The Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp

Welcome this new archive relating and dedicated to the men and women service personnel and the part they played at the Liberation and subsequent Humanitarian Effort of the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp in 1945: The Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp.
UPDATE:
Thank you to everyone who submitted a name/details to coincide with the anniversary of the liberation of Bergen Belsen – we’ll go through all your submissions, moderate and add them on. If you have a photo or any more details please email us. Thank you.

We are now inviting any relatives of service personnel who may have been at the camp to get in touch. Any regiment, service, nationality, volunteer or any snippet of information – we would like to hear from you. We do not believe there are any records of the diverse group of men and women, many completely untrained, who were involved with the camp, after it’s liberation.

Those That Served

Josephine Bunting

Known as Madge, she was born in December 1918 to parents Lionel and Bessie Bunting of Churchill Road Chipping Norton. Read more

Edgar Ainsworth

Edgar Ainsworth was born in 1905. As the Art Editor for Picture Post magazine, Ainsworth visited Bergen-Belsen three times in Read more

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 Read more

Joyce Parkinson. (FRS)

Of lasting influence on my aunt Joyce Parkinson, who has died aged 94, was the time she spent in Germany Read more

Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Paybody

For nothing could have prepared them as they liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945. "When we moved into Read more

Sol Goldberg - First Canadian Army

Growing up the fourth of six children of a poor immigrant Jewish family in Depression-era Hamilton, Ont., Sol Goldberg had Read more

John Reynolds - Medical Student

“It deeply affected him and his trust in human nature,” says Anne Stephenson of her father John Reynolds, one of Read more

Lilian Impey (FRS)

On the 21 April 1945, Friends Relief Service (FRS) Team 100 became one of six relief teams (five British Red Read more

Eryl Hall Williams (FRS)

On April 21st, 1945, a team from the Friends [Quakers] Relief Service arrived to help clear the camp, to comfort Read more

Alfred Holmes (RAF)

Alfred James Ben Holmes R.A.F wireless, signal Morse code operator. Read more

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This site will progress and I’d encourage anyone with any info to get in touch. My granddad, Reg Price served with the 113th Durham Light Infantry*, as part of 369 Battery. As a signwriter, he produced this sign…

And this was kept in the family for years – so for the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Belsen in 2020, subsequent VE Day and VJ Day, I thought it’s about time I’d try to find out more about Reg – his comrades (many of which are names, simply written on the back of photos), what they did together and for a way to remember them all, properly.

To coinicide with the anniversary, I was able to be filmed both on national and local BBC TV to tell Reg’s Story.
Whilst this was totally out of my comfort zone and I dreaded every moment – I decided I needed to do something to start this all off. BBC Midlands Today aired 7th May and a VE Day Antiques Roadshow Special aired Sunday 10th May.

Read here about The Heroes of Belsen.

The main photo, shown here was coloured for the 75th Anniversary and we’ll tell you all about it shortly – and what happened next!

*Just 113th Durham Light Infantry? No we are interested in all Service and Medical personnel who took part during the humanitarian effort at Belsen Concentration Camp. Their roles and names are largely forgotten, as many were too horrified to ever speak of what they had to do, so this archive seeks to form a tribute to ALL those that were there, to find out more and to remember them.
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.uk – Thank you

***

The Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp

Any 113th Durham Light Infantry friends or family are encouraged to get in touch via 113th@belsen.co.uk

** In 1938 the old 5th Battalion DLI changed its role to Searchlights and then in 1940 to Anti-Aircraft. This 113th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment went to Normandy in June 1944 and joined the advance into Germany in early 1945.
Official designation – Brigade: 100 AA • Division: 30 Corps. • Unit: 113 LAA Regt. RA (DLI) TA.

The Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp
Names of British soldiers who liberated Belsen

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