WORLD HISTORY AND FACTS

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen  (or  Belsen ) was a  Nazi concentration camp  in what is today  Lower Saxony  in northern Germany, southwest of the town of  Bergen  near  Celle Originally established as a  prisoner of war camp , in 1943, parts of it became a concentration camp. Initially this was an “exchange camp”, where  Jewish  hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held overseas. The camp was later expanded to accommodate Jews from other concentration camps. After 1945, the name was applied to the  displaced persons camp  established nearby, but it is most commonly associated with the concentration camp. From 1941 to 1945, almost 20,000  Soviet   prisoners of war  and a further 50,000 inmates died there, [3]  with up to 35,000 of them dying of  typhus  in the first few months of 1945, shortly before and after the liberation. The camp was liberated on April 15, 1945, by the  British 11th Armoured Division . [5]