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Buchenwald Concentration Camp

WITNESSING THE HOLOCAUST | Personal accounts of a crime against humanity

Buchenwald Concentration Camp

Seven days after its liberation, the horrors of Buchenwald are made known.

CHANNEL | Home Service

FIRST BROADCAST | 1 April 1945

DURATION | 11 minutes 36 seconds

FIRSTBROADCAST

1945

Synopsis

Reporter Edward Ward files his account of entering one of the earliest built and biggest of the Nazi concentration camps, sharing everything that he saw and heard. The details are distressing. One German girl, a former member of the female branch of the Hitler Youth, membership of which was compulsory, is also present and is shocked to learn the truth.

Did you know?

BBC correspondent Edward Ward was a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany from 1941 until 1945. He was captured in Libya, during the battle for Sidi Rezegh. The Germans took approximately 35,000 Allied troops prisoner from this area between 1941 and 1942. After the war, in 1947, Ward reported from Amritsar on the riots that followed the drawing of the boundary line between Pakistan and India.

Contributors

Edward Ward
Reporter

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Documents

Document - A BBC Memo.

REPORTING ATROCITIES AGAINST THE JEWS IN FRANCE

WRITTEN 1942
1 DOC

Should more be reported on the atrocities in France?

Document - A BBC Memo.

MEMO ON REPORTING ATROCITIES IN OCCUPIED EUROPE

WRITTEN 1942
1 DOC

The BBC broadcasts more information on the atrocities in occupied Europe.

Document - A Transcript of a BBC News Bulletin.

NEWS BULLETIN TRANSCRIPT FROM 1942

WRITTEN 1942
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Parliament's reaction to news of the Nazis' liquidation of the ghettos.

Document - A BBC Internal Policy Document.

BBC POLICY BOOK EXTRACT FROM 1943

WRITTEN 1943
1 DOC

BBC management considers ways of combating anti-Semitism.

Document - A BBC Internal Directive.

NEWS DIRECTIVE ON REPORTING THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS

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The importance of disseminating news on the liberated concentration camps.


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