Bergen-Belsen

I just watched a half hour Britsh documentary about Bergen-Belsen on the military channel. Now I can appreciate war time propaganda, but was surprised by this apparently recent tv show of Belsen. They showed the famous Arbeit Mach Frei sign from Auswitz and said it was at the gate at Bergen-Belsen.

Bergen was a transit camp through which various peoples were shipped to slave labour camps. Of course Jews, but also anyone which the Third Reich considered as a threat.

After D-Day, Allied aircraft had air superiority over Europe. These fighters, and fighter bombers cruised the area searching for targets of opportunity. These included factories, trains, convoys, and even crop working folks.

This certainly had an effect on the war effort of Germany, they could not move during the daytime to resupply their own forces. The Allied planes knocked out bridges and railways every day.

So it was no surprise that the main effort was to support the troops in the field fighting the Allies, and not to the camps and also PW camps. That with the fact that convoys were attacked at will, resulted in the deaths and disease spreading of the Bergen-Belsen camp by the time it was liberated by the British. Typhus was rampant and killing hundreds a day. No supplies made it difficult for the Germans to keep the population healthy before liberation, and afterwards the cruel fact that you can't just feed starving folks a plain diet led to many deaths.

In the documentary they stated that the SS guards were forced to work among the population. While an admirer of the Waffen SS, these SS were truly evil. Little men with sudden power. These SS men eventually died of typhus. Subsequent normal Wehrmacht soldiers were outfitted with protective clothing.

The also stated that many local German nurses were put to work caring for the sick. They said that these nurses also died of Typhus.

Now I've seen the films from the war, and even watched a movie about it all, and have been to Bergen-Belsen. This was the first camp that was liberated by the Allies, and I'm sure great effort was placed in showing that the Germans were evil.

But I believe the majority of the deaths at Bergen-Belsen was caused by the aggressive Air campaign against anything that moved in Germany. With no supplies reaching the camp, health went downhill quickly.

That is my opinion.