80-L1-How-did-Bergen-Belsen-become-the-world-of-a-nightmare.pptx

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How did the Bergen-Belsen come to be ‘the world of a nightmare?’

How did the camp at Bergen-Belsen evolve
in space and time?

What have you learned
about the Holocaust so far?

2

Where is Bergen-Belsen?

What do you know about it? How certain are you ?

01:40-02:37

Introduction: How does Richard Dimbleby describe his encounter with Bergen-Belsen?

How could this come to be?

What can maps tell us?

What is this showing you?

What can maps tell us?

• You will be given 6 map cards and 6 date cards.

• Place the 6 map cards in chronological order, with a date card next to each one.

• Apart from the first card, on the next 5 write on a Post-it note at least 2 changes you can see from the previous map.

• What are the maps showing you? What are they not showing? What further questions might you want to ask?

So… what changes, and why?

February-March

1945

1935-39

1942-43

16th April-June

1945

Today

September

1944

What can maps tell us?

• Finally, you will be given 6 description cards – some from eyewitnesses, some from historians.

• As a group, can you match them to the date cards?

• What does this new layer of information tell you about the development of Bergen-Belsen now, and how it came to be ‘the world of a nightmare’?

Conclusions

So how did the camp at Bergen-Belsen come to be ‘the world of a nightmare?’

Which of the following statements about Bergen-Belsen would you agree/disagree with?

1. Bergen-Belsen was a death camp in occupied Poland, like Auschwitz.

2. The only real function of Bergen-Belsen throughout the war was to act as a recovery centre for Jews.

3. At the end of the war, it became the largest displaced persons camp in Germany.

4. When the British discovered the camp in April 1945, what they saw was typical of camp conditions.

5. Bergen-Belsen should be remembered as a triumph of the British policy of saving and rescuing Jews throughout the war wherever they could.

6. There is little the camp can tell us about the Holocaust.

‘The world of a nightmare’:
how did the camp at
Bergen-Belsen come to be?

This programme is delivered by UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, the Holocaust Educational Trust, with support from the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, and made possible thanks to funding from the Department for Education