LETTER: Anniversary of camp liberation sparks memories

I note that April 15 was the anniversary of the liberation of Belsen concentration camp.

Having been to the place I thought I would write something. Perhaps thought provoking or morally enlightening. It cannot be done dear reader. Nothing can begin to illustrate the past in that place in any moral light. However there follows non moral or judgmental summary of my experience there.

As a cadet with Ellesmere college army cadets I attended an annual camp at Bergen Belsen which at the time was part of the Bergen Hohne military complex. There was a tank firing range there dating back to WWII and kept going because it was one of only three places in the world where tanks could fire on the move. This was pre self-stabilising gun era so a very large area was kept uninhabited. We were billeted in the old guards quarters a short distance from the “old camp” as it was known. This was the actual concentration camp and had been left as it was after being burnt to the ground by the allies because of disease.

There were the “stories” attached to the place. The main one being no bird or animal could be seen in or around the place. Completely true at that time but I believe they are back now.

One I have personal experience of is the place starts up at night. Hardly believable but one night during war games I found myself alone standing beside a relatively recent high brick wall behind which was the “old camp”. At three in the morning I emerged from the pine woods and found the place lit up. The problem here is that having used this area during the day I knew there was no lighting there or in the vicinity. Did I climb a tree and look over the wall? No. I sensed an evil over that wall very close to where I was. I turned and left.

On rejoining my group I declared some unused ammunition. Apparently returning this to the stores might involve army style paperwork so I was told to discharge it into the air. It was a massively unpleasant experience. The shots echoed and bounced around the place like nothing I have heard before or since. I think I could not breath during this process. It seemed to take me back in time. I knew many people were shot over open graves in those woods. I felt they there with me.

There is more but far grimmer. Some things best left alone.

Robin Lloyd, Ellesmere