Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp – Memorial & Virtual Tour
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony, Germany, established in 1940 as a prisoner-of-war camp and transformed in 1943 into a concentration camp where tens of thousands of people died, including Anne Frank. Today the site is a memorial and documentation centre open to visitors and accessible through a 360° virtual tour, offering a solemn record of one of the most significant Holocaust sites in Germany.
At a glance
- Type
- Nazi concentration camp; post-war memorial and documentation centre
- Period
- Established 1940 as POW camp; concentration camp from 1943; liberated April 1945
- Style
- Memorial landscape with documentation centre and preserved grave mounds
- Location
- Bergen-Belsen, Lower Saxony, Germany (southwest of Bergen, near Celle)
- Coordinates
- 52.7603° N, 9.9085° E
Overview
Bergen-Belsen, known also as Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp located in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner-of-war camp, in 1943 parts of it became a concentration camp initially intended as an “exchange camp,” where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held overseas. The camp was later expanded to hold Jews from other concentration camps, and by the time of liberation in April 1945 it held approximately 60,000 prisoners in catastrophic conditions.
History
Bergen-Belsen opened in 1940 as a camp for Soviet prisoners of war, thousands of whom died of starvation and disease. In 1943 it was reorganised and expanded as a concentration camp with several sub-sections, including a “Star Camp” for Jewish prisoners who might be exchanged for German nationals abroad. Among those held there was Anne Frank, who died of typhus in February or March 1945. British and Canadian forces liberated the camp on 15 April 1945, finding approximately 13,000 unburied corpses and around 60,000 surviving prisoners, most critically ill. The liberators were forced to bury the dead in mass graves and burn the remaining barracks to prevent further spread of typhus.
What you see
The former camp site today is a landscaped memorial, with the barrack foundations no longer visible above ground and large earthen grave mounds marking the locations of mass burials. A modern documentation centre built in 2007 contains permanent exhibitions on the history of the camp, its victims, and the liberation. Obelisks and memorial stones erected by survivor communities of various nationalities stand throughout the grounds. The 360° virtual tour allows remote visitors to explore the memorial site, the grave mounds, and the documentation centre’s galleries without physical travel.
Cultural significance
Bergen-Belsen is one of the most historically significant Holocaust memorial sites in Germany, receiving hundreds of thousands of visitors each year as a place of remembrance and education. The camp’s association with Anne Frank, whose diary became one of the most widely read testimonies of the Holocaust, gives it particular resonance for international audiences. The memorial is a protected heritage site managed by the Lower Saxony Memorial Foundation (Stiftung niedersächsische Gedenkstätten) and is considered an essential site of conscience for understanding 20th-century European history.
Practical information
Address: Anne-Frank-Platz, 29303 Bergen, Lower Saxony, Germany. The documentation centre is open Tuesday to Sunday; closed Mondays except public holidays. Admission is free. The 360° virtual tour is accessible online at the memorial’s official website (Bergen-Belsen.de). Check the official website for current opening hours and guided tour schedules.
Getting there
By car from Hannover (approx. 75 km): take the A7 motorway north to the B3 and follow signs for Bergen-Belsen Gedenkstätte. By public transport from Celle (approx. 20 km): regional bus services connect Celle to Bergen; from Bergen the memorial is accessible by local bus or taxi. A dedicated visitor car park is available at the site.