Hannover and Bergen Belsen

Hannover is the capital of Lower Saxony (Neidersachsen) that was founded sometime before the 13^th century. Hannover is the home to the world’s largerst marksmans festival and was the host city for the 2000 New Millenium World’s Fair. In the 14^th century the main churches and a city wall with three gates were built. In the time of World War 2 the Lord Mayor and all city officials were members of the Nazi party which led to the expulsion of Jews. Many Jews settled in Hannover from nearby Bergin-Belsen after the war. The Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen are one of the city’s most famous landmarks. They are baroque style, very geometric gardens. The palace that once stood was unfortunately destroyed by Allied bombers, but has now been rebuilt. The gardens are separated into several sections. In the Nouveau Jardin section stands the largest fountain in Europe. The symbol of the city is the New Town Hall. Inside the new town hall there are four scale models of the city at different points in its history.

Bergen Belsen was a POW camp, exchange camp, and finally a concentration camp founded in 1940 and liberated by the British 11^th Armoured Division on April 15, 1945. Inside, there were 53,000 prisoners half starved and dying. Another 13,000 dead bodies were laying about, unburried. The most famous prisoners in this camo were Anne and Margot Frank who died in March of 1945, only one month before liberation. Their burial sites are unknown as they were buried in a mass grave.There is a monument grave on the grounds in there memories. From 1941 to 1945 over 50,000 prisoners died there, 20,000 of them being Russian and the other 30,000 were various others; including Jews. Even though there were no gas chambers here, many died from torture, malnutrition, and disease.  Former guards of the camp were forced to load the bodies of the dead onto trucks for a more respectful burial after liberation.