Description
Object description
British officer served as staff officer with Royal Army Service Corps, Headquarters, VIII Corps in North West Europe, 1944-1945; served with Reconnaissance Party, VIII Corps in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany, 4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in South Wales, GB, 1920-1939: education; obtaining apprenticeship with Austin Motor Coy Ltd, 1938. Aspects of period as driver and officer with Royal Army Service Corps in GB, 1939-1944: mobilisation with Royal Army Service Corps Coy, 34th Anti-Aircraft Bde in Birmingham, 1939; commissioning, 1941; background to posting to Headquarters Troops, VIII Corps. Recollections of period as staff officer with Royal Army Service Corps, Headquarters, VIII Corps in North West Europe, 1944-1945: preparations of invasion of Normandy, France, 6/1944; landing in Normandy, France, 6/1944; congestion in beachhead; role of VIII Corps; duties aiding supplies and transport; reaction to sight of destruction in Falaise Gap, Normandy, France, 8/1944; aiding Allied advance into Belgium; attachment to US Army unit; impressions of artificial moonlight.
REEL 2 Continues: difficulties of river crossings; routing of transport; attitude of French civilians towards Allied advance; speed of advance in Northern France and Belgium; nature of fighting after crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945. Recollections of period as officer with Reconnaissance Party, VIII Corps in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany, 4/1945: arrival of German deputation; orders to make reconnaissance of camp; arrival at camp; initial impressions of camp; conditions in camp; estimating number of dead in camp; lack of knowledge/preparation prior to entering camp; physical condition of inmates; question of why camp bakery had not been used.
REEL 3 Continues: reasons why German Army wanted to hand over responsibility for camp; distributing British 'Compo' rations to inmates; arranging supplies for camp; unsuitability of 'Compo' rations for inmates; arrival of medical personnel; start of clean up of camp; reads letter he wrote to friend in GB; different nationalities of camp inmates; atmosphere in camp; response of inmates to treatment; discovery of British inmates in hut; nature of camp; attitude towards Schutzstaffel (SS) in camp; unsuitability of 'Bengal Famine Mixture' for inmates; duration of time spent in camp.
REEL 4 Continues: removal of dead bodies; sight of bodies being bulldozed into mass graves; how German burgomeisters were brought to view camp; belief that Holocaust should not be forgotten; arrival of film units and journalists; opinion of films made of camp; attitude towards British Army's work in camp; return visit to site of former concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen for fifthieth anniversary of liberation of camp, 4/1995; impact of his experiences of liberation of camp; story of discovery of group of RAF prisoners of war in wood. Aspects of period as staff officer with No 1 Commando Bde in Germany, 5/1945: attachment to brigade; investigation of ship carrying refugees sunk by RAF at Lubeck.
REEL 5 Continues: disarming of German Army in Schleswig-Holstein; story of visit to Berlin during Potsdam Conference, 7/1945. Reflections on wartime service: difficulties for survivors after liberation of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, 4/1945; demobilisation, 1945; opinion of attitude of Germans and Japanese towards wartime actions and to keeping memory of Holocaust alive.