An online evening talk from the Museum of the Order of St John, in partnership with the St John Historical Society.
The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated on 15 April 1945 and placed in control of the British Army. Relief teams, many already working in Europe, rushed to the camp to provide aid, including the St. John Ambulance and British Red Cross. Medical personnel were stunned by the scenes they encountered. Despite the horrors they confronted, much work was required of them. This talk will explore the accounts offered by British medical personnel, including from the the St. John Ambulance, who worked at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the spring and summer of 1945. How did they deal with their enormous responsibilities? What medical, moral, and ethical dilemmas were confronted? How did personnel describe the situation they encountered at Bergen-Belsen?
Dr. Mark Celinscak is the Louis and Frances Blumkin Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the Department of History, and the Executive Director of the Sam and Frances Fried Holocaust and Genocide Academy at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is an award-winning historian of twentieth century Britain and Europe, specializing in war, Holocaust, and genocide studies.
Image: Human Laundry, Belsen: April 1945, Doris Zinkeisen
IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 5468)
