Berlin – Holocaust survivors and officials have gathered at the memorial sites of former concentration camps Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany and Sachsenhausen near Berlin to commemorate the liberation of the camps 72 years ago.
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Bergen-Belsen was liberated on April 15, 1945 by British soldiers who found some 10,000 dead bodies when they entered the Nazi camp.
Germany’s Culture Minister Monika Gruetters said Sunday that, “by remembering, we want to give space in our lives for the dead and the survivors, who were disenfranchised, persecuted, tormented and murdered by the National Socialists.”
Around 200,000 people were deported to Bergen-Belsen. More than 52,000 camp inmates and 20,000 prisoners of war died there, among them the famous teenage diarist Anne Frank.
Ceremonies were also taking place at the former Sachsenhausen camp.
When the British tanks came upon Belsen, they stopped their motors, and started to stare, in disbelief at the survivors. The survivors were ashamed that they were looked upon, as if they were creatures from another planet. Then, the British soldieres turned away in disgust, and started vomiting, as their training never prepared them for such horror. Eventually, they regained their composure, and ordered the tanks to ram through the main gate. Rabbi Vilensky (z/l), who was later was a Rabbi in Canada, Omaha, and Columbus, Ohio, before retiring to EY, was with the British Army, when they liberated Belsen. In 1985, Ronald Reagan made a speech at the site of the Belsen concentration camp. However, his speech was boycotted by every major Jewish leader, who was invited. They boycotted his speech because the day before, he attended the German military cemetery at Bitburg, where SS soldiers were buried.