Papers of Sir John Nimmo, 1945

I WAS AT BELSEN

Every now and then the name of a person or a place

acquires a peculiar significance and rightly or wrongly creeps

into our vocabulary. Early in the war the Norwegian Leader,

Quisling, came to be regarded as the embodiment of treachery, 

and ever since his name has been used to denote a traitor.

In the same way, towards the end of the war the word "Belsen"

found its way into our ordinary conversation as a word describ-

ing that form of cruelty which brings about death by starvation.

For instance, only recently there appeared in one of our daily

newspapers a photograph of a sheet hanging from a port-hole and

 on which was written "H.M.S. Belsen". This was a digger method

of expressing dissastisfaction with the food conditions on their

returning troopship.

 

Before expressing some of the impressions formed during 

a visit to Belsen for the purpose of finding out the medical 

treatment for people suffering from starvation and malnutrition

with a view to having the right foods available for Australian

Japanese prison camps, I desire first of all to describe the

situation of the camp and the circumstances under which British

Service personnel came to enter it. 

 

The Concentration Camp adjoined a big military barracks

in what we would describe as bush country. The whole area was

segregated from neighbouring villages and farms. It was enclosed

by a high barbed wire fence, and during the German occupation the

approaches were closed off by German guards at points at least

two miles away, making it nigh on impossible for an inmate to 

escape or for a civilian to enter.

 

On the 12th April the British Second Army was attacking

German positions in the area and a battle was raging a few miles

from the Belsen Camp. On that date the Chief-of-staff of the

Frist German Parachute Army approached the Chief-of-staff of the 

British Eighth Corps and stated that a terrible position had

arisen in the Camp, and asked the British to take it over. On the

following day a truce was drawn up, and under its terms a neutral

area was defined and the British agreed to enter the Camp provided

the SS staff remained to carry out whatever orders the British gave them.

 

On 15th April an Advance Party arrived at the Camp and

the scene which met their eyes beggars description. There were

approximately 50,000 people in the Camp of whom about 10,000 were dead. Those still alive had had no food or water for about seven

days following a long period of semi-starvation. Typhus, among

other diseases, was raging and the filth everywhere poisoned the

very air.

 

A great deal of newspaper and newsreel publicity has

been given to the horrors of Belsen and I feel that no good pur-

pose can be served by my enlarging upon them here today. However

I do think that I should answer publicly the question which I have

been asked repeatedly since returning to Australia. "Were things 

as bad at Belsen as we have been led to believe?" The answer is

"Yes, and in many respects the films and newspaper articles have

not included the worst features of conditions there."

 

My first reaction on entering the Camp was one of over-

whelming revulsion on observing the depth to which so called

civilised and cultered people could descend in their treatment

of their fellow human beings, most of who were of their own

nationality. Hand I not seen the victims of their depravity it

would have been difficult for me to believe that skeletons could

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walk or crawl like animals on all fours. Amidst the squalor,

insanity and death of the Concentration Camp there was one

bright spot, and that was the magnificent fight being waged

by the members of the medical profession and their assistants

to save every life possible.

 

The senior British physican informed me that when the

handful of British doctors and medical orderlies who were drawn

from the medical units supporting the attacking army entered the

Camp, they were faced with the grim task of making a rapid survey

of the victims and concentrating all their energies, until rein-

forcements arrived, on those who had some sort of chance of

recovery. It will be readily realised that the occupants of

Belsen were at that time in a dehydrated condition and in the

early stages of their treatment many of them were fed by intra-

nasal drips and intra-venous injections.

 

With the arrival of reinforcements including six

British Red Cross medical units, a Swiss Red Cross Medical Mission

and members of the Friends (Quakers) Ambulance Unit, the Salvation

Army, Y.M.C.A, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and Save The Children Fund

and representatives of other philanthropic bodies, the great task

of delousing and otherwise cleansing the victims, clothing them,

and carrying them at least one hundred yards on stretchers to the

barracks adjoining the Camp, began in earnest.

 

The SS staff was given the task of preparing the barracks

for the patients. The doctors worked day and night examining and

treating the living dead but so many of the people were so far

beyond medical aid that in the month that followed the British

occupation of the Camp and Barracks another 13,000 died. It is,

however, safe to say that had it not been for the ceaseless

efforts of the medical men and their assistants the whole pop-

ulation of Belsen would have met a similar fate in a very short time.

 

The determination of the British Army to do all they

possibly could for the victims of Belsen is evidenced by the fact

that more than thirty units were detached from their duties in

operational areas to work in the Concentration Camp.

 

In addition to their medical duties the doctors had the

task of establishing the identity of their patients. Because of

the numerous nationalities present the language problem made this

task extremely difficult, and the services of the Army linguists had

to be procured. 

 

The failure of the Germans to keep records and to allow

communications from these Camps has given rise in thousands of

European homes to mental anxiety of a nature that can never be

relieved. This was brought home to me a few weeks later when a

boy scout on the road between Utrecht and Amsterdam hailed our

truck and asked if we would give a lift to a young medical student

who was trying to reach home from the Dachau Concentration Camp

where he had been an occupant for twelve months. His weakened

condition was aggravated by the presence of sores on his feet and

legs which he attributed to the vermin infested quarters in which

he had been lodged. On the way to his home he told me that one

afternoon he was returning to his people from the University when 

two SS men grabbed him thrust him in a truck and took him to

Germany. He had not been able to communicate with his family, 

and his aged parents and sister had been left in a state of sus-

pense as to his fate for more that a year. I shall never forget

the scene which took place when we arrived outside his home. His

mother happened to be sitting at the window as our truck drew up

and when we helped him out she rushed out into the street to greet

him. She held him in a firm embrace for what seemed to be hours

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while the tears raced down her cheeks. His sister followed,

and on seeing her brother hurried around the corner and a few

moments later his tottering old father appeared and fell upon

his neck and covered his face with more tears and kisses. We

were invited inside but thought it wise to leave the family to

themselves. Two nights later we visited the home, and relatives

and friends packed their drawing-room and great was the rejoicing

at the return of the lost son.

 

In France, Belgium and Holland I was told repeatedly

that the worst feature of the German occupation of those countries

was the fear of the knock of the Gestapo whose members usually

made their arrests at six o'clock in the morning. From these

countries thousands of people were taken away never to be heard

of again. 

 

Some idea of the extent of the mental suffering caused

by World War No. 2 is to be found in the files of the International

Red Cross Committee at Geneva. That organisation during the six

years of war answered more than 46,000,000 letters.

 

The next thing which struck me forcibly was the massing

rapidity with which the morale of the people returned once the

British took over the area. As they regained strength the younger

generation in particular became bright and cheerful. It was a

common thing to hear them singing in their wards, and they were

always ready for a joke. The Australian differ hat caused some

amusement and whilst passing one ward a Polish girl sang out in

English "Tom Mix comes to Belsen", a remark which everybody

thoroughly enjoyed.

 

It was quite apparent that the receipt of clean and

pretty clothing had a very cheering effect on the womenfolk.

 

When they were able to take food in normal quantities

they made rapid headway physically. We saw the same thing happen

with regard to our prisoners-of-war who were very thin at the

time of their liberation on account of insufficient food on their

long marches backwards and forwards across Germany. After two or

three weeks in England they were up two or three stone in weight.

 

Before the 21st May the British units, medical and

otherwise, had gained complete control of the situation, every

patient was hospitalised and documented and a small number had

commenced their homeward journey to Western Europe. On that date

the walking patients gathered together to witness a sight which

gladdened their hearts, the burning down ceremony of the last

hut of the Belsen Concentration Camp.

 

Before leaving the subject of the treatment of the

occupants of Belsen, I would again like to pay another tribute

to the doctors and the people assisting them for the magnificent

work they did with limited facilities under the worst and most

depressing conditions one can imagine.

 

We who had been privileged to meet Lt. Col. Lipscombe,

the senior physician at Belsen were delighted to learn that his

great work had been recognised and that he was promoted to the

rank of Brigadier and set to Lord Louis Mountbatten Headquarters

to direct medical service to the victims of Japanese "Belsens".

 

After what I saw and learned in Europe after leaving 

Belsen, I feel today that it is o exaggeration to say that if

Belsen has become the symbol of "death due to starvation", the

word should be written right across Europe this winter.

 

In England the food situation is grim and the position

of the housewife is more difficult now than it was during war.

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This is due to the fact that the amazing British people in

spite of what they have endured are today exporting their own

products to succour people of countries formerly occupied by

the Germans. At the same time it is quite incorrect to suggest

that the people of Britain are starving. One of the finest

efforts of the European War was the organising by Lord Woolton

and his staff of the distributions of food. Throughout the war

and today the people of the mother country receive sufficient

to eat but the fare is plain and monotonous. Let me illustrate.

Last year the Matron and Sisters of the Fairfield Infectious

Diseases Hospital handed a sum of money to the Australian Red

Cross Society to spend on bombed out children in a London hospital.

Members of the Red Cross Unit in England were asked to give a 

treat from Australian foods we had in the old country and a party

was arranged at an East End Hospital. Members of the R.A.A.F

joined Red Cross personnel and provided musical entertainment

for the children. When Australian fruit salad and fruit cake

were placed before the children, many of whom had lost both their

parents during the flying bomb and rocket attacks on London, the

hesitated to eat because they had never seen these foods before.

However, when they were persuaded to partake of them, their heads

went down and they were not open to conversation until their

plates, refilled several times, were finally empty.

 

The British need, most of all, meats and foods contain-

ing fats and sugar.

 

In France, Holland and Belgium the situation is steadily

improving. When the British first entered Norhern Holland many

of the people were in a state of semi-starvation. In the first

home I entered in Amsterdam the occupants were sitting down to

their evening meal which consisted of a plate of water-cress.

They had not seen bread for a fortnight, and potatoes, butter,

cheese and eggs for more than a year. But like the people of

Belsen, the Dutch made a quick recovery once the Canadian Army

commenced to provide rations for them.

 

The position in Germany can best be described by refer-

ence to the devastation and destruction wrought by Allied bombing.

Almost every city and town of any consequence can be accurately

described as a mountain of rubble beneath which there lie thous-

ands of unrecovered bodies. Millions of German women and children

are homeless and their plight is desperate. There are upwards of

four million displaced persons who for various reasons are not

prepared to return to their own countries, wandering in the

British and American zones, and their future is causing the 

Occupying Troops a great deal of anxiety. British and Internation-

al Red Cross Medical Units are working continuously amongst these

displaced persons trying to keep down epidemics which have

commenced to break out amongst them and the homeless. Only recent-

ly Mr. Bevan, British Foreign Minister, warned the world that the

success with which the British kept the Germans out of England

could not be expected in keeping germs out of the same country if

disease gained the upperhand in the land of the vanquished. It is

well to remember that with the fast air travel today Australia

is less than three days away from Europe.

 

After having observed the seriousness of the situation

in Western Europe you can imagine my surprise and dismay when I

was informed at Geneva by members of the International Red Cross

that conditions in the Balkans and Austria and Poland were far

worse.

 

The officers of the International Red Cross have at

their Headquarters a chart which is kept up to date by reports

from their delegates all over Europe which reveals at any given

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date the precise needs of every country and their comparative

urgency.

 

They showed me reports and pictures from the Balkans

which revealed the awful plight of millions of human beings.

In Bosnia, a province of Yugoslavia, the peasants were obliges

to till their land at night because they are completely without

clothing. There are no draught animals so five men and women

pull the plough while one holds its beam the whole night through

till dawn. They then go back to their primitive homes and lie

down to hide their nakedness from the sunshine. As a consequence

of the war 13,000 children in this province have lost their

parents and have been completely deprived of food, clothing and

shelter. Their diet consists of plants, roots, kernels and the

bark and leaves of trees, and water. They look like skeletons

and are covered with lice and suffer from all imaginable diseases.

Doctors who have examined them say that the have found among

them diseases which they have never met before except in medical

books. In Albania, infant mortality has risen to 40%, the cause

of the mass dying being diarrhoea due to improper diet. 50% of 

the mothers are not in a position to nurse their children suffer-

ing themselves from anaemia and under-nourishment. Today

in Poland, Austria, Yugoslavia and Albania there is suffering worse

even than that experienced by the Greeks in their darkest days.

In many of the Provinces 80% of the population are suffering

from tuberculosis. As Mr. Bevan also pointed out, it is no

exaggeration to say that at least a million people will perish

during the approaching winter.

 

For a Pleasant Sunday Afternoon this address has so

far been anything but pleasant. However, I am thankful to say

that in concluding it I can bring before you a subject well

pleasing to all. In visiting the International Red Cross at

Genevan, I was privileged to see something of the work of the

finest organisation for the relief of suffering to be found in

the world. This body has for its head, one of the greatest men

on the earth today. Professor Max Huber, the President of the

International Red Cross Committee is a philosopher, jurist and

ambassador of international repute. In additions he is a Christian

who practices his faith in a way which is an inspiration to all

who are associated with him. This man has given his life to the

task of finding ways and means in time of war and peace to

bring the maximum of relief to suffering humanity. On receiving

news of the atomic bomb and Japanese atrocities he remarked -

"We must be realistic about human wickedness, but we must not

let it appal us, it being our duty to seek the remedy." "Work,"

he said, "not despair" must be our motto.

 

With Professor Huber are men and women like him.

Drawn from the Universities, the professions and the commercial

world of Switzerland, they have for six years laid aside their

ordinary vocations and given the world the benefit of their

brains, their energy and their money in their desire to relieve

as much human suffering as possible.

 

During the war, the Swiss, with very little outside

help for they are a very independent people, carried the enormous

financial burden of distributing the food parcels and bulk stores

provided by the belligerent nations for their nationals in enemy

hands. They provided twenty-one warehouses, the smallest of which

was bigger than the Melbourne Exhibition, a fleet of fourteen

ships, three hundred railway trucks and no end of motor vehicles.

Without exception, the 168,000 British Commonwealth prisoners-of-

war who came out of the German prison camps were anxious to tell

the world that they owed their lives to the Red Cross parcels

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distributed by this great organisation. For three and a half

years they pleaded with the Japanese Military Authorities to

allow food and medical supplies into Japanese prison camps,

but their entreaties fell upon deaf ears. Today the people

who make up the International Red Cross are still hard at work

to bring relief to suffering millions of the  Old World.

 

The thing which impressed me most about these men

of great mental capacity was their intense humanity. As you

spoke to them you felt that they themselves were felling the

hunger pangs of the people they were so anxious to help.

 

I am pleased to be able to tell you today that although

Australia is heavily committed to assist in the relief of the

needy in the Pacific, our country has, through the Australian

Red Cross, with the sanction of the Commonwealth Government,

already shipped two valuable consignments of food, clothing

and medical supplies to the men of Geneva to assist them in the

great work they are doing in countries where U.N.R.R.A. is not

operating.

 

Belsen was a dreadful place to visit, and it has been

a hard task to know what to say about it here today, but it is

comforting and encouraging to have seen there, as at Geneva, men

and women demonstrating what great things can be done and achieved

when the Christian principles of self-denial and personal sacrifice

are put into action.

 

JAN/JP

2/10/1945

 

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NOTES ON BELSEN CAMP

1. We feel that some of you who were not here at BELSEN from the

beginning might like to see these notes. They give the most accurate

facts available. We would like to have produced them before, but we

were one and all rather busy on the first main job of clearing the

Concentration Camp.

That job is now finished.

 

2. On 12 Apr 45 the Chief of Staff of the FIRST GERMAN PARA ARMY

approached the Brigadier General Staff of the BRITISH EIGHTH CORPS.

He said that a terrible situation had arisen at BELSEN, and that

Typhus was raging there. He asked us to come in and take the place

over.

 

On 13 Apr 45 the Terms of a special Truce were drawn up. (you

must remember that a Battle was going on all around the HELEN Area.)

Under these Terms the BRITISH agreed to come in and take over the

Camp; a neutral area was defined around HELEN; the SS Camp Staff were

to remain, the BRITISH doing what they liked with them; and the

HUNGARIANS  to remain, around, and be used by the BRITISH until such

time as they had no further use for them. 

It is believed that Brigadier GLYN HUGHES, Deputy Director of

Medical Services, SECOND ARMY, was the first to arrive.

The first BRITISH unit in was an Anti-Tank Battery of 63 Anti-

Tank Regt. They arrived on 15 Apr 45.

Lt Col JOHNSTON, with 32 CCS, came in on 17 Apr 45.

Lt Col MATHER with 113 Light Anti Aircraft Regt, Headquarters

10 Garrison, and 224 Military Government Detachment (Major MILES)

came in on 18 Apr 45, when 112 LAA Regt took over from the Anti-Tank

Bty.

The scene which met the first comers beggars description. There

were approximately 50,000 people in the Camp, of which about 10,000 lay

dead in the huts or about the Camp. Those still alive had had no food

or water for about seven days, after a long period of semi-starvation.

Typhus, amongst other diseases, was raging. Corruption and

filth was everywhere, the very air was poisoned. 

You have no doubt heard these terrible details from those who

saw them.

The tasks which faced the first comers must have appeared

insurmountable. Nevertheless , they were tackled with amazing success,

when one considers the resources available.

With the arrival of the first of the HRCS Teams, and Col

SPOTTISWOODS of Military Government on 21 Apr 45, the first of the

flow of reinforcements began - which went on until we are the large

party you know now. On 30 Apr 45, 102 Control Section SECOND ARMY,

over command and control of the Camps and installations from Headquarters

10 Garrison. (We have attached a list of the BRITISH and Voluntary

Helpers who are here at the moment.)

 

3. The first big job is now over.

On 19 May 45 the Concentration Camp will have been cleared of the

last person.

All it's inmates will then have been moved to the four hospitals

and the tree Transit Camps in the Barracks' Area.

A total of 28,900 will have been evacuated from that Camp, of

who 2,006 have died since coming out.

The BRITISH have supervised the burial by SS and GERMAN PW, of

acme 23,000, of which approximately 10,000 - or even more - lay unburied

when they arrived here on 15 Apr 45. 

 

/ The ---

 

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The daily death rate has been terribly high, but it is steadily

decreasing. On 30 Apr 45, 548 people died. 97 died on 17 May 45.

 

4. You have no doubt noticed the miraculous change that takes

place in the inmates of the Camp whey they have been up here in

Hospitals or Transit camps for a few days.

500 Fit started their homeward journey to WESTERN EUROPE ON

17 May 45.

Another 7,000 will be leaving mostly for countries in EASTERN

EUROPE, between 21-23 May 45.

This place will then consist of Four Hospitals containing about

13,000 people, and two Transit Camps (III and IV) with about 6,400.

They will all eventually leave here as they become fit to travel.

 

5. We are now burning down the Concentration Camp, and intended

holding the Ceremony of burning the last hut on 21 May 45 at six

o'clock in the evening.

That should end the First Chapter in the history of BELSEN since

the BRITISH came.

The next and final chapter will be nursing back to health in

the hospitals, of the thousands who are sick in mind and body.

 

Headquarters,

BELSEN Camp

18 May 45

HLWB/EFP

 

Colonel

Commander

102 Control Section

SECOND Army

HQ 102 Central Section (HQ Belsen Camp)

 

14 Amplifier Unit

 

JAG War Crimes Commission

 

MED

32 CCS  (SMO)

35 CCS

11 Lt. Fd Amb.

163 Fd Amb

30 Fd Hyg Sec

7 Mob Bac Lab

9 (Brit) Gen Hosp.

 

British Red Cross Sec's 100, 103, 104, 105, 113, 114.

Swiss Red Cross Mission.

British Medical Students.

 

DEF & ADM

113 LAA Reft RHQ

368 Bty

369 Bty

370 Bty

 

ORD

103 ML & BU

DADOS Dump

Camp Laundry

 

RASC

1575 Arty P1 (Light

1576 Arty P1 (Heavy)

166 DID

 

MIL GOV

224 Det

618 Det

904 Det

HQ Mil Gov (SINGO)

DP Assembly Team

3 MGID

 

REME

113 REME W/Shops

 

MISC

Fire & Water Gp  HQ.

 

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