Bergen-Belsen concentration camp exhibition focuses on the fate of children

A high number of children were among the inmates of the concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northern Germany from 1943 to 1945. Their traumatic experiences are documented in a new special exhibition entitled "Children in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp." Many of these children who survived were never able to talk about their traumatic stay there; others wrote books about their experiences.

Lous Steenhuis was only three years old when she was brought from the Dutch camp Westenbork to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Somebody had revealed her hiding place with foster parents. The little Jewish girl from Bussum, in the Netherlands, was completely alone in the camp, without her parents or other relatives. Her doll called "Mies" was the only one to accompany her.

Lous Steenhuis-Hoepelman, who is now 76 years old, finds her "Mies" rather ugly. But the doll was the only thing she had. The two of them have spent their lives together for 73 years now — and that odd doll provided support through the unimaginable terror she had to endure as a child.

Anne Frank, author of the famous posthumously published diary, died in February 1945 in Bergen-Belsen when she was only 15 years old. Already in 1934, she and her family had fled from the Nazis to the Netherlands. When they occupied the country, Anne had to live in a hiding place. But somebody revealed it to the Nazis. Her diary is seen as one of the most outstanding documents of the era.

It's estimated that a total of 120,000 inmates were kept in Bergen-Belsen. When British troops liberated the camp they encountered roughly 60,000 inmates. Almost one out of four of them died after being liberated. A total of 50,000 inmates died there, among them roughly 600 children. Mass graves are silent witnesses of the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime.

The organizers of the memorial site are highly pleased about the fact that 20 survivors from all over the world came to see the exhibition "Children in the Concentration Camp Bergen-Belsen." Although horrible pictures of corpses are not among the items, the show shocks many people. That's why children should be well prepared before being confronted with it.