WWII: Witnessing the Holocaust | Personal accounts of persecution and genocide by the Nazi regime
CHANNEL | Home Service
FIRST BROADCAST | 19 April 1945
DURATION | 11 minutes 52 seconds
FIRSTBROADCAST
1945
Richard Dimbleby describes the scenes of almost unimaginable horror that greeted him as he toured Belsen concentration camp shortly after its liberation by the British in April 1945.
Bergen-Belsen began as a prisoner of war camp and was used for Jewish inmates from 1943 onwards. It is estimated that 70,000 people died there. Richard Dimbleby was the first broadcaster to enter the camp and, overcome, broke down several times while making his report. The BBC initially refused to play the report, as they could not believe the scenes he had described, and it was only broadcast after Dimbleby threatened to resign.

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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