# data[].attributes.body
During this war people were hiding, mainly Jews but Anne and Margot weren’t able to go to school anymore, along with Peter. People had to quit their jobs. With all that happened one of the true hero’s was Miep. She would steal and get them food and drinks and whatever they would ask for. Who knows if what would have happened for the good have not happened without her.

# data[].attributes.body
Unfortunately Anne died of typhus just after her sister Margot also dying of typhus. Anne’s mother died of starvation because she was saving all of her food for her children to eat. Peter Van Daan died by the death marches where you would march until you dropped to your knees. If he would have made 3 days later he would probably still be alive today. Mrs. Van Daan was gassed with toxic fumes and she also died. Mr. Van Daan also died by a gas chamber because he gave up too. The only one to survive was Otto Frank. Otto frank revealed Anne’s diary and got it published, without him we would be blinded.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Approximately 50,000 people died in the Bergen-Belsen camp complex. Among them was Anne Frank, the most well known child diarist of the Holocaust era.

Background

German military authorities established the Bergen-Belsen camp in 1940. It was in a location south of the small towns of Bergen and Belsen, about 11 miles north of Celle, Germany.

Until 1943, Bergen-Belsen was exclusively a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp. In April 1943 the SS Economic-Administration Main Office (SS Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt; WVHA) which administered the concentration camp system, took over a portion of Bergen-Belsen and converted it first into a civilian residence camp and, later, into a concentration camp. Thus, while the German government placed the Bergen-Belsen camp complex within the concentration camp system, the WVHA initially gave it a special designation.

The Bergen-Belsen Camp Complex
Bergen-Belsen: Maps
The Bergen-Belsen camp complex was composed of numerous camps, established at various times during its existence. There were three main components of the camp complex: the POW camp, the "residence camp" ( Aufenthaltslager), and the "prisoners' camp" ( Häftlingslager).

The prisoner-of-war camp functioned as such from 1940 until January of 1945. The "residence camp" was in operation from April 1943 until April 1945, and was composed of four subcamps: the "special camp" ( Sonderlager), the "neutrals camp" ( Neutralenlager), the "star camp" ( Sternlager), and the "Hungarian camp" ( Ungarnlager).

The "prisoners' camp," also in operation from April 1943 until April 1945, consisted of the initial "prisoner's camp," the "recuperation camp" ( Erholungslager), the "tent camp" ( Zeltlager), the "small women's camp" ( Kleines Frauenlager), and the "large women's camp" ( Grosses Frauenlager).

Prisoners in the Camp

Over the course of its existence, the Bergen-Belsen camp complex held Jews, prisoners of war, political prisoners, Roma (Gypsies), "asocials," criminals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and gay men.

As Allied and Soviet forces advanced into Germany in late 1944 and early 1945, Bergen-Belsen became a collection camp for thousands of Jewish prisoners evacuated from camps closer to the front. The arrival of thousands of new prisoners, many of them survivors of forced evacuations on foot, overwhelmed the meager resources of the camp.

With an increasing number of transports of female prisoners, the SS dissolved the northern portion of the camp complex, which was still in use as a POW camp, and established the so-called "large women's camp" ( Grosses Frauenlager) in its place in January 1945. This camp housed women evacuated from Flossenbürg, Gross-Rosen, Ravensbrück, Neuengamme, Mauthausen, and Buchenwald concentration camps, as well as various subcamps and labor camps.

At the end of July 1944 there were around 7,300 prisoners interned in the Bergen-Belsen camp complex. At the beginning of December 1944, this number had increased to around 15,000, and in February 1945 the number of prisoners was 22,000. As prisoners evacuated from the east continued to arrive, the camp population soared to over 60,000 by April 15, 1945.

Conditions

Bergen-Belsen was hell on earth.
-testimony of Alice Lok Cahana

From late 1944, food rations throughout Bergen-Belsen continued to shrink. By early 1945, prisoners would sometimes go without food for days; fresh water was also in short supply.

Sanitation was incredibly inadequate, with few latrines and water faucets for the tens of thousands of prisoners interned in Bergen-Belsen at this time. Overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and the lack of adequate food, water, and shelter led to an outbreak of diseases such as typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and dysentery, causing an ever increasing number of deaths. In the first few months of 1945, tens of thousands of prisoners died.

Liberation

On April 15, 1945, British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen. The British found around sixty thousand prisoners in the camp, most of them seriously ill.

Thousands of corpses lay unburied on the camp grounds. Between May 1943 and April 15, 1945, between 36,400 and 37,600 prisoners died in Bergen-Belsen. More than 13,000 former prisoners, too ill to recover, died after liberation. After evacuating Bergen-Belsen, British forces burned down the whole camp to prevent the spread of typhus.

During its existence, approximately 50,000 persons died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp complex including Anne Frank and her sister Margot. Both died in the camp in February or March 1945. Most of the victims were Jews.

After liberation, British occupation authorities established a displaced persons camp that housed more than 12,000 survivors. It was located in a German military school barracks near the original concentration camp site, and functioned until 1951.

SS Personnel

SS-Hauptsturmführer Adolf Haas became the first commandant of the Bergen-Belsen camp in the spring of 1943; SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Kramer replaced him in December 1944. The number of SS functionaries in Bergen-Belsen varied over the course of the camp's existence. The SS succeeded in destroying many of the camp's files, including those on personnel.

Postwar Trials

In autumn of 1945 a British Military Tribunal in Lüneburg tried 48 members of the Bergen-Belsen staff, including 37 SS personnel and eleven prisoner functionaries. The tribunal sentenced eleven of the defendants to death, including camp commandant Josef Kramer. Nineteen other defendants were convicted and sentenced to prison terms; the tribunal acquitted fourteen. On December 12, 1945, British military authorities executed Kramer and his co-defendants.

Last Edited: Aug 22, 2023

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about the history of the Bergen-Belsen camp during WWII and the Holocaust until its liberation by British forces in April 1945.

# data[].attributes.body
Anne and her other womanly people died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. There were approximately 50,000 people dead from this awful Nazi territory site. The German mailitary established this camp in 1940 and its location was south of the small towns of Bergen and Belsen. In 1943 the camp was announced as a prisoner of war camp. In the same year it was established as a civilian residence camp, and, later it was known as a concentration camp. Towards the end of July around 7,300 new prisoners came in, then in the beginning of December it was,15,000, then in 4 months time it was 60,000 prisoners held.

# data[].attributes.body
Anne may have passed, but her legacy still lives on because of her diary. This small journal came to be the biggest primary source someone could fine. As Otto Frank lived on he wanted to publish his daughters book to see how one out of 6 million Jewish people experienced this horrifying moment.

# data[].attributes.body
The Frank's have been in hiding just over 2 years now. Until the day of someone they once knew will be their biggest enemy. In the year of 1944 their lives changed for worse. Nazis found their secret annex and have arrested them, bringing them to their concentration camp. The first camp will seem like a vacation compared to the next camp they will be sent to. Through all of this Anne was still trying to be very positive. As Anne leaves the diary stays behind.

# data[].attributes.body
In time throughout this very month Anne and her family went into hiding. When Margot got reported to work for the Nazis Otto frank knew it was the time to spring into action and get his family safe. Otto Frank wanted to help as many people as he could so he invited the Vaan Dans to stay with them. That being said he also brought in Mr. Dussel a family friend.

# data[].attributes.body
On they day of June 12, 1929 a soon to be hero of the world is born, none other then Anne Frank. Born in the city of Frankfurt, Germany. She was growing up with her dad (Otto Frank), her mom (Edith Frank), and her sister (Margot Frank) by her side.

# data[].attributes.body
Anne Frank dies from a disease called Typhus, that was spread throughout all of the concentration camp. Along with many others including her beloved sister Margot just a few days later.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Who is Anne Frank? Everything You Need to Know

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Anne Frank, a Jewish victim of the Holocaust, was the author of 'The Diary of a Young Girl'. This biography of Anne Frank provides detailed information about her childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline.