Captured SS men are made to load lorries with the numerous bodies to be taken away for burial
Object numberM2013/027:005
TitleCaptured SS men are made to load lorries with the numerous bodies to be taken away for burial
CreatorBritish War Office
DescriptionThis is an British official photograph.
This photo depicts scenes shortly after the liberation of the Bergen – Belsen concentration camp. Two captured SS men are shown to be forced to pick up and carry the body of deceased prisoner to be loaded onto the back of a lorry, to be piled with numerous corpses already loaded onto the truck.
On board of the truck on either side of the bodies are two men also thought to be former SS soldiers holding on to bent wire that surrounds the lorry waiting to lift the corpse onto the truck. Alongside the truck there are others carrying bodies of deceased prisoners waiting to load them also onto the lorry. There are a number onlookers watching as well as two Allied soldiers supervising. In the background of the image there are buildings surrounded by a number of trees. It is possible that these buildings could be the barracks of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were prisoners were forced to live.
There is a carbon-copy caption attached on to the back of the image which reads:
“For publication Saturday’s Dailies April 21st.
British Official Photograph No. Bu. 3780. Y.C
(War Office Photo – Crown Copyright Reserved).
(Pictures issued April 1945).
Belsen Horror Camp.
During the advance of the 2nd Army the huge concentration camp at Belsen, was relieved. Some 60,000 civilians mostly suffering from Typhus, Typhoid and Dysentery are dying in their hundreds daily, despite the frantic efforts being made by medical services rushed to the camp.
The camp was declared a neutral area before we arrived and the Allied Military Government stood by to reach the camp at the earliest possible moment, to be faced by the most indescribable scenes of 60,000 people starving and without water for over six days. The camps were littered with dead and dying and on closer investigation it was discovered that the huts capable of housing about 30 people in many cases were holding as many as 500, it was impossible to estimate the number of the dead among them, the others were too weak to remove the bodies so they just had to remain. In many cases they had died by suffocation, being too weak to move. Despite all this horror S.S. guards still remained in command of the camp, including the Commandant and now the S.S. men.
The super-men as they call themselves are being made to cart and bury in their thousands, the unfortunate civilians who had been slowly tortured to death. In most cases their only crime being that they were born Jews. Picture shows: S.S. men who were captured at the camp are made to load lorries with the numerous bodies to be taken away for burial."
This photo depicts scenes shortly after the liberation of the Bergen – Belsen concentration camp. Two captured SS men are shown to be forced to pick up and carry the body of deceased prisoner to be loaded onto the back of a lorry, to be piled with numerous corpses already loaded onto the truck.
On board of the truck on either side of the bodies are two men also thought to be former SS soldiers holding on to bent wire that surrounds the lorry waiting to lift the corpse onto the truck. Alongside the truck there are others carrying bodies of deceased prisoners waiting to load them also onto the lorry. There are a number onlookers watching as well as two Allied soldiers supervising. In the background of the image there are buildings surrounded by a number of trees. It is possible that these buildings could be the barracks of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were prisoners were forced to live.
There is a carbon-copy caption attached on to the back of the image which reads:
“For publication Saturday’s Dailies April 21st.
British Official Photograph No. Bu. 3780. Y.C
(War Office Photo – Crown Copyright Reserved).
(Pictures issued April 1945).
Belsen Horror Camp.
During the advance of the 2nd Army the huge concentration camp at Belsen, was relieved. Some 60,000 civilians mostly suffering from Typhus, Typhoid and Dysentery are dying in their hundreds daily, despite the frantic efforts being made by medical services rushed to the camp.
The camp was declared a neutral area before we arrived and the Allied Military Government stood by to reach the camp at the earliest possible moment, to be faced by the most indescribable scenes of 60,000 people starving and without water for over six days. The camps were littered with dead and dying and on closer investigation it was discovered that the huts capable of housing about 30 people in many cases were holding as many as 500, it was impossible to estimate the number of the dead among them, the others were too weak to remove the bodies so they just had to remain. In many cases they had died by suffocation, being too weak to move. Despite all this horror S.S. guards still remained in command of the camp, including the Commandant and now the S.S. men.
The super-men as they call themselves are being made to cart and bury in their thousands, the unfortunate civilians who had been slowly tortured to death. In most cases their only crime being that they were born Jews. Picture shows: S.S. men who were captured at the camp are made to load lorries with the numerous bodies to be taken away for burial."
Production placeBergen-Belsen concentration camp
Production date circa 1945-04
SubjectHolocaust, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, concentration camps, nazi cruelty, liberation, corpses, death, victims, diseases, civilians
Object namephotographs
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 201.00 mm
height: 152.00 mm
Language
- English
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mr Timothy Ring