In the year 1940, during world war two the Germans established a prisoner of war camp. The camp was named Stalag 311 (XI C) in 1941 (called Stalag XI C/311 for 600 Belgian and French POW's). In March 1941 development of the camp began for the expected arrival of Soviet POW's after Operation Barbarossa was launched. Approx 20000 arrived in July. By February 1942, approx 18000 Soviet troops stationed there in appalling conditions were to die of starvation, disease or being exposed to the elements.

In 1943 the SS took over part of the camp and established the infamous Bergen Belsen concentration camp (intially called an internment camp then quickly renamed to a detention camp). The idea behind this camp was to place Jewish people there with a view to exchanging them for captured Germans held elsewhere, but this was never to happen.

The Soviet prisoner of war camp was dissolved in 1943 and became a field hospital for Soviet prisoners of war after an approximate 30,000 to 50,000 Soviet troops had perished there. By 1945 this field hospital was then used to expand the Bergen Belsen concentration camp further.

Over the next two years thousands upon thousands of Jewish people and other groups the Nazis deemed unsuitable, including the now famous Anne Frank, died in Bergen Belsen due to malnutrition, exposure and disease (the majority of those who died were in the first months of 1945).

On the 15th April 1945 the atrocities committed by the Nazi forces under the rule of Adolf Hitler were realised as British troops liberated the camp.

Even after liberation another 13,994 people died within the first 6 weeks, this was due to disease, but also due to the fact that around 2,000 of the prisoner's died because their bodies could not digest the food being given to them.

My Story

I travelled from London Luton airport to Bremen without any trouble, and once in Bremen I went straight to my hotel via taxi as it was just past 9pm on Thursday 17th March 2007. I settled in then went for a bier in the bar downstairs, the bar was full of professional types all smoking, drinking and having fun. I enjoyed a beer before going up to my room and going to sleep for the night.

In the morning (Friday 16th March) I got up at 8am and went for breakfast, I knew I had a busy day ahead so I had bacon, eggs, fried tomato and 3 sausages with 2 cups of tea. After breakfast I went to the room, packed my rucksack and went to the reception to hand in my key and ask about the bus to the train station. The kind lady behind the reception desk (who spoke perfect English) told me which bus to get and also sold me the bus ticket.

I went outside and got the bus to the train station, then went to the information and got a train ticket. The ticket was 26 Euros and to travel to Bergen Belsen I would need to get two trains, one to Hanover, and then another to Celle (26 km from the camp), after this I would have to find alternative transport as there is not a train that gets any closer to the camp

As you would imagine, the German trains run perfectly on time and are very easy to use. While on the train I had many teenage German children sitting around me, messing around and making each other laugh.

Once in Celle I checked out the bus times to the camp and found I would need to get 2 buses, and even these only run 4 times a day from Monday to Friday during school time and don't even run on weekends. I decided to get a taxi to the camp instead and jumped in a taxi outside the train station; I asked to be taken to the Bergen Belsen camp and was advised it would be about 35 Euros, which I said was fine so off we went.

It was an unusual experience being in the taxi as after a while a started hearing this almighty rumble, I turned to my left to see where it was coming from, and to my surprise there were huge British tanks driving past, travelling in the opposite direction. It was quite a surreal experience seeing these huge tanks with British soldiers sitting on top travelling in packs of four, sometimes broken up by small cars sandwiched in between.

I was wondering what these British troops were doing travelling through Germany when the taxi stopped outside a huge gate, with a tank sitting to one side, I thought "great, I'm here". The taxi drove off and a soldier in full uniform walked up to me and asked if I was German or English, I replied that I was English and he asked how he could help so I explained that I wanted to go to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. The soldier told me it was another 3 km away and that I had been dropped off at the barracks of the British 7th Armoured Brigade (otherwise known as the desert rats), which now explained the tanks rumbling past.

The soldier was kind enough to ring for another taxi for me, so I waited 5 minutes and another taxi arrived and took me to the former concentration camp. Once the taxi pulled up there was a slightly embarrassing moment where the German lady who was driving the taxi was trying hard to explain something to me and I just did not get it. After a while it dawned on me that she wanted me to write down the time I wanted to be picked up as there is not a phone there, I showed her my mobile and pointed at one of her business cards which she gave me.

Arrival time 13:30.

When I entered the building at the concentration camp it took me a few minutes to get my bearings, once I understood where to go I found the queue for the short video that gets played about the concentration camp. These videos are played at specific times in different languages, such as English, German, French and Russian. Luckily I only had to wait five minutes for the next English one and went in with 3 other people.

As the video played everyone sat in silence due to the awful images we were witnessing of real footage taken by British camera men at the time of liberation. There were thousands of bodies laying around the camp as people had fell and been left where they died, those that were clinging on to life were laying around naked and look almost skeletal from malnutrition.

The video also had a few interviews from former British soldiers who were there and they talked about what they witnessed and how it stayed with them forever. This bought back memories of my late grandfather, god bless his soul. One of the British soldiers spoke about how could the Germans carry out such acts, and his answer was simple, unfortunately anyone could carry out these kind of acts given the situation. Indeed many people seem to forget the German soldiers who suffered in POW camps in Russia, or British and American soldiers in Japanese POW camps, or even the German soldiers left to starve in American POW camps.

The video also mentions that there were over 1200 concentration camps in Germany alone, which I found staggering.

After the video finished I wandered through the history timeline section and viewed the pictures, I couldn't read the text as it was all in German. After this, with my heart pumping, I opened the door into the camp itself.

It is important to mention here that the camp does not exist anymore as the British troops burned it down do to the awful diseases that were there and what remains is a huge memorial park.

My first site upon walking into the park was a sign asking you to be respectful and observe silence for the people who lay here. Upon walking a few metres further I went round a corner and saw the first raised mound with heather growing on top and a stone with the words 2500 people lay here in German, this made me stop for a moment and reflect on just what I had witnessed.

With a few feet another mound covered in heather was visible, and this one had a stone saying 1000 people lay here, this was already making me emotional and I had not seen the full camp yet.

As I walked round there were more mounds with different numbers written on them, 800, 1500, 2000. Its hard to translate these numbers into dead bodies and realise you are just a few feet above so many souls who perished in one of the most awful ways possible.

In the distance I could see a huge monument and a building so I walked along the path past a few more mounds, stopping at every one to spend a moment with the people buried there. The first building I came to was the house of silence that is in the shape of a diamond. Inside the building is bare except for a few wooden blocks to site on, and a triangular shaped alter in front that is covered in stones left by Jewish visitors.

Not far from the house of silence, back outside in the camp, is a huge wooden cross that was erected by Polish Christians on the 16th April 1945 and was simply made from Birchwood. This cross was then replaced a year later in the same style as the onee seen today although the cross has been changed many times since 1946. Seeing this huge cross and knowing these people had returned to the camp after what had been endured here so the cross could be raised was another moving moment.

Just to the right of the cross is another huge monument, it is a stone wall with an obelisk and was erected in honour of the victims of Bergen Belsen. This monument was also erected about 2 years after liberation by the occupation government run by the British military.

After leaving these monuments I was walking along when I heard a strange noise behind me, I turned to see one lonely leaf being pushed along the stone path by the wind, right next to another raised mound that had a sea of purple heather also gently swaying in the wind, it was then that I realised I was alone in the memorial park.

I walked a little further and saw a small path leading to a little gate and wondered what it was so went to investigate. The gate turned out to be the opening to the path that takes you to the former prisoner of war camp, and currently resting place of 50,000 Soviet troops.

I wished to visit this part of the memorial ground to as I did not even know it existed before travelling to Bergen Belsen, and it seems many people overlook this part of the grounds history.

I walked along a dusty path that has military signs either side telling you not to wander off the path as it is a military exercise area for the 7th Armoured Brigade. While I was walking I also noticed lots of shiny metal in strange shapes hung from trees and wondered what they were, upon closer inspection I realised they were pieces of art depicting the struggle for the prisoners kept in the camp.

When I finally got to the resting place of the Soviet soldiers it was another heart rendering moment as I saw mass grave areas with one single headstone for them, these headstones did not even have numbers written on them.

Further into the resting ground there is a stone memorial with a message from the Soviet people saying they, and the motherland will never forget what these soldiers gave up for them.

Within the resting grounds there were also a few graves of other individuals, one of which was for a Polish lady who I believe was involved in the uprising of Krakow and was part of the Polish home army underground movement.

I paid my respects to the soldiers lying in their resting place and made my way back to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp area of the memorial.

Once back in the concentration camp area of the memorial I walked round the rest of the grounds, passing many more raised mounds, some of which had signs saying unknown number lay here. I also came across individual graves and a few monuments placed in the memorial over the last few decades. At every resting place I came to I spent a moment with these people to remember them.

When I arrived back at the building I started at I tried to talk to the German lady who was in the reception area about my grandfather but it seemed clear she did not understand English very well because after my emotional speech I received a very blank expression.

I left the memorial building and rang the taxi number, I waited 5 minutes and the same lady taxi driver picked me up to take me to my hotel in Bergen, the time was 16:35.

After visiting the memorial and seeing just what lays there today I can see just how difficult it must have been for the survivors and liberating troops, including my grandfather, after living with and seeing these atrocities first hand.

I also came to realise that the difficulty I had getting to the camp in the present day just shows how it must have been quite easy to carry out these kind of acts in the Second World War without many people knowing.

This trip has changed me already, I know from now on the thoughts of the people who lay there and what they endured will be with me always, and that my late grandfather who I respect dearly will never be forgotten as I will always hold him dearly in my heart.

They shall not grow old,
as we that are left grow old.
Nor shall the years condemn.
For at the going down of the sun
and in the morning,
We shall remember them.