<a href="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Bergen-Belsen-1945-George-Rodger2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2084" src="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Bergen-Belsen-1945-George-Rodger2-300x277.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="277" /></a>
<p style="text-align: center">(Boy Walking in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp)</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://photographyandimage.blogspot.com/2007/01/boy-walking-on-bergen-belsen.html">http://photographyandimage.blogspot.com/2007/01/boy-walking-on-bergen-belsen.html</a></p>
<p style="text-align: left">In 1945, George Rodger became most noted for his being the first photographer to enter the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen (which was just after Germany’s surrender). “His photographs of the few survivors and piles of corpses were published in <em>Life</em> and <em>Time</em> magazines and were highly influential in showing the reality of the death camps” (www.newworldencyclopedia.org). This is why evidence such as the Bergen-Belsen photos should be preserved. They remind us of the tremendous suffering and pain which always results from war and shows that human cruelty has no limit.<!--more--></p>
<p style="text-align: left">The horrors of the Second World War were forever immortalized by television and photo-journalists like George Rodger. Between 1938 and 1945, the largest, deadliest and bloodiest war the world has ever known commenced. It started when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on approximately September 1, 1939. The United Kingdom and France invaded Germany within the next two days. On September 17, the Soviet Union joined up with Germany to conquer Poland and to divide Eastern Europe. From then on, it was a domino effect of events. Germany made a pact with Italy and Japan (who became known as the Axis Powers), then betrayed and invaded the Soviet Union, forcing them to the side of the Allies (which was pretty much the rest of the world).</p>
<p style="text-align: left">For three years, battles in and all around Europe raged. It is estimated that around 62 million people lost their lives in World War II. Specifically, that was about 25 million soldiers and 37 million civilians (around 9 - 12 million of which were victims of the Holocaust). “The Holocaust was the organized murder of at least nine million people, about two-thirds of whom were Jewish. Originally, the Nazis used killing squads, <em>Einsatzgruppen</em>, to conduct massive open-air killings, shooting as many as 33,000 people in a single massacre, as in the case of Babi Yar. By 1942, the Nazi leadership decided to implement the Final Solution (<em>Endlösung</em>), the genocide of all Jews in Europe, and increase the pace of the Holocaust. The Nazis built six extermination camps specifically to kill Jews. Millions of Jews who had been confined to massively overcrowded Ghettos were transported to these “Death-camps” where they were gassed or shot, usually immediately after arriving.”(www.newworldencyclopedia.org). It was the recording of these terrors that lead to George Rodger’s most famous job.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">The self-taught British photojournalist is, like many photographers, not very well known. He was born in Hale, Cheshire in 1908 and studied at St. Bedes College. At 17, he was removed from the school by his parents because of behavior problems. For several months, he worked on a farm before joining the British Merchant Navy for 4 years. During this time, he wrote accounts of his travels and taught himself photography to illustrate them. He wanted to be a writer, but couldn’t get his work published. After his service, he moved to the United States. Here he did many odd jobs until 1938, in which he moved back to London to work for a magazine as a photographer. One year later, he was recruited as a war correspondent for <em>Life</em> magazine, thanks to his photographs of the Blitz in London. During this time, World War II has surfaced and with it came a strong urge within Roger to chronicle the war. He followed the war starting in West Africa, then to Burma, then Italy, and, finally, the Allied liberation of France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. It was in his final destination near Hanover in Northwest Germany where he became famous. (www.newworldencyclopedia.org).</p>
<p style="text-align: left">The death camp that Rodger reported on was originally a prisoner-of-war camp for French, Belgium, and Russian prisoners (renamed Stalag in 1941). It was located between the villages of Bergen and Belsen (hence its new name change in 1943 when it became a concentration camp). “Jews with foreign passports were kept there to be exchanged for German nationals imprisoned abroad, although very few exchanges were made. About 200 Jews were allowed to immigrate to Palestine and about 1,500 Hungarian Jews were allowed to immigrate to Switzerland, both took place under the rubric of exchanges for German nationals” (Weiner: “Bergen-Belsen”). It was intended to hold only about 10,000 people, but by the end of the war it held over 60,000 prisoners. Many were evacuated or lead on a death march to Bergen-Belsen from Auschwitz (and other Eastern camps).</p>
<p style="text-align: left">According to “Forget You Not”, a project dedicated to remembering the Holocaust, its survivors and all its horror, “It was not like Auschwitz where numerous gas chambers killed thousands everyday. But Bergen-Belsen was no less cruel or horrifying. Most died at Bergen-Belsen from being shot, hung, starved to death, or killed by disease. The camp did not fit the standard organization of a concentration camp. It had several camps that segregated the prisoners. Camp officials even traded important prisoners, including Jews, in exchange for money from different governments. Bergen-Belsen was unique in many ways, but it was still a camp where thousands suffered and died under the harsh hand of Nazi leadership.” This holds true. For a concentration camp, the conditions were pretty good and prisoners were not forced to work. However, in 1944, the camp deteriorated rapidly. Bergen-Belsen then became a recovery camp, where those too sick or weak to work were brought (none received medical treatment, however), as well as those evacuated from other camps throughout the German’s retreat from the Allies. Disease spread when all basic services (i.e.-food and water) collapsed, the camp unable to accommodate the sudden increase in prisoners. Along with disease, things like starvation, overwork, disease, brutality and sadistic medical experiments killed many. In fact, so many died, that “Mass graves were made to hold the thousands of corpses of those who perished.” (All based or quoted from Weiner on “Bergen-Belsen”)</p>
<p style="text-align: left">As the first major camp to be liberated by the allies [on April 15, 1945], the event received a lot of press coverage and the world saw the horrors of the Holocaust. This is where Rodger comes in. As a war correspondent for <em>Life</em>, his job was to record and report what was going on in the world, making this a very common and typical topic. However, what made these photos stand out so much from many other war photos was their content. This wasn’t just of the soldiers or the battlefield. There were of the victims of those battles. “Horrific photos and films of the camp's [many unburied corpses, dying inmates,] emaciated corpses and mortally sick inmates were quickly circulated around the globe. Within weeks the British military occupation newspaper proclaimed: “The story of that greatest of all exhibitions of ‘man's inhumanity to man’ which was Belsen Concentration Camp is known throughout the world.” (Weber: “Bergen-Belsen Camp: The Suppressed Story”).</p>
<p style="text-align: left">Needless to say, the reaction to such reports and the reality of even the least horrific of concentration camps was as expected. The people back home who say these things through the media were as shocked as anyone else. It was an entirely different story for those that were actually there. “The British troops who liberated the Belsen camp three weeks before the end of the war were shocked and disgusted by [what] they found there” (Weber: “Bergen-Belsen Camp: The Suppressed Story”). This was the soldiers’ and reporters’ initial reactions. However, Rodger himself has been quoted on later recalling how, after spending several hours at the camp, “It wasn't even a matter of what I was photographing, as what had happened to me in the process. When I discovered that I could look at the horror of Belsen - 4000 dead and starving lying around - and think only of a nice photographic composition, I knew something had happened to me and I had to stop. I felt I was like the people running the camp - it didn't mean a thing.” The traumatic experience of the camp allowed Rodger to realize that he could never work as a war correspondent again. He left <em>Life</em> magazine and travelled throughout Africa and the Middle East, continuing to document these area's wildlife and people. “Those images, well known all over the world, continued to haunt him until his death in 1995; he refused to look at them for 45 years” (www.newworldencyclopedia.org). One cannot even imagine what it was like for those that suffered and were held there at the camp. Even today, these images haunt people in the back of their minds whenever WWII and the Holocaust are mentioned. There have been many efforts to remind people of this horror and to make sure it never happens again (i.e.-the “Forget You Not” project).</p>
<p style="text-align: left">I have to agree with the majority in saying that these photos are quite upsetting. Among the most famous of them, is the one above. It is that of a little boy walking past an endless row of bodies within the camp. I can’t help but look at this picture and wonder things like: “What terrors has he seen?” and “What will the rest of his life be like?” He will likely have nightmares and always live in fear for the rest of his days. I can’t even put myself in his place and say I understand what he’s gone through. It’s always distressing when I see something like this, not necessarily because of the content of it, but because some number of people wanted for this to happen. They deliberately destroyed other people’s lives, and for what: land, resources, power, and a blind hatred for people with different traits. These things seem so insignificant when comparing them to the value of human life and its quality.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">What I believe to be one of the best comparisons to these photos is another war photo. It is also an iconic image, but from the Vietnam war. The image is that of Kim Phuc Phan Thai, also known as “Napalm Girl” after the photo was published. She is the naked girl (running away from a recent napalm attack) in the center of the photo suffering from napalm burns on her arms and back. She became the anti-war symbol for the North Vietnamese Government. The entire image encompasses pain, fear, and death. Much like Rodger’s photos of the Holocaust, this one speaks beyond mere words about the devastation war has on the world and those who get caught in the middle of it. Although many of the survivors that were liberated from Bergen-Belsen in the Holocaust photos continued on living afterwards, most of them perished upon or soon after rescue. Kim survived the burns and went on to living a fairly normal life and, unlike the Holocaust victims, forgave those that hurt her.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">This work, and many others like it, should be preserved to remind us that war should never be the right choice. The costs are always too high and too many lives are destroyed, if not snuffed out completely. While it is difficult to fully comprehend the brutality of concentration and death camps, its significance goes beyond description. As experienced freelance writer, Geoffrey Weed puts it, “The significance of Bergen-Belsen, and of the Holocaust as a whole, has yet to be fully seen. The whole second half of the 20th century was tinged with the horrible fact that a modern Western society could commit such egregious crimes against humanity. The true significance of the Bergen-Belsen camp will probably continue to evolve and to be felt for generations to come.” Therefore, future generations should have these types of photos to remind us of the tremendous suffering and pain which always results from war and how human cruelty has no limit.</p>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline">Works Cited</span>:

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“Forget You Not.” “<strong>Bergen-Belsen Death Camp.</strong>” NatureQuest Publications. 2002-2012. Web. Accessed: November 16, 2011.

&lt;http://isurvived.org/Bergen-Belsen_liberation.html&gt;

HRC. “<strong>Boy walking on Bergen Belsen concentration camp- by George Rodger, 1945</strong>.” Photography and Image. January 11, 2007. Web. Accessed: November 18, 2011.

&lt;http://photographyandimage.blogspot.com/2007/01/boy-walking-on-bergen-belsen.html&gt;

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Weber, Mark. “<strong>Bergen-Belsen Camp: The suppressed story</strong>.” Institute for Historical Review. May-June 1995. Web. Accessed: November 12, 2011.

&lt;http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v15/v15n3p23_Weber.html&gt;

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Weed, Geoffrey. “<strong>About Bergen-Belsen</strong>.” Demand Media, Inc. February 4, 2011. Web. Accessed: November 13, 2011.

&lt;http://www.ehow.com/about_4565989_bergen_belsen.html&gt;

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Weiner, Rebecca. “<strong>Bergen-Belsen.</strong>” American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. 2011. Web. Accessed: November 15, 2011.

&lt;http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Belsen.html&gt;

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Worstall, Tim. “<strong>Kim Phuc Phan Thai</strong>.” Examiner.com. September 10, 2009. Web. Accessed: November 10, 2011.

&lt;http://www.examiner.com/page-one-in-national/kim-phuc-phan-thai&gt;

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Unknown. “<strong>Rodger, George</strong>.”<strong> </strong>Paragon House Publishers. April 2, 2008. Web. Accessed: November 16, 2011.

<strong>&lt;</strong>http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/George_Rodger&gt;

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Unknown. “<strong>World War II</strong>” Paragon House Publishers. April 4, 2008. Web. Accessed: November 15, 2011.

&lt;http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Second_World_War#Casualties.2C_civilian_impact.2C_and_atrocities&gt;