Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation Permanent Exhibition Documentation Centre Bergen-Belsen Memorial The three-part exhibition in the Memorial’s Open daily Documentation Centre, which opened in 2007, April to September 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. explains the history of the Bergen-Belsen, Wehrmacht POW Camp Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp October to March 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Documentation Centre Fallingbostel, Oerbke and Wietzendorf POW Ground floor 1939 – 1945 1943 – 1945 The Documentation Centre is closed over the camps (1939 – 1945) as well as Bergen-Belsen’s New Year period. The precise dates can be history as a concentration camp (1943 – 1945) Entrance Prologue Film tower Archaeological finds Topography found on our website. Entry is free of charge. and displaced persons camp (1945 – 1950). The exhibition features numerous documents, Book Shop photographs, films and artefacts from national Car park The book shop is open during the Documen and international archives, private owners and tation Centre’s opening hours and offers a the Memorial’s own extensive collection. The diverse selection of accounts and witness perspectives of victims and survivors are reports in different languages. represented throughout the exhibition through diaries, letters, drawings, personal accounts Library and witness interviews. Short explanatory texts Monday, Tuesday and Thursday on the wall panels place these sources in a Friedhof 10.30 a.m. – 4.30 p.m. historical context. Historisches Lagergelände and by appointment
Video Points 1, 2 3 6 3 Cafeteria The video points show 45 films which were Supplementary levels Soviet POWs Soviet POWs Liberation Men’s and women’s camps April to September 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. 1941 – 1942 1942 – 1945 assembled for the exhibition from a collection 5 1944 – 1945 October to March 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Video point Italian military internees Photos by British liberators – 1, 2 of more than 400 biographical interviews. The Display case 1943 – 1945 Documentation of the crimes Bergen-Belsen exchange camp free-standing biographical video points cover Bench 4 4 1943 – 1945 Accessibility content relating to the adjacent parts of the Tour Warsaw Uprising participants Bergen-Belsen as “reception” All public areas of the Documentation Centre exhibition. Most of the thematic video points, 1944 – 1945 camp and camp for the dying are wheelchair-accessible. Wheelchairs can be by contrast, are integrated into the exhibition End of war and liberation December 1944 – April 1945 borrowed from the Information Desk. 1945 display cases and are therefore directly incor porated in the overall narrative. These films Video and Photographs feature several witnesses talking about a To protect light-sensitive documents, please particular subject. do not use flash photography in the exhibition. Commercial or journalistic photographs may Supplementary Levels only be taken with prior approval. Each section of the exhibition has an area which Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp offers visitors more extensive supplementary 1945 – 1950 information: computer terminals and binders Upper floor with documents, commentary and biographies of nearly everyone mentioned in the exhibition. Library Epilogue Post-war prosecution
2, 3, 4 1 Bergen-Belsen Memorial Jewish DP camp Emergency hospital 1945 Anne-Frank-Platz 1945 – 1950 Polish DP camp 1945 – 1946 29303 Lohheide Germany Tel. + 49 (0)5051 4759-0 Fax. + 49 (0)5051 4759-118 [email protected] www.bergen-belsen.de Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation The Cemeteries Hörsten, Belsen, Bergen Bergen, Soltau, A 7 Hamburg Mass graves X Relief models of the camp from 1944 Vertiefung Baureste -0,1/-0,2 Bergen-Belsen Memorial Between 1941 and 1945, more than 70,000 Individual graves and the current Memorial Erhöhung Massengräber 0,1/0,2 people died in the Bergen-Belsen POW and Individual graves designed to harmonize with mass graves Remains of camp structures Markers niedere Gebäude 0,2/0,4 concentration camp. Many victims of the con L1 Entrance section/SS administration hohe Gebäude 0,4/0,8 Cemetery centration camp were buried in mass graves Sites of camp structures from September 1944 L2a POW Camp Vertiefung Baureste -0,1/-0,2 in the grounds of the former camp after the (not preserved) L2b Projektionswinkel -25 Grad Historical Grounds liberation in April 1945. There are currently Military training grounds Paths, largely wheelchair-accessible L3 Neutrals’ Camp Erhöhung Massengräber 0,1/0,2 13 mass graves and 15 individual graves here. Meadows to reach forest clearings, L4 Special Camp/ Hungarians’ Camp Nearly 20,000 victims of the Bergen-Belsen not wheelchair-accessible L5 Star Camp niedere Gebäude 0,2/0,4 of the Camp Bench L6 Women’s camp POW camp are buried in the Hörsten cemetery S7 L7 Men’s camp hohe Gebäude 0,4/0,8 around 600 metres from the site of the former A Documentation Centre with exhibition on history of the site, L8 SS clothing store Projektionswinkel -25 Grad camp. documents office, information desk, library, book shop, cafeteria Information pillars The Historical Grounds of the Camp B Educational centre, seminar and event rooms, S1 Camp perimeter The current Memorial encompasses the entire special exhibitions, administration S2 Roll-call square for star camp S8 S3 Main camp street historical grounds of the former camp. A stony Cemetery Monuments/memorials S4 Huts 9 and 10 path leads from the Memorial’s forecourt to the Historical grounds of camp 1 Polish wooden cross (1945) S5 Latrine huts geographic centre of the former camp. At the 2 Jewish monument (1946) S6 SS swimming pool L1 end of this path, in the middle of a swath of lawn, i 3 Obelisk and inscription wall (1952) S7 Main camp entrance S10 L2b S6 there are two relief models showing the camp’s 4 House of Silence (2000) S8 Disinfection building and central baths topography from September 1944 and the 5 Soviet monument (1945) S9 Gate to concentration camp prisoner section 6 S14 S9 6 German memorial stone (1968) Camp entrance, later concentration camp current grounds of the Memorial. Landscaping administration area 5 S12 S11 Memorial stones elements have made the structures of the L7 S10 S13 Camp dividing lines former camp “decipherable” again here. Clear L3 Guard tower S4 S11 Fire water basin, food depot ings in the forest trace the boundaries of the Ostenholz L4 former camp and mark the sites of buildings. Meißendorf X S12 Kitchen D Huts 196 – 205 S3 S13 Fire water basin Markers S15 POW cemetery L5 S14 Camp street in POW field hospital The individual sections of the camp are marked Huts by nine additional relief models along the edges S5 S15 Path to POW cemetery of the lawn tracing the camp’s former main Footpath to POW cemetery S2 “Bier square” in the POW camp street. Short texts explain the former use of about 600 metres S16 Crematorium each section. S17 Cemetery in the grounds L 298 of the former camp e L8 Information Pillars Meiß Pillars located at historically significant sites S1 throughout the grounds provide information on L2a other aspects of the former camp’s history. e At many of these sites, structural remains from L6 S16 the time of the camp have been preserved, such Meiß as floors and foundations, paved paths, fire water basins and latrine shafts. A Meiße i
3 i The cemetery and historical grounds of the B Bergen-Belsen Memorial are protected by the 2 German Federal Law on the Preservation of 1 the Graves of the Victims of War and Tyranny. 4 The Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation is responsible for the design and maintenance of the grounds. Please ensure that your conduct and attire are in keeping with the dignity of the site. Bear in mind that people come here to remember their July 2018 Photos: Klemens Ortmeyer family members. Winsen (Aller), Celle, A 7 Hannover , A 27 Bremen 250 m Graphic design: Weidner Händle Atelier Translation: Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx