The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, nestled between the village of Belsen and the small town of Bergen in Lower Saxony, is a chilling testament to human cruelty. It is estimated that over 70,000 people, including homosexuals, Jews, gypsies, and Soviet prisoners of war, met grueling deaths here. Among them was Anne Frank. Despite being void of gas chambers, as it was not an extermination camp, prisoners succumbed to starvation, cold, and disease.

In a bid to commemorate another anniversary of its liberation, 27-year-old Tom Marshall, the grandson of Reverend Charles Martin King Parsons, decided to unveil some unseen documents. “I always wondered why my grandfather never spoke to his son about what he witnessed in the camp, but now I understand,” says Tom.

A brief history of the camp, as provided by Wikipedia, reveals that on April 15, 1945, British troops arrived at the camp. The German and Hungarian guards, in fear of a typhus outbreak, negotiated with the British to establish a “neutral zone”. Some guards exploited this zone to escape to German lines, while the rest surrendered, wearing white armbands as a sign. However, in a final act of revenge, the escapees cut off the camp’s water supply, exacerbating the challenges for the liberating forces.

Upon entering the camp, the British encountered thousands of critically ill and starving prisoners, all infested with lice. In the following days, survivors were relocated to a neighboring Wehrmacht armored camp, rechristened as “Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp”. The SS prisoners were compelled to bury the unburied bodies, with the aid of British army machinery. Once completed, all camp facilities were incinerated using flamethrowers to prevent any further spread of typhus and lice.

Despite the combined efforts of the British and Canadians, another 13,400 prisoners perished after being moved to the treatment camp. Adding to the tragedy, the Luftwaffe bombed the camp 13 days post-liberation, killing some prisoners and Red Cross volunteers. Most of the surviving liberated prisoners returned to their homes, while all the Jews sought refuge in either Israel, the US, or Canada.

Reverend Charles Martin King Parsons was present during these harrowing times and captured the last images of the camp with one of the few available cameras. These photographs, which have remained unseen until now, were discovered by his grandson in a box at their family home. To mark another anniversary of the camp’s liberation, Tom Marshall decided that the world needed to see these documents. He confessed to British media that he never met his grandfather and was unaware that he had taken these photos.

Tom’s grandmother recalled that her husband seldom spoke about his time in Bergen-Belsen, or the things he witnessed and documented there. “I always wondered why, but now I understand,” Tom reflects.

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The British Reverend Charles Martin King Parsons, who captured the horror and the last days of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. These photographs are being published for the first time this year.
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When the British forces arrived at the camp the peat had mowed down the Nazi prisoners. Reports speak of over 500 dead every day. The Nazis had not bothered to bury or cremate the bodies and often simply carried them into the woods and stacked them there.
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The few survivors found to have camped in the centre of the camp
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Dead bodies scattered across the Bergen-Belsen area
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British soldiers and locals worked together to bury the bodies in the days that followed
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Open mass graves full of corpses
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The crowd watches the camp as British troops set it on fire
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