Lindsay’s visit – Monday (4 of 4)

Linds did a great write-up of our weekend in Hamburg so no reason for me to be original. Here are some excerpts from her ‘diary’…

Today (Monday) was a pretty emotional day. We woke up early and took an hour train ride from Hamburg to Cella and then a 15 minute taxi ride to Bergen-Belsen. Bergen-Belsen for those of you who don’t know because I didn’t know anything about it, was the concentration camp where Anne Frank, and sister died after they were found in hiding. Originally Bergen-Belsen was started as a POW camp where the Soviets were held. Here they experienced horrible conditions, basically no food and no showers but worked menial jobs for eventually a small wage. Once the war started getting worse and was taking longer than the Nazi’s wanted, Bergen-Belsen became a concentration camp in 1941. This was considered an exchange camp. It meant that “VIPs” were held here and were traded for Nazi soldiers that were captured. However, as time went on, it became more of a typical concentration camp. Many Jews from Auschwitz were transported here and many people from Bergen-Belsen were transported to Auschwitz. These 2 camps apparently had a “good relationship.” Approximately 52,000 Jews were killed here before its liberation on April 15^th, 1945, one day before Pesach. This was an extremely eerie experience.

After a quiet train ride back to Hamburg, Adam and I went straight to dinner and then just got back a little while ago. I packed up my stuff so that tomorrow morning we can go out and maybe do something quickly before I have to catch my flight.