WITNESSING THE HOLOCAUST | Personal accounts of a crime against humanity
CHANNEL | Home Service
RECORDED | 7 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.
The only Briton found alive in Belsen describes his experiences there.
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.