Bergen-Belsen Museum A British soldier guards Commandant Josef Kramer, nicknamed the "Beast of Belsen," and the notoriously cruel Irma Grese, a 21-year-old guard, who had previously been a member of the staff at the Birkenau death camp. She was the youngest of the Bergen-Belsen war criminals and was the first one to be hanged. All the photos on this page were taken at the old Museum at Bergen-Belsen. On October 28, 2007, a new Museum was opened at the Memorial Site.  Group photo of 50 male guards who remained in the camp to help the British, and a photo of Josef Kramer, the Commandant of Bergen-Belsen, who had previously been the last Commandant at the Birkenau death camp. He was convicted of war crimes by a British Military Tribunal and hanged on 13 December 1945. Eighty of the male and female guards volunteed to stay in the camp to help the British and 20 of them died from typhus and other causes after the camp was liberated.  The top photo on the poster shows the burning of the Bergen-Belsen huts by the British Army on 21 May 1945 after the former prisoners had been moved to the barracks of the nearby German Army Training Camp. Bottom photo shows the obelisk erected by German civilians as a memorial to the victims in 1947 under orders from the British.  On September 17, 1945, Josef Kramer and 44 members of the camp staff, including 12 of the prisoners who were Kapos, were brought before a British Military Tribunal in the city of Lüneberg. Thirty were convicted. This was the first war crime trial conducted by the Allies after World War II. On November 17, 1945, eleven of the accused were sentenced to be hanged on 13 December 1945. ContinuePreviousHome |