Belsen in History and Memory

by Cesarani,David; Cesarani,David

• ISBN13: 9780714647678
• ISBN10: 0714647675
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-07-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

To the British in 1945 the images of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp said everything necessary to illustrate and prove the extent of Nazi barbarity, yet the grim newsreel footage and radio reports did not tell the whole story. Over the following decades these potent representations became encrusted with myths and meanings that distorted the actuality of Belsen. Fifty years after the liberation of the camp, scholars and eyewitnesses can finally explore the extraordinary history of the camp, the experiences of the inmates and the work of the liberators. This volume presents the most authoritative recent scholarship on Belsen by British, American, German, French and Israeli historians. Drawing on documentary and oral sources in Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Dutch and French, often for the first time, it challenges many stereotypes about the camp, and reinstates the groups hitherto marginalised or ignored in accounts of the camp and its liberation.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii	(2)
Acknowledgements	ix
PART I: INTRODUCTION	3	(34)
Approaching Belsen: An Introduction	3	(34)
Tony Kushner
David Cesarani
Jo Reilly
Colin Richmond
PART II: THE HISTORY OF BERGEN-BELSEN	37	(88)
Bergen-Belsen: From `Privileged' Camp to Death Camp	37	(35)
Christine Lattek
Himmler and Bergen-Belsen	72	(13)
Richard Breitman
Jewish Religious Life in the Concentration Camp Bergen-Belsen	85	(40)
Thomas Rahe
PART III: THE LIBERATION OF BERGEN-BELSEN	125	(56)
French Internees and British Liberators	125	(9)
Annette Wieviorka
The British Army and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen April 1945	134	(15)
Paul Kemp
Cleaner, Carer and Occasional Dance Partner? Writing Women Back into the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen	149	(13)
Jo Reilly
A Community of Survivors: Bergen-Belsen as a Jewish Centre after 1945	162	(19)
Hagit Lavsky
PART IV: CONCLUSION	181	(28)
The Memory of Belsen	181	(28)
Tony Kushner
APPENDIX: BELSEN TESTIMONIES: THE CAMP AND ITS LIBERATION	209	(41)
Helen Bamber	209	(2)
Esther Brunstein	211	(3)
M.R.D. Foot	214	(5)
Alfred Garwood	219	(4)
Eryl Hall Williams	223	(2)
Leslie Hardman	225	(8)
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch	233	(5)
Isaac Levy	238	(5)
L.G.R. Wand	243	(1)
W.R. Williams	244	(6)
Notes to Contributors	250	(5)
Index	255