f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

It is 70 years since the liberation of the awful Bergen Belsen prison camp at the end of WWII and this morning Radio 5 Live played Richard Dimbleby's radio broadcast of what he saw there when 11th Armoured Division first accessed the camp ..... even today it is a chilling and horrific portrayal of man's inhumanity to man!

As he said in the broadcast, it should stand as a reminder that nothing like it should ever happen again.... sadly that is not the case however.

Rescue Dude

iTrader: (11)

Did you watch the tv drama about Belsen a few years ago?

They used a lot of real footage and personal testimonies in it. I wonder if they'll repeat it? Well worth watching.

This.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/t...mand/41655-001

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

No I didn't see it, thanks for the link as I will give that a watch.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

One of the most chilling things I've ever seen was the TV series, "Holocaust".

A visit to Mauthausen ran it a very close second.

But the very worst is Oradour sur Glane.

Rescue Dude

iTrader: (11)

I went to Oradour a few years ago. It has the strangest, eeriest atmosphere.

Turbohot

Yes, very haunting, and wishful thinking for something like that not to ever happen again.

Respects to the lives lost and the lives changed forever.

merlin24

iTrader: (1)

I went to a British Service School at Bergen-Hohne( former Wehrmacht troop camp, now headquarters to the 7th Armoured Brigade/The Desert Rats ) which was a stones throw from Bergen-Belsen camp.
The surrounding forest by Bergen Belsen is a very eerie place, no birds singing or any sign of wildlife at all.

Seeing the mass graves and the memorials to the 100,000 prisoners who perished in the camp is something that will stay with me forever.


Mick

hodgy0_2

And yet, less than a generation later, not far away in Europe Serbs marched, (in full view of the words media, and to its shame the UN) all the muslim men and boys, over 8000 of them - some as young as 13 :-( into the woods and butchered them

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre

legacy_gtb

iTrader: (3)

Strooth, 70 years!

My grandad was one of the first into belsen, never talked about the war but i learnt alot about what he saw from a book about his regiment..... I got enough from that to get why he never talked about it.

The Trooper 1815

iTrader: (31)

I used to take my soldiers there when I was in Germany as a reminder of what could have been. When I took my young children there they just said "We don't like it here daddy, it's not nice" and we had not even entered the memorial exhibit entrance.


It's near the tank ranges where Hitler watched his panzers and until the German Government stopped us we used to fire at his bunker, it was known as the Hitler Hof and was pretty solid.


We would unload the tanks at the rail head just down from camp, it was known as Jews Halt. The victims where then marched up the road to the camp.


Never forget what happened there and many other places.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Exactly what I meant by the last few words of my post

Good post and agree entirely

hodgy0_2

yep I know - and it was not meant to take away from the horrors of the holocausts

more a comment on how humanity does not learn from past mistakes - we seemed doomed to repeat them

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

A very valid point, but the Srebrenica massacre was closer to two generations after WWII, surely?

Geezer

My father was stationed at Belsen for his national service (in the SS barracks no less, which he said were extremely luxurious by military standards) and he always used to say he didn't understand why people say the birds don't sing, as they certainly sang whilst he was there!

Also, birds tend to sing at dusk and dawn, most visitors will not be there then. Also, if you look at people's accounts, then people who specifically look for birds on their visits have no trouble finding or hearing them. If you are there to see the camps themselves, then it's unlikely you will be tuned in to the wildlife.

I'm not saying your lying at all, but I do think that it has become a bit of a self perpetuating myth and that when people are there and such strong emotions etc.

But, that aside it was a terrible thing. Sadly, it still goes on, just not on an industrial scale.

hodgy0_2

yep, fair point

I never really know how long a "generation" is - I suppose it is 30 odd years

Steve Whitehorn

iTrader: (13)

Snap. My father was in those barracks too. (Royal Lancs Fusiliers)
My Grandfather was in the room next door when Himmler committed suicide at the end of the war (Somerset light Infantry)
And I am the military history expert in the South of Germany these days http://www.ww2germantours.com/
I often take the military groups around and still try to meet as many survivors as I can to hear their stories.


Never forget