British Soldier Recalls Liberation of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
A British soldier who helped liberate the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp 80 years ago had his views on World War Two forever changed by the "horrendous" scenes he witnessed there. Gunner Herbert Hurst, from Rossendale in Lancashire, was part of the 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment that entered the camp in Nazi Germany on 15 April 1945.
According to his daughter, Barbara Bell, Gunner Hurst had previously been unsure about the merits of the war, but the atrocities he saw at Bergen-Belsen made him realise that Adolf Hitler had to be defeated. "Before he went into Belsen, he didn’t see the point of the war," Mrs Bell explained. "But when he saw the horror there – all the naked bodies piled up – he knew Adolf Hitler had to be defeated."
Gunner Hurst and his fellow soldiers discovered piles of rotting corpses and thousands of sick and starving prisoners enduring the camp’s filthy, severely overcrowded compounds. Mrs Bell recalled her father’s accounts of the camp, saying: "I remember Dad saying he could smell the disease miles away from the camp." Bergen-Belsen was originally set up by the Nazis as a prisoner-of-war and internment camp, but it was later used to house Jewish prisoners who had been transferred from across occupied Europe.
Among the tens of thousands of people who died at Belsen were the young Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her sister Margot, who were both transferred to Belsen from Auschwitz. Gunner Hurst’s experiences at the camp had a lasting impact on him, and he kept official photographs of Belsen, which his daughter described as "horrendous". Despite the traumatic nature of his experiences, Gunner Hurst never spoke about them with his family when they were growing up. "He never talked about it and we never asked," Mrs Bell said.
It was not until later in life, when Mrs Bell was teaching history at Tottington High School in Bury, Greater Manchester, that she persuaded her father to record his memories so they could be shared with her pupils. "It was then I discovered the full extent of all he’d suffered," she said. "It broke my heart to hear what he had to say but I don’t think he ever wanted to talk about it again." After the war, Gunner Hurst returned to Lancashire to "get on with his life, his job in the shoe industry and bringing up his family". He died in 1995 at the age of 86, just a few weeks after the 50th anniversary of Bergen-Belsen’s liberation.
Mrs Bell said that watching the commemorations on television had "brought everything back" to him, "all the emotion he felt in 1945". She added: "He didn’t sleep that night. Dad was a gentle soul and he remembered what he saw at Belsen for the rest of his life." The liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is a significant event in history, and the accounts of soldiers like Gunner Hurst serve as a reminder of the atrocities that occurred during World War Two. As reported by the BBC, Gunner Hurst’s story is a poignant reminder of the impact of war on individuals and communities.
The BBC has spoken to family members and historians to recall this significant event, shedding light on a dark period in history. For Gunner Hurst’s family, his experiences at Bergen-Belsen will always be remembered. As his daughter so eloquently put it, the liberation of the camp changed her father’s views on the war, and the atrocities he witnessed would stay with him for the rest of his life.
