The survivor and the liberator: Two tales of the horror at the notorious Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentr

As Queen Elizabeth II visits 70 years on, the concentration camp is still in the minds of Captain Eric Brown and Rudi Oppenheimer

The liberator

For Captain Eric Brown, it is the stench of Bergen-Belsen that remains with him 70 years on.

Capt Brown, 96, was already a legendary Royal Navy test pilot in 1945, and was at an airfield near Hanover assessing captured German aircraft the day before Belsen was liberated by the British.

Fluent in German, he was asked if he could spare just one day to help interrogate the commandant of the camp, SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Josef Kramer, and his assistant Irma Grese, both of whom were later hanged for war crimes.

He said: “When we arrived the camp guards were all lined up and they were handed over to us and in we went. While the brigadier went to find Kramer and Grese, I had a wander round. Read More