Special exhibition
'Children in the
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp'
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Most of the children in Bergen-Belsen were Jewish, some were Sinti or Roma, and others had been taken to the camp along with their mothers who had been imprisoned on political grounds.
Many of these children died of hunger, disease or physical violence. Those who survived carried the burden of their physical and mental suffering for the rest of their lives.
The special exhibition 'Children in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp' tells the story of the around 3,500 children under 15 who were imprisoned in the camp. Based on individual life stories, the exhibition presents the specific conditions under which children lived in the Bergen-Belsen camp and the ways in which they tried to cope with them.
Topics covered range from family life and games through roll-calls and violence to fear, hunger, disease and death. The exhibition also touches on less well-known aspects such as births in the camp.
Around 3,500 children under 15 were among approximately 120,000 people from all over Europe who were imprisoned in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The youngest prisoner to be liberated by British troops in April 1945 was only one day old.
„Food bearers to the gate!!“, drawing by János Reisz made at Bergen-Belsen, 1944/1945. 11-year-old János Reisz kept a notebook at the camp and made drawings. © Memorial Bergen-Belsen (donated by Jovan Rajs). All images in the article courtesy of Bergen-Belsen Memorial.
Diana Gring