Liberating Belsen Book

It was 80 years ago today that my father, Major Leonard Berney aged 25, entered Bergen-Belsen concentration camp - one of the first to do so - to be confronted with sheer horror: 60,000 inmates most of whom were gravely ill, and 10,000 unburied dead. "It was an absolute Dante’s inferno. I’ll never forget it." #BergenBelsen #Belsen80 #HolocaustEducation amazon.co.uk/Liberating-Bel…

It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since my father, Leonard Berney, left us! I do my best to keep his name alive by telling his Bergen-Belsen liberation story via @Gen2GenUK, and by promoting his book "Liberating Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp." amazon.co.uk/Liberating-Bel… 💔

SS camp guards remove bodies from loaded trucks and carry them to one of the mass grave at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945. #BergenBelsen amzn.to/4jtiR3i

Women SS camp guards remove bodies from trucks and carry them to one of the mass graves located at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. April 18, 1945. #BergenBelsen amzn.to/402YYr5

SS women camp guards being paraded for work in clearing the dead at Bergen-Belsen, April 19, 1945... When British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945, they uncovered scenes of unimaginable horror. Tens of thousands of corpses lay unburied, and survivors were emaciated and near death. Among those captured were the SS women who had served as guards, figures who had enforced N*zi brutality and now faced the consequences of their actions. British soldiers forced them to help bury the dead, confronting them with the devastation they had helped create. Many of these women later stood trial at the Belsen Trials, where eyewitnesses described acts of cruelty and indifference. Some were executed, while others received lengthy prison sentences. The photo captures a haunting reversal of power: perpetrators reduced to labourers amid the wreckage of their own regime. One of the most notorious SS guards from Bergen-Belsen, Irma Grese, was only 22 when she was executed for war crimes later that same year. © Historical Photos #archaeohistories

13 December 1945 - Hamelin Prison, Germany Former concentration camp guards Irma Grese, Elisabeth Volkenrath and Juana Bormann are hanged by Albert Pierrepoint. The 22-year old Grese, dubbed the "Beast of Belsen", remained defiant throughout her trial and stated that, "It was our duty to exterminate anti-social elements in order to ensure Germany's future."

NEW VIDEO - The Female Camp Guards of the Third Reich – Who Were They? youtu.be/vcVqEim9POc #historyhustle #historyhustleofficial #historyhustler #ww2 #wwii #worldwar2 #worldwarii #worldwartwo #secondworldwar #ww2History #wwiihistory #aufseherin

We welcome the Italian Senate’s approval of legislation aimed at strengthening the prevention and fight against antisemitism. The bill, which now moves to the Chamber of Deputies for further debate and approval before it can become law, marks an important step toward reinforcing the protection of Jewish communities and addressing the growing threat of antisemitism. The inclusion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism provides institutions with a valuable framework to better identify and respond to contemporary forms of antisemitic hatred. At a time when antisemitic incidents continue to rise across Europe, strengthening monitoring, education and institutional tools will be essential to ensure that this effort leads to concrete action.

Holy sh*t. Stop what you’re doing. Give yourself 3 minutes. Listen to this. Marco Rubio 2015. He called it. He called it word for word, like a play-by-play.

Holy shit. Wow. This is HANDS DOWN the best take I’ve heard. If there is one video you listen to today it’s this one. Every single word of this and it’s a huge “f*ck you” to @antonioguterres for propping up the barbaric terrorist Islamic Regime in Iran. Must be shared everywhere in my opinion. Unfortunately I have no idea who this young British woman is to credit her, if you know who it is feel free to tag below.

History She was 21 when the Nazis executed her. Her last words still echo. Her name was Sophie Scholl. On February 22, 1943, she walked calmly into a Munich prison and was executed by guillotine. Her crime was not violence. It was dissent. She had chosen to tell the truth in a country where truth had become treason . Sophie did not begin as a rebel. Like many German teenagers of her time, she joined the League of German Girls, the female branch of the Hitler Youth. So did her brother, Hans. Participation was encouraged. Conformity was rewarded. Their father warned them that blind obedience could become criminal. Over time, they saw it for themselves. As students at the University of Munich, Sophie and Hans learned about the regime’s crimes and the mass killings carried out in Germany’s name. They chose not to remain silent. Together with a small group of friends, they formed the White Rose . Their weapons were not bombs. They were pamphlets . Between 1942 and 1943, they secretly wrote and distributed leaflets calling for moral responsibility and civil resistance. They quoted philosophers and scripture. They signed nothing. They trusted conscience over fear. On February 18, 1943, Sophie and Hans carried a suitcase of pamphlets into the university. After scattering them through the corridors, Sophie pushed the remaining stack over a balcony. It was impulsive. It was brave. It drew attention. They were arrested that same day . Four days later, after a brief show trial led by judge Roland Freisler, Sophie, Hans, and Christoph Probst were sentenced to death. There was no delay . Before her execution, Sophie reportedly said, “How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause?” She was 21. The White Rose was crushed. But its words survived. Allied forces later dropped millions of copies of their final leaflet over Germany. Sophie Scholl is remembered not as someone who sought death, but as a young woman who chose truth over safety and humanity over fear. She did not live to see change. But change came. 🕊️ Courage can be silenced. Its echo cannot. Repost Horror Room Instagram

85 years ago today, more than 200,000 Dutch workers took part in a nationwide strike in protest against the first mass deportation of Jewish citizens under Nazi occupation. In February 1941, tram drivers, dockworkers, factory laborers and civil servants walked off the job in a rare and courageous act of public resistance. At a time when fear and repression silenced much of Europe, thousands in the Netherlands chose solidarity over indifference. The February Strike remains a powerful reminder that even in the darkest moments, collective courage can stand against injustice.

Jon Pearce MP has been appointed as UK Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues. This role includes promoting Holocaust education, remembrance and research in the UK and internationally, and bringing justice and assistance to Holocaust victims and their families.

Honouring History: John Wood Shares His Father’s Story of the Liberation of Belsen at Farnham College activatelearning.ac.uk/news/honouring… @Gen2GenUK John Wood is a Generation 2 Generation speaker. #HolocaustEducation #HumanRightsEducation #LeonardBerney #BergenBelsen #hmd26

Indeed, liberator accounts, including Lt. Col. Leonard Berney's, confirm ample food was stored at the nearby Panzer barracks in Hohne (about 2 miles away), but Kramer chose not to access it for prisoners. This worsened starvation despite supply disruptions from Allied bombings. Sources: BBC WW2 archives, National Army Museum.

Almost 81 years ago, the BBC’s Richard Dimbleby broadcast his report from the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. What he found defied belief. Tens of thousands of people starved. Emaciated men, women and children lying among the dead. Bodies unburied. Disease rampant. Survivors too weak to move. Human beings reduced to skeletons behind barbed wire. His editors in London reportedly hesitated to air it, they didn’t believe him as the horrors seems unimaginable. But it was real. He forced the world to confront the truth of the Holocaust. He spoke so we would remember. So it would never happen again. Antisemitism is not “contextual”. It is not “just politics”. It is not less serious than any other form of racism. It is hatred. And when attacks on Jewish people are excused, minimised or rationalised, we dishonour those who died and those who liberated the camps. We must not let history repeat itself. What Seymour Millen @unisontheunion & @carla_denyer @TheGreenParty is once again trying to dehumanise Jewish People. #NeverAgain #StandAgainstAntisemitism @VividProwess @GnasherJew @MOSSADil @koshercockney @LizaRosen0000 @HeidiBachram

@grok @EffDisInfo @TruthfulBatman @jakeshieldsajj However, Kramer, the kommandant of Belsen, could have used the vast quantities of food stored at the Panzer training barracks only 2 miles away from Belsen to feed the inmates with, but chose not to.

Yes, historical records indicate Allied bombings disrupted German rail and supply lines, impacting concentration camps. For instance, at Bergen-Belsen, prisoners endured days without food or water before April 1945 liberation partly due to these disruptions. Similar effects occurred at Dachau and other sites amid late-war chaos. Sources: USHMM, National WWII Museum, Wikipedia.

The holocaust is the least documented event in all of history

@Voices_Cate @MarkWheeller @AuschwitzMuseum @Belsen1945 Susan will always remember the kindness of her British liberators at Bergen-Belsen, after she had been on a death march. She chose to focus on the kindness of those who liberated her and saved her life. For more on 'Kindness' : voicesoftheholocaust.org.uk #randomactsofkindness

Feb. 16, 1926: Margot Frank, the older sister of diarist Anne Frank, is born in Frankfurt, Germany. She was studious and teased as a “paragon of virtue” in Anne’s diary. Both siblings died of typhus in February 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen camp two months before its liberation.

Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp by Leonard Berney | Goodreads - 4.37/5 stars #BergenBelsen goodreads.com/book/show/2536…

Mrs Tracy-Ann Oberman, Actor and Playwright, is made a Member of the Order of the British Empire by King Charles III at Windsor Castle. The honour recognises services to holocaust education and combating antisemitism.