Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Bergen-Belsen
Nazi concentration camp
View of the camp after liberation
Location of Bergen-Belsen within Germany
Coordinates	52°45′28″N 9°54′28″E / 52.75778°N 9.90778°E / 52.75778; 9.90778
Location	Lower Saxony, Northern Germany
Operated by	SS-Totenkopfverbande
Commandant	List Adolf Haas [de] (April 1943 – December 2, 1944) Josef Kramer (December 2, 1944 – April 15, 1945)
Original use	Prisoner-of-war camp
Operational	1940–1945
Inmates	Jews, Poles, Soviets, Dutch, Czechs, Germans, Austrians
Number of inmates	120,000
Killed	70,000 or more
Liberated by	United Kingdom and Canada, April 15, 1945
Notable inmates	Anne and Margot Frank
Website	bergen-belsen.stiftung-ng.de/en/

Bergen-Belsen (pronounced [ˈbɛʁɡn̩ˌbɛlsn̩]), or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp,^[1] in 1943, parts of it became a concentration camp. Initially this was an "exchange camp", where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held overseas.^[2] The camp was later expanded to hold Jews from other concentration camps.

After 1945, the name was applied to the displaced persons camp established nearby, but it is most commonly associated with the concentration camp. From 1941 to 1945, almost 20,000 Soviet prisoners of war and a further 50,000 inmates died there.^[3] Overcrowding, lack of food and poor sanitary conditions caused outbreaks of typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever and dysentery, leading to the deaths of more than 35,000 people in the first few months of 1945, shortly before and after the liberation.

The camp was liberated on April 15, 1945, by the British 11th Armoured Division.^[4] The soldiers discovered approximately 60,000 prisoners inside, most of them half-starved and seriously ill,^[5] and another 13,000 corpses lying around the camp unburied.^[4] A memorial with an exhibition hall currently stands at the site.