Thirty-Nine Photographs – Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp – April-May 1945

Thirty-nine photographs, documenting the scenes revealed to the soldiers of the Allied Force upon the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. April-May 1945. Most photographs are disturbing, documenting the camp's victims, the mass graves, the crematorium, the barracks, the survivors, the temporary showers constructed near the camp, soldiers in insulation suits evacuating victims of the typhus outbreak, burning the barracks and more. One photograph shows a large open area with a sign: "Grave No. 2, approx. 5,000, 23 April 1945". A number of photographs appear in two copies. On the back of one photograph appears a long handwritten note (English), describing the photograph and referring to the number of victims after the liberation of the camp. The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where approximately 50,000 people lost their lives, operated in Germany between the years 1943-1945. Due to the typhus epidemic in the camp, Himmler ordered not to evacuate it, and when the camp was liberated by British soldiers, the barracks, the buildings and tens of thousands of survivors were all still there. Over the weeks following the liberation, hundreds of survivors died every day and their burial was imposed on SS ex-soldiers. On May 21, 1945 the British burned the camp to the ground. Size and condition vary. Approx. 9.5X7 cm – 14.5X10 cm. Good overall condition. Some stains and blemishes. Traces of pasting to back of some photographs. One photograph has tears at margins.