Nothing could have prepared a small group of soldiers from the Durham Light Infantry for what they discovered on 18 April 1945...
Liberating Belsen
Remembering the Soldiers of the Durham Light Infantry...
Nothing, no amount of training, could have prepared a small group of soldiers from the Durham Light Infantry for what they discovered on 18 April 1945, less than a month before the end of WWII in Europe.
“Liberating Belsen” is a history of the Durham Light Infantry, focusing on their key role in the liberation of the notorious Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.
"No words of mine can aptly describe the conditions here."
Jack Fairweather (internee). April 23rd. 1945
Jack's first letter continues with a detailed description of what the soldiers found when they entered Belsen and any reader would be full of admiration for the courage which these men showed in tackling these horrible tasks. Disease, especially typhus, was rampant and they must have been in some danger of contracting it. Each time they entered the camp, they were sprayed with DDT powder.
Bravery can be shown in many more ways than on the battlefield and I wanted to pass on this story, which is nothing but the truth, to anyone who might ever doubt the horror of the thing called ‘National Socialism.’