Belsan bergan (1 Viewer)

[Flyingscotsman2]

Afternoon guys has any one been to belsan bergan thinking of going in June cheers.

 

[Wildbill]

I went many years ago do it at the end of your holiday or it will be with you right through it and a long time after :Sad:
I did not find it a nice experience
bill

 

[Tkly]

Bergan Belsen

We used to live just down the road (range road) in Fallingbostel and a little further away in Celle.
Celle has some beautiful buildings and the history of the area is interesting.
The market on saterdays in Fally used to be good, memories of Schasliks :thumb: and Currywurst:thumb: from the market stall are held by our kids.
We visited Bergan Belsen a few times, it is a moving experience, the museum was set out in a multi-lingual fomat. with German newspapers of the times and translations side by side.

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[Sheddy]

Went there a very long time ago on a day trip from a forces school in West Germany.
I found it very moving and haunting, my strongest memory is that the site was in the middle of a forest, it was a lovely summers day and it was completely silent, not a bird in the sky or surrounding trees.
:Sad:

 

[Moodybrook]

As Bills post, not Belsen, but Majdanek, near Lublin Poland, still haunting us yet. You will watch Schindlers List with renewed awe, disgust, and heavy heart. The huge pyramid of baby and childrens shoes really got us, Oh dear !! :Sad:

Do go, I think everyone, particularly for our MP's it should be compulsory. :Sad:

 

[TheBig1]

If you believe that evil can pervade into a place or inanimate objects, its certainly somewhere to avoid. nobody should be allowed to forget the abomination and inhuman deeds carried out there, but experiencing the atmosphere there stays with you for years.

Belsan should have been bulldozed and turned into a public park and memorial years ago. Mind you, certain religions are now claiming it never happened and is just jewish propaganda so are demanding its dropped from the uk national curriculum. teach children what happened, but for the sake of decency remove all trace of the buildings where so many died.

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[johnp10]

I agree with Bill.
Go at the end of your holiday.
The experience, and as TheBig1 says, the pervading sense of evil will be with you always.
I went there in the 60s whilst stationed in Germany.
The visit was treated as a sort of act of remembrance and respect for those who perished there.

 

[rangi]

I went there in the 60s at that time there was only 1 hut left, If you placed your finger /thumb on the wall you would cover two, three names, went back later and the hut was gone, but the burial mounds "HIER RUIN 500 TOTE" And the Wall, written in every language of the nationalitys that died there, from memory the Brit bit is " In memory if all those who died in this evil place" and as someone has already said , the silence! really gets to you!

Will it happen again?

It is!

 

[Wildbill]

I went many years ago do it at the end of your holiday or it will be with you right through it and a long time after :Sad:
I did not find it a nice experience
bill

I was 21 years old I went with my uncle and aunty my uncle was one of the solder that liberated the camp and ended up marring on of the survivors it was one of the most moving experiences of my life my aunty eta lost her whole family.
five brothers worked to death her mother and father shot on the first day along with her infant brothers her grand parent dyed on the way there
all because they weren't in line with the naze ideology Germans killed by Germans not even Jewish.

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[Wildbill]

I went many years ago do it at the end of your holiday or it will be with you right through it and a long time after :Sad:
I did not find it a nice experience
bill

I was 21 years old I went with my uncle and aunty my uncle was one of the solder that liberated the camp and ended up marring one of the survivors it was one of the most moving experiences of my life my aunty eta lost her whole family.
five brothers worked to death her mother and father shot on the first day along with her infant brothers her grand parent dyed on the way there
all because they weren't in line with the naze ideology Germans killed by Germans not even Jewish.

 

[Gunner29]

Bergen Belsen

I lived in Bergen for 4 yrs in 1977-82 when serving in the Army. The Belsen memorial park was 2 miles down the road from our camp at Hohne. I returned there last summer with my middle son, a serving officer, and his family. It now has an excellent exhibit house which recounts the horror of what happened there
Belsen was a labour camp not an extermination camp and was discovered by a forward patrol of the SAS It was burnt to the ground due to typhus outbreak which killed lots of prisoners. These are the photographs that you may be familiar with, those gaunt starved men and women.
They were all taken to the military camp and given treatment and a lot survived This was the first camp to be discovered and Monty gave orders for it to be filmed/photographed etc as he stated that in years to come they would never believe it.
Its a bit out off the way but Celle and surrounding countryside/villages are beautiful.

 

[Trikeman]

I agree with most said above, however really think about it first. Ensure you and kin are going prepared mentally, you will be walking in the footsteps of innocents and pure evil that can 'penatrate' even the hardest of people. As I write this the hairs on my arms and neck are on end and goose bumpy - I went to a few famous ones and one or two more less known camps (both work and pure extermination) because I felt then that I just had to.
That was more than 20 years ago and I can still feel and smell that evil. Was I ready? I really don't know if I was,,,,,, or ever would be.
I'm glad in one way I did just to understand what one human can do to another and hopefully make me a better person for understanding, first hand the 'feeling' of what it must have been like just a few short decades before.
Please ensure you are going there with confidence and an open mind BUT, do understand it COULD hit you very hard.
I have never experienced anything like it before or since.
Take care.

Trikeman.

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[Gunner29]

I have tried 3 times to post on here but it always come back saying its too short and increase by 1 character whats going on?

 

[Gunner29]

forgot to mention

The camp that you will pass is still occupied by the British Army

1. The main gate to the park is not the original entrance That is in the woods to the right.
2. There is a head stone to Anna Frank who died there.
3. The railway siding has gone.
4 The British Army Commander has the townsfolk marched out to the camp to see it and they were horrified as they didn't know it was that bad.
5. A friends late father was one who bull dozed the bodies into the graves. He married a local girl Hildagard, who was a lovely lady. Just proves they weren't all bad.

 

[TheBig1]

one of my next door neighbours where I grew up was one of the liberating soldiers at one of the death camps. he was still having horrendous nightmares about it decades later. Strangely he too married a girl from a local village and brought her home to live with him. you rarely saw her but she was deeply ashamed that her neighbours and family had played a part in that evil. she outlived him well into her nineties but never ever returned as she disowned everyone and everything because it made her sick to remember the horror

some of the stories I was told about their experiences have stayed with me from childhood. I am now actually feeling sick remembering, so be aware its an experience you wont forget easily

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[Traveller_HA5_3DOM]

We called in a few years ago on our way to The German island of Rugen. I agree with the others posting on this that it is somewhere that needs to be visited. The feelings it generates are immensely powerful, I think I expected feelings like a war cemetery, a scary ride or a ghost story. How wrong I was this place will reach inside you and touch places you will be surprised you have.

Several things puzzled me, the fact that there were so few german soldiers running it, that the trusted prisoners ran and oversaw the operation, at any one time the sheer weight of the prisoners could have overrun the few soldiers that managed it, that the local villagers from nearby claimed to have been unaware of what was going on.

It certainly brings home what the end results of racism are.

 

[BobT]

Just Go

Bergen Belsen is a place that everybody should visit - along with Dachau, Auswitz etc.
It is a very moving experience and clearly shows what can happen when pure evil is allowed to thrive.

BobT

 

[MitchandJenny]

"For evil to flourish it requires only that good people do nothing to stop it"... I don't know who said it, but it is true... In 1966 I was stationed at the barracks 2 miles from Belsen and drank in a pub on the road from the sidings to the camp.. When I asked the two old folks who ran about why didn't they do any thing, they wain "We would have been made to join the marchers". How can we now judge their inaction ??? Don't miss visit to this place !! !!! Mitch.

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[DBK]

As others have said, from my experience there is not a huge amount to physically see at Bergan Belsen compared to some of the other camps further east. Still a moving place and the Luneburg Heath is at its best when the heather is in flower in August/September.

 

[whingyraindrop]

I visited Belsen many years ago. Four adults and a 3 year old girl. We were walking towards the exit talking and realised little Kirsty was not with us. Turning round we saw her standing with her back to us and facing the memorials. When called she would not come, so we went back to fetch her. Her mother held her hand and said," come along young lady". At that moment she raised her hand and started waving and saying "goodbye everybody, goodbye". We were all totally shocked. I have never forgot that cold feeling in my body. Unbelievable.
Mike.

 

[Traveller_HA5_3DOM]

"For evil to flourish it requires only that good people do nothing to stop it"... Mitch.

As relevant today as it was when it is thought to have been used by Edmund Burke and later by John Stuart Mill way back in the late 1700s.
Strange that we still have nations like Russia and Syria taking advantage of this ability that good men have.
Being the 1700s women were not mentioned in the quote but here's hoping they take an active part in ensuring these good men of today resolve the situation

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[MR. FUSION]

Been to most of the main concentration camps in my travels....Auschwitz is still the most complete and most harrowing, not much can prepare you for actually seeing the piles of childrens shoes etc.

Trouble is you have to drive in Poland to get there, so disconnect any rear view cameras if you are of the dont see it dont know want to know about it school or practice sphincter excersizes on the way to driving in Poland.......