Bergen-Belsen
Inside Bergen-Belsen the camp were many rows of wooden huts in lines along the camp roads. Rations were just some black water, a small slice of black bread, and sometimes a watery soup after night roll call. The roll call continued even though the remaining prisoners had been left for dead. In the last weeks before they were liberated, conditions became even worse. Their bread ration was reduced to less than a slice per day, and then was stopped completely. Then, for the last week, their water stopped. There were still 60,000 inmates in the camp.
On 15 April 1945, Bergen-Belsen’s residents lined up for roll call; nobody came. Suddenly, they became aware of the situation around them, hearing the noise of tanks. There were no SS guards in sight. As the hum got closer they realised that the noise was of British tanks.
Within hours of securing the camp, they brought in DDT to delouse the survivors. They also brought in food and left it outside the barracks. But after years of enforced starvation, survivors were physically incapable of eating even the most basic foodstuffs without repercussions.
After the food was distributed, the British started up a registry to take an accounting of the survivors. Horak and her mother were issued with 'Displaced Persons' cards. Shortly after exiting the tent, Olga’s mother collapsed. "My mother had survived Auschwitz, a death march from Kurzbach to Dresden, the journey to Belsen and four months in that cesspool, only to die moments after being registered as a survivor".
Read more about this topic: Olga Horak