In 1940, Bergen-Belsen opened in the north of Germany. Until 1943, it was a prisoner-of-war camp, before developing into a three sections, which included the POW camp, the ‘residence camp’ and the ‘prisoners camp’. There was also an ‘exchange’ camp where prisoners and Jewish people who were deemed high value were kept to be exchanged for German POWs abroad. Towards the end of the war, thousands of Jewish prisoners and others were taken to Bergen-Belsen as other camps were emptied as the Third Reich collapsed. Over 52,000 people were killed at Bergen-Belsen due to starvation, illness and exposure. Famous child diarist, Anne Frank, perished there.
