Commemoration on 19 April 2020
Due to the Corona pandemic the planned events commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp could not take place. Our central commemorative event on 19 April 2020, which would have been attended by more than 100 survivors and around 5,000 other guests, was particularly affected. Some of the speakers delivered their speeches on video and they are to be found here together with a documentation of the small commemoration ceremony, which was held on 19 April 2020.
The NDR report on the commemoration day
In April 1945 the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen was liberated. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation, a wreath-laying ceremony was held on 19 April.
Further translations of the NDR report
The POW cemetery: history and remembrance
About 20,000 POW are buried on the Bergen-Belsen prisoner of war cemetery, most of them from the Soviet Union. The video presents the history of the Bergen-Belsen POW camp and the cemetery as a memorial site. The video shows a small commemorative event that was held earlier in April, since the large commemoration had to be cancelled due to the Corona pandemic.
Former camp site: history and commemoration
The video presents an overview of the history of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and shows the current state of the former camp site. The documentation centre with its permanent exhibition is presented as well as the memorial signs and mass graves located outside. The former camp site would have been one of the central places of the commemorative events on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Therefore the film also shows a commemoration ceremony by the Memorial’s staff members.
The barracks and the tent theatre cemetery: history and commemoration
Shortly before the liberation, part of the nearby barracks became a subcamp of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After the liberation, a displaced persons camp for Jewish and Polish survivors was established in the barracks. Here, several thousands of people died as a result of their imprisonment. Most of them were buried in the so-called Zelttheaterfriedhof (tent theatre cemetery). The video documents the history of this site and also features a small commemoration which was held in early April 2020.
Commemoration on 15 April 2020
The planned commemorative events for the 75th anniversary of the liberation were cancelled due to the Corona pandemic.For this reason, only employees of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial laid down flowers at the Wall of Inscriptions in memory of the victims on 15 April.
Other messages
Message from the Irgun Sh'erit Hapleta (Organization of Holocaust Survivors of Bergen-Belsen, Israel) | Message of greeting from the Hungarian Association of former prisoners of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp | Message of greeting from Shaul Ladany, Survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp |
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Your contribution
No event could take place for the important commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Therefore, we invite you to leave a message of commemoration in our digital guest book.
Bergen-Belsen: The End and the Beginning
To mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, the World Jewish Congress produced a film entitled 'The End and the Beginning', which presents the history of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from 1943 to 1945 - as well as the history of the displaced persons camp Bergen-Belsen, which existed from 1945 to 1950 in the nearby barracks, called Niedersachsenkaserne (Lower Saxony barracks) today.
AG Bergen-Belsen: "Lights on the tracks"
The commemoration "Lights on the tracks" of the AG Bergen-Belsen could not be held in the usual form this year. Instead, young people arranged a ceremony without audience. The AG Bergen-Belsen documented this digital form of commemoration in seven videos.
NDR report on „Lights on the tracks“ of the AG Bergen-Belsen
The event 'Lights on the tracks' of the AG Bergen-Belsen could not take place this year. The NDR reports on this year's form of commemoration.