WWII: Witnessing the Holocaust | Personal accounts of persecution and genocide by the Nazi regime
CHANNEL | Home Service
RECORDED | 07 April 1945
DURATION | 4 minutes 13 seconds
RECORDED
1945
On 6 April 1945, a western Canadian regiment captured a concentration camp near Zutphen. The 'unspeakable' atrocities that had taken place there are evident, including those inflicted on ten members of the Dutch Resistance. These horrify a German paratrooper present, who blames the Gestapo. Matthew Halton of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports.
The Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) was the secret state police of Nazi Germany. It mercilessly removed opposition to the Nazis within Germany and throughout German-occupied territories and rounded up Jews for deportation to death camps. It was established by Hermann Goering, Prussian Minister of the Interior. Heinrich Himmler became head of both the SS (the Nazi paramilitary corps) and the Gestapo.
Seven days after its liberation, the horrors of Buchenwald are made known.

A Canadian reporter provides a first hand account of a concentration camp near Zutphen.
The broadcaster recounts the horrors of Belsen.
The survivors and the soldiers who relieved Belsen bear witness to the horrors of the camp.
A Red Cross appeal seeking relatives of children liberated from concentration and labour camps.
The only Briton found alive in Belsen describes his experiences there.
A Polish commercial artist describes his experiences in a German concentration camp.
'Tonight' on the trail of Dutch war criminal Pieter Menten.
Harrowing memories of the concentration camps recounted by survivors.
The story of the man who warned the Allies about the Final Solution.
One of Auschwitz's most famous survivors talks to Sue MacGregor.
Broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy meets Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
Documents reveal that Britain knew something of the Nazi slaughter of the Jews as early as 1941.
Helen Bamber shares her memories of the liberation of Belsen.
Artist Marianne Grant tells of how she was forced to paint for Dr Josef Mengele in Auschwitz.
A Holocaust survivor and her grandson return to the scene to unlock her story.
Should more be reported on the atrocities in France?
The BBC broadcasts more information on the atrocities in occupied Europe.
Parliament's reaction to news of the Nazis' liquidation of the ghettos.
BBC management considers ways of combating anti-Semitism.
The importance of disseminating news on the liberated concentration camps.
News reports continue to emphasis the liberation of the concentration camps.
A harrowing and moving account of the conditions in Belsen.
Polish authorities thank the BBC for its support.
The submission of Patrick Gordon Walker's diary on Belsen.
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