Belsen 1945 New Historical Perspectives

by Bardgett, Suzanne; Cesarani, David

• ISBN13: 9780853037163
• ISBN10: 0853037167
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-01
• Publisher: Vallentine Mitchell

Summary

Recent years have brought a more intimate understanding of how survivors experienced the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, of the challenge faced by the army and medical relief teams who buried the dead and tried to save lives, how this effort was recorded at the time, and how its memory has been passed on. This volume brings together essays from international experts based on the 60th anniversary seminar held at the Imperial War Museum in 2005. It also includes testimony from survivors, eyewitness accounts from liberators and relief workers, and the scripts of two BBC radio broadcasts. With the benefits of new documentation and a rigorous scholarly approach, this book offers an original and at times controversial reassessment of the camp, its liberation, and the way Belsen is remembered in Britain and Germany.

Author Biography

Suzanne Bardgett led the team which created the Imperial War Museum's Holocaust Exhibition - the large-scale narrative historical display which regularly receives 700 visitors daily at Imperial War Museum London. David Cesarani is Research Professor in History at Royal Holloway, University of London. His publications include (ed.) Jewis and Port Cities, 1590-1990: Commerce, Community and Cosmopolitanism (2006), and Eichmann: His Life and Crimes (2004).

Table of Contents

List of Plates	p. vii
List of Illustrations	p. viii
List of Abbreviations	p. ix
Foreword	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Liberation Of The Camp And The Medical Relief Effort
A Brief History of Bergen-Belsen	p. 13
A Survivor's Memories of Liberation	p. 22
The First Day in the Camp	p. 27
The Medical Relief Effort at Belsen	p. 31
The Medical Relief Effort: Eyewitness Accounts	p. 51
British Relief Teams in Belsen Concentration Camp: Emergency Relief and the Perception of Survivors	p. 62
Andrew Matthews and the Two Sachelová Sisters	p. 79
A Few Words to Explain the Origin of My Drawings	p. 84
Compiling The Record
The Filming of the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen and its Impact on the Understanding of the Holocaust	p. 89
What Wireless Listeners Learned: Some Lesser-Known BBC Broadcasts about Belsen	p. 123
Lesser-Known BBC Broadcasts: The Scripts	p. 137
'And I was only a child': Children's Testimonies, Bergen-Belsen 1945	p. 153
The Liberation of the Bergen-Belsen Camp as seen by Some British Official War Artists in 1945	p. 170
Preserving The Memory
From 'This Belsen Business' to 'Shoah Business': History, Memory and Heritage, 1945-2005	p. 189
Forgetting and Remembering: Memories and Memorialisation of Bergen-Belsen	p. 217
Abstracts	p. 236
Notes on Contributors	p. 240
Index	p. 244
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