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75 years ago, the first British and Canadian troops liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. For my MA in Jewish History, I researched the little-known story of the Christian army chaplains who worked at the camp in the days, weeks, and months which followed.
#Belsen75
#Belsen75
In 1945, British public consciousness was awoken by the images of the liberation. Suddenly people at home were brought face to face with images of the Holocaust.
But in 1945 and for many years after, Belsen was largely seen as a horror story, or an example of Britain's defeat of Nazism. Survivors were anonymous and their Jewish identities were forgotten or even airbrushed from the narrative.
The BBC chose not to air references to Jews in Richard Dimbleby's famous broadcast from the camp, for example.
Now survivors courageously tell their stories and we know far more about the experiences of those liberated by the British and Canadians in April 1945.
It has been my privilege to uncover the stories of the Christian clergy who ministered as chaplains in the camp after the liberation. Their work, and the words they left behind, challenge the prevailing narrative.
In caring for survivors, chaplains came to understand the uniquely anti-Jewish policies of the Nazis. Witnessing what antisemitism had led to, these Christian chaplains came to see it as their Christian duty to remember, to record, and to care.
Returning home, most chaplains didn't speak to their families about their experiences. Working with their relatives to uncover their stories has been such a wonderful journey.
As some of the first people to really try and understand what the Nazis and their collaborators did to Jews during the Holocaust, the story of chaplains at Belsen deserves to be better known.
I'm looking forward to continuing to research their stories and publishing my research. We must ensure the chaplains, and the lives and stories of those they met and cared for at Belsen, are never forgotten.
