working for the SS only days before were still guarding inmates. The sight of unburied bodies, most them Jews, shocked him even more. "I was sick to my stomach. Overcome with revulsion," he said in his memoirs. "Those images stay fresh in my mind. I am outraged and recall them vividly when I hear someone claim the Holocaust never happened."

More Ref 1

Gunner.-Sergt. 58th L.A.A. Regt. R.A. France 1940; France, Belgium, Holland and Germany 1944-46

113 LIGHT ANTI-AIRCRAFT REGIMENT ROYAL ARTILLERY 85173 Awarded CHEVALIER OF THE ORDER OF LEOPOLD II WITH PALM AND CROIX DE GUERRE 1940 WITH PALM

Gunner, 113th L.A.A. Regt

More Photo

Commander, 102 Control Section. Second Army. Referred to as "Commander of the camp" on May 21st

Birth 30 JUN 1924 • Livingstone, West Lothian, Scotland Death 31 MAR 2014 • Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

Navigator More

1912-1981 More

British Red Cross Civilian Relief Team Part of the first group of 6 teams. x5 British Red Cross and Order of St Johns (now St Johns Ambulance) and x1 Friends Relief Service. Arriving night of 21st April, starting 22nd April.

Royal Engineers

79th Armoured Division. Landed and fought at Sword Beach during the Normandy landings. (Thank you - if you have any more details or a period photo please email liberator@belsen.co.uk)

Divisional ADMS. "The first individual to enter the camp was the Divisional A.D.M.S., Col. D. Bluett, who went in about midday on April 15." More

https://dirkbogarde.co.uk/dirk-bogarde-and-belsen/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Bogarde

29th British General Hospital More

Dutch nurse, Annie Bonsel, came with Robert Collis and Han Hogerzeil as part of the Red Cross team

1575th Artillery Platoon (Light) RASC

Sgt George Borthwick, 113LAA. RA. 1940-46 Thanks Stuart - we have no contact details for you. Please drop us an email at liberator@belsen.co.uk we'd love to learn more about George.

113th LAA. Bombardier. Service No. 1550474 Awarded Croix de Guerre 1940 with Palm My father was in the 113 regiment as per the attachment. My mother did say that he was part of a regiment that relieved a concentration camp at the end of the war. I do not know if it was in fact Belsen? Please can you perhaps tell me more as I am trying to complete his journey from the Western Desert to the very end.

Captured british soldier at Bergen Belsen More

Private. No. 7391321. RAMC. 11th Bt Field Dressing Station. I have been looking at my Dads war records, I have attached a picture of his details and British regiment. He never spoke about his service, like many others but my Mum told me Dad was at Belsen and I would really like to find out if that was true. Can you kindly help please, it would be nice to know in my latter days , I am 65 in July.

Was with British tank corps who liberated Bergen Belsen

RAMC

Medical Student. St Thomas Contracted Typhus at Belsen. During his time at the camp, he became very ill with typhus and was confined to care for two years

368 Battery Quartermaster Sgnt major, In stores More

German Red Cross Nurse

Address of 127 Victoria Road, Port Talbot.

Oxfordshire Yeomanry. More

My dad Sgt brenchley , was a crocodile tank commander at the end of the war . To be honest not to sure of unit etc. But anyway I thought you may be interested in these couple of pictures from his personal Photo album. He as sent home at wars end then sent out to Malaya in 1948 with the 4th hussars for 3 years He just labelled these photos in his album as burning Belsen Bit blurry as you can appreciate as they are many years old. Hope they are of interest.

More to follow...

113th DLI - Probably 369 Battery More

113th light anti aircraft regiment. Royal artillery DLI Thank you - if you have a photo or any more details please email us at liberator@belsen.co.uk

256630 BIRTH 07 JUL 1913 • West Derby, Lancashire, England DEATH AUG 1989 • Portsmouth, Hampshire, England

11th Armoured Division. His army number was 4620918. We were told when we were growing up that my Dad had been in one of the first tanks that liberated Belsen. - although he himself never referred to it but for the one time. More to follow...

141st (Ayrshire Yeomanry) Field Regt Royal Artillery

Order of St Johns Part of the first group of 6 teams. x5 British Red Cross and Order of St Johns (now St Johns Ambulance) and x1 Friends Relief Service. Arriving night of 21st April, starting 22nd April.

Likely to Cpl John (Jock) Scott Brown (3321353) Jock Brown served with 1 SAS 25.2.1944 - 16.11.1945 Driver to 1SAS Lt John Randall 1SAS and photo

Eric Brown - Royal Navy Pilot & Interrogator More

34 Casualty Clearing Station (CCS)

369 Bty, 113th Light Anti-Aircraft Regt R.A.

Buffs East Kent Regiment. More

Queen Alexandra Sister Molly, 82 from Ashtead in Surrey, met her husband Harold in the desert in Egypt in 1942. The pair married in Stroud, Gloucestershire, before they were separated as the D-Day forces landed on the continent. Molly followed the invasion armies to Germany where she encountered the horrors of the Belsen concentration camp.

Front line surgeon in the Burma campaign, a member of the team that liberated Belsen and a teacher of surgery in Fiji.

He was the eldest son of William and Ursula and was born in September 1894 in Chipping Norton. He had worked as a grocer's assistant and during the Great War he served as a Gunner with the Territorial Royal Field Artillery, serving in France from 1916. He remained in the Territorial Royal Artillery after the war. He married Dorothy Etches in Coventry in 1939 and lived in Royal Leamington Spa. Recalled to service at the outbreak of the Second world War, he was with 113th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery in Warwick. He died in hospital in Leamington in November 1960, aged 66. Chipping Norton British Legion

1916–1992 Birth 1 NOV 1916 • Wimbledon, Surrey, England Death 22 FEB 1992 • Leatherhead, Surrey, England

1917–1984 Birth 26 JUL 1917 • Richmond S, Surrey, Kent Death JUL 1984 • Chichester, Sussex, England

My late father Jack Burgess was there at the liberation of Belsen prison camp. He was an officer of the R.A.F. Regiment. He never spoke of it to me, but I found out from researching his war record. Later in life dad became a minister of the United Reformed Church. (Thank you - if you have any more details or a period photo please email liberator@belsen.co.uk)

From Todmordon, Yorks Bulldozer driver 19th April More

Lrdg

113th Durham Light Infantry RA 368 Battery

RAMC After qualifying, Raymond Aubrey Bush was called up to the Royal Army Medical Corps and was attached to the 15th Scottish Infantry Division. He served with them from 1940 to 1945, landing in Normandy a few days after D Day. He was one of the first doctors to witness the horrors of Belsen concentration camp

Lance Bombardier, 63rd ATR 249 Unit.

Royal Armoured Corps— Regular Army Emergency Commissions Butcher, E. H. (W.S./Lt. 1/10/42) (T/Capt. 22/11/45) 2nd Lt. 27/9/41 In Apr 1946 Army List still showing, in Aug 1946 List showing as being released by the with honorary rank of Lt. ROYAL AIR FORCE. GENERAL DUTIES BRANCH. To be Plt. Offs. (tempy.) on being employed with the R.A.F. 3rd Feb. 1943: — Edward Harry BUTCHER (Lt., R.A.C.) (51055). Flg. Off. to Flt. Lt. (war subs.): — 3rd Feb. 1945. E.H. BUTCHER (Lt. R.A.C.) (51055). Commission relinquished. Flt. Lt. E. H. BUTCHER (Lt. R.A.C.) ( 51055) (on return to Army duty). 29th May 1945 More to follow

11th Armoured Division Thank you - if you have a photo or any more details please email us at liberator@belsen.co.uk

From Yorkshire