The Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp
Welcome this new archive relating and dedicated to the men and women service personnel and the part they played at the Liberation and subsequent Humanitarian Effort of the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp in 1945: The Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp. UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who submitted a name/details to coincide with the anniversary of the liberation of Bergen Belsen – we’ll go through all your submissions, moderate and add them on. If you have a photo or any more details please email us. Thank you.
We are now inviting any relatives of service personnel who may have been at the camp to get in touch. Any regiment, service, nationality, volunteer or any snippet of information – we would like to hear from you. We do not believe there are any records of the diverse group of men and women, many completely untrained, who were involved with the camp, after it’s liberation.
There are currently 43 names in this directory beginning with the letter F.
Fagan, James (113 LAA)
The soldier featured in these pictures was James Fagan. James served as a driver/mechanic with the 113th (Durham Light Infantry) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery having started his military service before the war as a Territorial with the 5/6th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders based in Paisley.
He is shown at the wheel of his Bedford QLB ‘Bonnie Scotland’ which the vehicle markings tell us was Tractor number 3 belonging to J Troop of 370 Battery 113 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery.
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Submitted by: Roddy Brown, Chairman The Scottish Military Vehicle Group
Fairweather, John, Walter (Jack) - poss 113th LAA
Chief amongst these soldiers’ descriptions of the horrors of Belsen are the letters of 11407267 Gunner John Walter Fairweather (known as Jack). His son Stephen found three hundred and seventy six letters covering the period December 1943 to November 1946 which Jack Fairweather sent to his wife-to-be Renee. Five were dated between April 23rd. and May 10th. 1945.
Such was the dreadful reaction of the Allied authorities to finding Belsen, they relaxed the censorship restrictions and encouraged the soldiers to tell everyone ‘back home’ what they had seen. Jack Fairweather makes this very important observation in his first (and longest) letter dated 23rd. April 1945, four days after his arrival.
Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Farmer Capt.
Farrar, Samuel Baxter (113 LAA)
Gunner - C Troop. 368 Battery.
113 LIGHT ANTI-AIRCRAFT REGIMENT ROYAL ARTILLERY
1558693
Awarded CROIX DE GUERRE WITH PALM
Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Fay, Vincent Capt. (Army Chaplain)
British Army chaplain of 9th British General Hospital
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Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Fegan, Christopher Edward (Cpl)
REME
My father was a corporal in Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers.
Submitted by: Coin Fegan
Fergusson, Keith Maxwell (Medical Student)
Medical Student. St Thomas
Contacted Typhus at Belsen
Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Fiennes, Nathaniel (Lord Saye & Sele)
We went into lots o huts and camps. The smell was appalling, and there were rows and rows of people inside. You couldn’t tell whether they were dead or alive: they might have been either.
“And then outside we saw a tractor and trailer with heaps of bodies on it, and a German sitting on top of the bodies smoking a cigarette.
“Close by there was an enormous pit and in it perhaps 500 bodies, but it may have been a thousand, I don’t know. It was a very large number of bodies.”
Name: FINDLAY, JAMES
Rank: Serjeant
Regiment/Service: Royal Artillery
Unit Text: 369 Bty., 113 (2/5th Bn. The Durham Light Infantry) Lt. A.A. Regt.
Age: 22
Date of Death: 11/07/1944
Service No: 2880635
Additional information: Son of James and Helen Findlay; husband of Winifred Joan Findlay, of Hickling, Norfolk.
Grave/Memorial Reference: 2. C. 13.
Cemetery: HERMANVILLE WAR CEMETERY
Army Number 1490783
Rank Gunner
Arm of service RA (LAA)
369 LAA BTY 113 LAA regt R A (DLI) TA
Date of last enlistment 15.7 1939 release leave certificate 16 Jan 1946
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We believe he acted as a fitter on the Anti Aircraft guns (I assume) he had made mention that if shells failed, he was responsible for clearing and reloading the guns.
Submitted by: 113th DLI Archive
FISHER, FREDERICK GEORGE (KIA)
FISHER, FREDERICK GEORGE
Gunner
Service Number 412152
Died 30/09/1944
Aged 36
369 Bty., 113 (2/5th Bn. The Durham Light Infantry) Lt. A.A. Regt.
Royal Artillery
Son of Constance Fisher; husband of Ethel Mary Fisher, of Stockwell. London.
Buried at ARNHEM OOSTERBEEK WAR CEMETERY
Submitted by: 113th DLI Archive
Fisher, Harold D. (RCAF)
Harold was born in 1920 and enlisted in the RCAF in 1941. He served with 407 Squadron and then No. 2 127 Wing of Tactical Force at Tangmere on the south coast of England. On June 11, 1944, they sailed for France and landed at Beny-sur-Mer, Juno Beach. Heavy losses were incurred by their unit over the coming weeks. Harold volunteered to drive supplies into Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp after it was liberated. No words can describe the horrors encountered there. After VE Day the men in Harold’s unit volunteered to go to the Pacific theatre of war but it was over before that was necessary.
Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Fisk, Magdalene
QARANC
(Thank you - if you have any more details or a period photo please email liberator@belsen.co.uk)
Submitted by: Julia Gilliatt
Flanagan, Mike
A warm-hearted Irishman who after liberating the concentration camp Bergen Belsen, fought in the British Army in the land of Israel/Palestine and deserted in order to join Jewish fighters in the war of Independence (1948).
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Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Fletcher-Barrett, K (Colonel) Senior Medical Officer
Commander of 30 Field Hygienic Unit.
From Dublin, Ireland,
Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Fox, James McCourt (113 LAA)
2/5 Bn Durham L I (55 Searchlight Regt RA: 113th LAA) (TA) Enlistment Date: 09/03/1938
Submitted by: 113th DLI Archive/Belsen Archive
Fox, Len Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Frame, Andrew CSM
HLI/GLASGOW HIGHLANDERS
My father who passed away years ago, kept quiet about his time at Belsen until the late 1970's. It was a former sergeant friend who on the way to a British Legion Club in Cumbernauld remarked to Dad that some 'hard looking' women reminded him of the SS guards at Belsen. Dad then reluctantly told us of the horrors he witnessed. At one point he was given the task of rounding up local people to witness the devastation, so they would never forget. Later ironically Dad served in Egypt & Palestine at a time the 'Exodus' ships were arriving. He kept his silence for 30 years and if not for his chum, I'm sure my brother and I would never have found out.
Submitted by: David Frame
Fraser, William Charles
William Fraser - Ambulance Driver on front. One of the first into Belsen.
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Dr Heinz Fuld, a well-known consultant physician on Merseyside, died on 21 January, aged 99. For nearly 70 years he had a home in North Wales in Llanarmon yn Ial, from where, after retiring from the NHS, he travelled to provide an outstanding private Rodney Street practice. Dr Fuld was born in Berlin, studied medicine in that city, as well as in Frankfurt, Vienna, Munich, Freiburg, and Heidelberg. He did research in Freiburg under the guidance of Hans Krebs, Nobel Laureate, and followed his mentor to the United Kingdom in 1933 as a result of Nazi oppression.
He obtained his MRCP in Edinburgh before entering general practice in south Liverpool until he was appointed physician to Sefton and Newsham General Hospitals. A major in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the second world war, he was the first British doctor to enter Belsen on its liberation. One can only wonder what distress this must have caused him—a secret he retained throughout his long life.
Submitted by: Belsen Archive
FULTON, ANDREW LIVINGSTONE (KIA)
Name: FULTON, ANDREW LIVINGSTONE
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Lance Bombardier
Regiment/Service: Royal Artillery
Unit Text: 376 Bty., 113 (2/5th Bn. The Durham Light Infantry) Lt. A.A.
Regt. Age: 22
Date of Death: 28/06/1944
Service No: 2984157
Additional information: Son of David Smith Fulton and Jeanie McMaster Fulton, of Paisley, Renfrewshire. His brother Angus McIntosh Fulton also fell.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: XVIII. E. 26.
EMAIL/CONTACT PLEASE NOTE: Recently we found an important email hidden away as spam. It could have been lost. If you contact us and either do not get a personal reply or a mention/update on this website, please send your email again. Thank you.
This site will progress and I’d encourage anyone with any info to get in touch. My granddad, Reg Price served with the 113th Durham Light Infantry*, as part of 369 Battery. As a signwriter, he produced this sign…
The Sign at the Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp
And this was kept in the family for years – so for the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Belsen in 2020, subsequent VE Day and VJ Day, I thought it’s about time I’d try to find out more about Reg – his comrades (many of which are names, simply written on the back of photos), what they did together and for a way to remember them all, properly.
To coinicide with the anniversary, I was able to be filmed both on national and local BBC TV to tell Reg’s Story. Whilst this was totally out of my comfort zone and I dreaded every moment – I decided I needed to do something to start this all off. BBC Midlands Today aired 7th May and a VE Day Antiques Roadshow Special aired Sunday 10th May.
The main photo, shown here was coloured for the 75th Anniversary and we’ll tell you all about it shortly – and what happened next!
*Just 113th Durham Light Infantry? No we are interested in all Service and Medical personnel who took part during the humanitarian effort at Belsen Concentration Camp. Their roles and names are largely forgotten, as many were too horrified to ever speak of what they had to do, so this archive seeks to form a tribute to ALL those that were there, to find out more and to remember them. If you have a relative, or any info, on the relief effort at Belsen, we’d love you to please get in touch. Email us: liberator@belsen.co.uk – Thank you
***
The Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp
Any 113th Durham Light Infantry friends or family are encouraged to get in touch via 113th@belsen.co.uk
** In 1938 the old 5th Battalion DLI changed its role to Searchlights and then in 1940 to Anti-Aircraft. This 113th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment went to Normandy in June 1944 and joined the advance into Germany in early 1945. Official designation – Brigade: 100 AA • Division: 30 Corps. • Unit: 113 LAA Regt. RA (DLI) TA.
