Abstract
This is the source publication of a yet undiscovered DEGOB protocol from 1945 taken by survivor and interviewer Erna Galosi, recording her husband Elemer Galosi’s testimony after returning ...from Bergen-Belsen to Budapest. The protocol was found in its original form by their great-granddaughter at home after decades of unvoicing the struggles and tragedy the family had survived. This testimony is first published here by Alexandra M. Szabo.
Abstract
Bergen-Belsen is one of the biggest and most significant concentration camps in the history of the Holocaust. In this paper I reconstruct. 1. The Hungarian Camp between December 1944 and ...April 1945. 2. The evacuation and settlement of Hungarian military troops to the Bergen military training camp. (Truppenübungsplatz Bergen). This camp is also called as Bergen-Hohne Military Training Area. 3. The interactions between the Hungarian Jewish prisoners and the members of the Hungarian units between the two camps. 4. The controversial paths and memories of the atrocities against the Jews committed by Hungarian soldiers. The main focus of my study is a comparative analysis on the similarities and differences among the actors’ fragmented contemporary and postwar narratives: the perpetrators, the liberators and the victims on the activities of and killings by the Hungarian soldiers. I analyze ego-documents (interviews, testimonies and other correspondences) of the survivors and perpetrators of digital collections and primarily from the Archives of Gedensktätte Bergen-Belsen and from the Military Archives (Budapest). I also explore the most significant military files as well based on the Archives of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial.
In this vivid memoir originally published in German, Anne Groschler (1888-1982) recounts her 1944 escape from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to Mandatory Palestine via "Transport 222", an ...exchange transport of 222 Jews for "Aryan" prisoners of war. In the most detailed contribution of the exchange ever published, Groschler paints an authentic picture of life before WWII amongst the upper echelons of German society, her ultimate persecution and escape to Holland where she was betrayed, the horrors of life in the Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen camps, and her eventual flight via "Transport 222" to Palestine. Written immediately after her liberation in 1944, this unique document captures a little-known chapter of Holocaust history.
This research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the role of sensory impressions in narratives of the everyday lives of prisoners in a concentration camp. I examine the narrative ...strategies in a diary and an early postwar memoir in the so-called Hungarian camp of Bergen–Belsen. I focus on how the survivors who produced these texts included references to sensory impressions in their accounts. By paying attention to mention in the survivors’ narratives of the more neglected elements of human experience (such as hearing, taste, smell and touch), I consider the ways in which non-visual sensory impressions were used in the narratives to convey experiences, observations, and feelings. I argue that in their depictions of everyday life in the camp, these testimonies used references to changes in their sensory impressions to represent processes and subtle changes in the social lives of the prisoners, which created a discursive space for the authors to express their emotions. This paper also attempts to introduce the term ‘sensory narratives’ into Holocaust studies in an effort to move beyond interpretations of historical narratives as representations of bodies and to engage with them as accounts that were created by bodies, including the senses.
This article reconstructs and analyses the spaces and visual narratives of two particularly important early exhibitions organized by Holocaust survivors: the one at the Jewish Pavilion in the former ...Majdanek concentration camp in Lublin (September 1946), and 'Unzer Veg in der Frayheyt' (Our Path to Freedom) made in the displaced persons camp in Bergen-Belsen (July 1947).
Located in one of the barracks of the former concentration camp, the Jewish Pavilion in Majdanek was one of the first public commemorative sites expressing Jewish memory of the war in Poland. While presenting a history of the Holocaust, the display also established a space for mourning. 'Our Path to Freedom' was created on the occasion of the Second Congress of Liberated Jews in the British Zone. It also presented the Holocaust, while at the same time imagining the future life of survivors in Eretz Israel. Together, these exhibitions demonstrate the heterogeneity of Holocaust memory of that time. They pose questions about different ways of narrating history, pointing to exhibitions as a significant medium, while allowing for a combination of visual and spatial means of representation in order to create a multifaceted narrative about the past.
Gabriella Trebits was a prisoner of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp between November 1944 and April 1945. The spaces present in her diary include both the places of the camp and her typhoid ...hallucinations. Gabriella described venues through their sensuous dimensions. Since the sensory experiences of everyday life mingled with her visions, her diary became a “textual journey” between real and imagined places. Her narratives helped her to express the difficulties caused by her physical environment and the confusion caused by her hallucinations. As a result, the references to changes in her sensory impressions created a discursive space for the diarist to express her feelings. Since her narrative depicts a suffering and painful condition, we use Joanna Bourke’s concept of pain talk in our analysis. Moreover, the diary demonstrates that it was possible for typhoid patients to connect with their environment despite their isolated situation. Even on the periphery of the camp space, social life persisted. This exploration will not only uncover the narrative strategy of one diarist but also contribute to a deeper understanding of the ways in which tens of thousands died of starvation and diseases―without mass executions or gas chambers―in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the spring of 1945.
Aims and objectives. The aim of this article is to explore the work of nurses feeding and helping liberate the inmates of Bergen‐Belsen concentration camp in the spring of 1945.
Background. A ...considerable amount has been published on the relief of Belsen, but the majority of the research has focused on the medical staff and the army in general. The exception to this is an article published by Ellen Ben‐Sefer, but its analysis of the actual work of the nurses is limited.
Design. The data are explored through the medium of nurses' work, especially feeding work and its place in the historiography.
Methods. This article will offer an analysis of archival material, including official reports and personal testimony and published primary sources.
Results. Nurses were very much hidden from the liberation picture, partly through government policy, partly because of gendered ideologies and partly because of the desire of many to hide their memories. However, the data identify the pivotal role of nurses in the saving of lives and rehabilitation of inmates. This article demonstrates this role through the work of feeding.
Conclusion. The nurses had to continually negotiate and renegotiate their place in the liberation. As women, their place at Belsen was problematic and often thwarted by the ideologies of the day. Nevertheless, the services of registered nurses during the war had proved indispensible. The Allied governments and Royal Army Medical Corps were ultimately to rely on their professional expertise. The nurses’ work in the feeding of starving inmates demonstrates their value.
Relevance to clinical practice. This article demonstrates the importance of nurses’ feeding work and their role in the caring of people’s humanity.
