Coronavirus mutes Bergen-Belsen liberation anniversary

Due to the pandemic, German authorities have postponed a large event to mark 75 years since the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Jewish teenager Anne Frank, made famous by her diary, died in the camp.

Bergen-Belsen concentration site memorial stone

Remembering the Holocaust is "part of Germany's identity," said the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, on Wednesday, marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

German officials originally planned a large commemoration event with thousands of attendees, including around 120 of the camp's survivors. Due to the coronavirus lockdown, however, the event has now been rescheduled for next year and a smaller ceremony is set to be held on Sunday.

The pandemic "unfortunately makes it impossible to honor the few survivors who are still among us, the way they deserve," Schuster said.

"It is also important for the stability of our democracy to remember, again and again, where inhumane ideologies and disregard of basic democratic rights can lead," he added.

Anne Frank's lost battle

Over 70,000 people were killed in the camp complex of Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany, with thousands of them dying of disease, starvation, and exhaustion even after the camp was liberated by British soldiers on April 15, 1945. The death toll also includes between 18,000 and 20,000 prisoners of war, most of them Soviet nationals.

Anne Frank,famous for the diary she wrote as a teenager in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam, ended up in Bergen-Belsen after her capture in 1944, where she died in early 1945.

The head of the camp at the time of the liberation, Josef Kramer, and the warden of the female section, Irma Grese, were captured, tried, and hanged in 1945.

'The darkest part of our history'

On Wednesday, the premier of Lower Saxony, where the camp memorial is located, said the former camp was "the place which brings before our eyes the horrors and ruthlessness of the darkest part of our history."

"We Germans must do everything to ensure that people never again perpetrate immeasurable suffering on others," he said.

dj/msh (epd, dpa)

Anne Frank: Betrayed, deported, world-famous

Fleeing from the Nazis

In 1933, Anne Frank and her family fled from Germany to the Netherlands to escape the Nazis. In the Second World War, she had to go into hiding under the German occupation. For two years, she lived concealed in the secret annex of a house in Amsterdam. But someone betrayed her: On August 4, 1944, her family was found, arrested and deported to Auschwitz.
Anne Frank: Betrayed, deported, world-famous

Family ties

Anne Frank (front left) had a sister Margot (back right) who was three-and-a-half years older than she was. Her father, Otto Frank, took this photo on Margot's eighth birthday in February 1934, when the family was already in exile in the Netherlands.
Anne Frank: Betrayed, deported, world-famous

The hiding place in Amsterdam

Anne's father was able to found a company in Amsterdam. It had its headquarters in this building (c.). Otto organized the "secret annex" above and behind the premises. The family of four lived there from 1942 to 1944, together with four other people on the run from the Nazis. It was here that Anne Frank wrote her world-famous diary. The Anne Frank House has been a museum since 1960.
Anne Frank: Betrayed, deported, world-famous

A diary as best friend

From the start, Anne wrote in her diary almost every day. It became a kind of friend to her, and she called it Kitty. The life she led was completely different from her previous, carefree existence. "What I like the most is that I can at least write down what I think and feel, otherwise I would completely suffocate," she penned.
Anne Frank: Betrayed, deported, world-famous

Death in Bergen-Belsen

Anne Frank and her sister were taken from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen on October 30, 1944. More than 70,000 people died in this concentration camp. After the liberation of the camp, the victims were transported to mass graves under the supervision of British soldiers. Anne and Margot Frank were among those who died there from typhus, at an unknown date in March 1945. Anne was just 15 years old.
Anne Frank: Betrayed, deported, world-famous

Anne's tombstone

Anne's tombstone also stands in Bergen-Belsen. This Jewish girl from Frankfurt had imagined her life differently. "I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to bring joy and aid to the people who live around me, but who don't know me all the same. I want to live on, even after my death," she wrote in her diary on April 5, 1944.
Anne Frank: Betrayed, deported, world-famous

Made famous by a diary

Her great dream was to become a journalist or author. Thanks to her father, her diary was published on July 25, 1947. An English version was brought out in 1952. Anne Frank became a symbol for the victims of the Nazi dictatorship. "We all live with the aim of attaining happiness; we all live differently, but the same." — Anne Frank, July 6, 1944.

Author: Iveta Ondruskova / tj