Bergen -Belsen The horror and the beauty

 Bergen -Belsen The horror and the beauty

Leaving Arnhem we drove north into Germany. There were a few places we knew we wanted to visit before crossing into Denmark, It feels wrong to say we wanted to visit. I don’t think ‘wanted to’ is the right word. More that we felt we should visit, to understand more about what took place, to remember the people who were there

Those who survived, and those who did not.

Bergen-Belsen is one of those places.

Following the outbreak of WWII, the Germans set up a camp for Belgian and French prisoners of war in huts at the Bergen Military Training Area.. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union, Soviet POWs were deported to the camp and between July 1941 and April 1942, 14,000 Soviet POWs died there. 

In April 1943,  the southern section of the camp was turned into a camp for Jewish prisoners and in 1944 the SS decided to change the purpose of the camp, it became a concentration camp. A total of 52,000 prisoners from all over Europe were killed in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp or died immediately after its liberation on 15 April 1945 as a result of their imprisonment, mistreatment and malnourishment.

I’m not going to write more about the horrors that took place, others do that in a way I never could, but I will tell you about our visit.

As you arrive at the site you are hit by the size of the memorial building. It is huge. A stunningly stark concrete building that has a presence and dignity about it. Its simplicity is striking. There are very few windows to be seen and enormous doors lead you into the building. They are heavy, it takes effort and determination to enter.  You don’t visit her lightly, the somber atmosphere surrounds you.

The exhibition is moving, emotional, and so human. People tell their stories, photographs tell it for those who never stood a chance. It is silent, everyone visiting is quiet, even the children who don’t understand where they are, are quiet. There’s something about this place that touches you, whoever you are, wherever you come from, we were all experiencing the serenity and solemnity.

As you work your way through the exhibition from prisoner of war to concentration camp the floor rises, you are drawn towards the top of the slope where there is a huge window looking out over the forest, from gloom and darkness into light. It is beautifully done. Respectful, but factual. There’s no shying away from what happened.

One of many stories told is that of Anne Frank who along with her family were transported to Bergen-Belsen. Anne, her sister Margot and her mother all died in the camp. One of the films was of Anne's childhood friend, who found her in the camp, desperately ill, and tried so hard to find food and mittens for her. She eventually managed to gather something together, throw them over a fence to Anne. She never saw her again.

As we headed outside the site is marked by a simple stone sign that so many of us have seen in photos. It is smaller than I imagined, somehow so familiar, yet still shocking to see.

The camp buildings are no longer here, burnt soon after the liberation of the camp to control the lice. The grounds are vast, strewn with great earthworks each with its own stone carving recording how many 1000’s of bodies are below. Grave markers are dotted around, not marking actual graves, but rather as monuments to people who were loved.

The horror of what took place will forever remain impossible to comprehend.

  

Arnham

We've managed to get a ferry 2 hours earlier than booked, which meant we were in France early rather than  late afternoon. Initially we had intended to find a supermarket and head to La Coupole the WW2 bunker complex as it is only 40 mins from Calais and you can stop nearby in a campervan. However, as we had arrived early we made the decision to drive north, a long way north to Arnham in the Netherlands.

Driving through France, Belgium and the Netherlands is so much easier than the UK. There’s far fewer people on the roads and somehow Agy just eats up the miles. Before we knew it we’d arrived in Arnhem and found a campsite.

Campsites in Europe seem so much easier to find. They are everywhere, and if you can’t find one, you can always stay at a motorhome park up where you are welcomed by the local community. A stark contrast to much of the UK. 

Despite it being August and peak holiday season, there was plenty of space for us, so we pitched up (which involved driving onto the pitch and plugging in the electric). None of this caravan set up malarkey where it seems to take hours to pitch up, find water, and set up a huge awning  (sorry caravan friends, but it does seem very time consuming!). Pull up, plug in and we’re done! This site did however have an unusual system for washing up…. You had to find the special button (round the corner from the sinks), balance your bowl under it, press the button, catch the gushing scalding water in the bowl and try not to spill it as you headed back to the sinks. Who thought that was a sensible idea?  

Anyway, after a good night's sleep, we headed into Arnham to find the John Frost Bridge and the Airborne at the Bridge museum. Arnhem was the key location in Operation Market Garden during WW2.Operation Market Garden planned to create a route through German occupied Netherlands into Germany by taking control of key bridges with both airborne and land forces between the 17 - 27 September 1944. Unfortunately allied forces failed to secure the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem. However, John Frost Commander of the 2nd Parachute regiment led his men to capture the northern end of the bridge only to find themselves cut off from the other allied forces and surrounded by German troops. A four day battle took place that was described later as one of the most intense battles of the whole war, where the British troops refused to  surrender and surprised the Germans with their continuous counter attacks. The battle continued until the paratroopers ran out of ammunition.

The battle was made famous by the film ‘A Bridge too far’  however as we visited the museum, the staff there told us that the film we should really watch was filmed just after the war, staring veterans of the  actual battle. "Theirs is the Glory” was filmed in 1946 on location at Arnhem and is available on You Tube. I’d recommend you go and watch it.

*image taken in the museum

The surrounding area was so clearly bombed, the museum shows photos of beautiful riverside houses before the war, now there is derelict land and the occasional mural.

 

On a slightly lighter note, there was one other hero of the battle of Arnhem. And that was William of Orange, a dispatch pigeon.  On 19 September 1944 he carried a despatch back to the UK covering 260 miles in 4 hours and 35 minutes from the Battle of Arnhem to the UK. He was awarded the Dickin Medal – the animal VC – for his outstanding achievement.

*imagse taken in the museum

This is one of the parachutes used to deliver the pigeons to troops in occupied territory. I’m not sure I will ever look at a pigeon in the same way again!

Ferries and families

Today is the day...

I’ve said it before, but every great journey begins with a ferry, and for us this time, it really is a great journey -in so many senses. It's exciting, long and unusual. Great in every way.

Leaving the island, we left the rain behind and sailed into Portsmouth heading north for a few days with family and friends. Dad hasn’t been too well lately, and we wanted to spend as much time as possible with him, talking about our trip, and listening to his memories of driving military vehicles in the post war era including a tank, in which he was secreted, from a landing craft into the sea and onto the shore. Whilst he was underwater the commander called out instructions from the turret and everyone hoped for the best! Hopefully we don’t get so much rain that we experience anything quite like that!

We stayed on a campsite in Tewkesbury this time, a fabulous site (albeit prone to flooding!) and very handy for visiting family.

A few days later we headed off to our beautiful nieces’ wedding.

The wedding was just fabulous, full of love and laughter, family and friends. You couldn’t ask for a better day, even the rain held off long enough for a few outside photos. Congratulations Emma and Mark, thank you for a wonderful day.

As we left the wedding we headed for another ferry, this time to France. We’ve always done the tunnel before so thought we’d try the ferry out. It was a perfectly good crossing and a great ferry, but oh it took so long! We are far too used to a 30 min trip! I suspect it will be the train home, if at all possible! 

As we sailed away from the white cliffs of Dover we had a rough plan for the first few nights, but even that went out the window as soon as we left!

Planning!

 The campsite Aires and stopover books are out. 

Agy has had a scrub and repack, which can only mean one thing - Adventure awaits!

This is (we hope) going to be our greatest adventure yet. We first talked about doing this trip about 2 years ago, we started making some plans, but it wasn’t to be. Instead of heading north we headed south, visited friends, saw some amazing locations and battled the heat of central Spain. We had an amazing time and loved every moment.

But not this time. This time we are packing shorts and t-shirts, rain coats, and even woolly hats! Whilst family and friends who work in education were looking forward to their hot summer holidays; I was putting the winter duvet in Agy and checking the heater was on board.

This time we are heading north, as far north as we can drive. Our aim is to drive well into the arctic (I had no idea the arctic circle line was so far below the most northerly land point). To the furthest point north in Norway and as far east as we can in Finland without straying into Russia.

Trips like this take lots of planning, not just the usual holiday planning like clothes, airport parking and sun cream. This one needs permits to drive on motorways, in cities in different countries, all weather mud and snow tyres, an understanding of those pesky Schengen rules, additional insurance, and a route plan like no other.

One of the joys of van life is seeing where the road takes you, but when the road you are thinking of taking is long - very long - and there are world renowned scenic roads enroute together with fascinating places to visit along the way, along with limited time, you do need a plan!

This is our rough route plan, it is rough, very rough, but we’ve highlighted places we want to go via, and for the first few days we know roughly where we want to visit and where we might be able to park up and sleep. 

Initially we’ll be heading through France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and onto Germany before crossing the Baltic sea into Denmark. We are aiming to travel fairly quickly through this bit, as the subsequent legs through Sweden, Norway and Finland will take quite some time with lots of driving and long days. We can always head back to these countries at another time - in fact we will, but we need to head north as soon as we can so we have time to do the long road up and get back down before the weather turns.

But for now, we’re leaving our home in the capable hands of friends and heading to a very special family wedding. Not a bad way to start an adventure of a lifetime.

Peenemünde - The Baltic and Bombs

We had one more place we wanted to visit before crossing the Baltic into Scandinavia.

I hadn’t heard of Peenemünde but Ian knew of it, and suggested it might be worth a detour (a 6 hour detour to be fair).

He was right. But upon arrival finding the park up turned out to be far more difficult than expected.

Peenemünde is a long way from anywhere, and as you arrive, you head straight into an industrial yet remote location. It feels ‘eastern block’ (it's in the former East German part of the country) and is a port on the Baltic. so perhaps in a way it's not surprising that it feels different to most places we visit.     

Having driven round in circles for a while, we had passed and re-passed a couple of friends chatting idly together by the side of the road more than once. Eventually we stopped to look in detail at Google Maps to locate our park-up. 

One of the chaps (this time in his car) saw us again further up the road looking lost. He stopped, wound down his window and in perfect English asked if he could help. Having explained we were looking for the camping site, he apologised for his poor English and cried out follow me! 

He deftly wove through a fairly derelict area, and around a dock, before stopping at a huge decrepit old power plant, winding down his window once more saying “you must visit here, it is excellent”. Fortunately we could reassure him this very building was the very purpose of our visit. At which he hopped back into his car and continued leading us around a maze of industrial detritus and ramshackled buildings until we came to a small stella plattz (camping car area), and next to it a man on a boat with a bar serving cold beer and wine!

We had arrived at the park up! Not the one we were aiming for, but a perfectly good one all the same. In fact closer to the action than the one I had spotted. Our new friend waved as he left “saying visit me in my shop, by the submarine” 

If you haven’t heard of Peenemünde this is what I learnt. A small fishing village on the Baltic sea, Peenemünde became one of the most important WW2 sites, and the birth place of space exploration. 

It was where the German research  and testing of the V(engence) Weapons took place. In time it became the single biggest industrial military complex in Nazi Germany. 

The ballistic rockets and cruise missiles that bombed the UK at the end of the war were developed and tested here - in fact one V2 rocket landed very close (about 70m away) to where we eventually lived in London. 

In 1935, engineer Wernher von Braun (who later went on to lead the NASA space centre after the CIA expunged his Nazi war record) decided this tiny village would be a great place to undertake research into rockets (he had visited there as a child) . Overall, about 12,000 people worked on cruise missile and ballistic rocket development here. The research and development carried out here was not only critical to the war, but also impacted the future of weapons of mass destruction, as well as space travel.

The museum tells the story of rocket development and how concentration camp prisoners mainly from occupied France, Belgium and Netherlands were forced to help with the production of the rocket. They worked under terrible conditions.

17 August, the Royal Air Force carried out Operation Hydra, the largest British action against a single target during WWII. The bombing, although largely unsuccessful, did slow production and the risk of future raids forced a  move underground to Mittelwerk in central Germany.

The museum is housed in the Power Plant buildings, which provide a dramatic backdrop against which the story is told. During the war this station provided electricity to the local area, the research and development areas and fabrication works, including the oxygen factory producing fuel for the rockets. This process alone used 33Mw of energy!

Alongside the museum in the harbour is a Submarine U461, a rusting, but well preserved 1950's Soviet U-Boat. This diesel electric boat served until the 1990's,  armed with nuclear missiles targeted at the West. It's shocking how small it is inside, there’s hardly room to move through the cramped corridors, it’s hot, dark and claustrophobic even without the engines and electrical systems turned on. Let's just say we struggled to wiggle through gaps between the machinery and clamber through the numerous tiny water tight doors... I can’t imagine living here with a crew of around 80 men!

Breathing a sigh of relief as we exited into the fresh air again we headed to the shop to find our friend from the night before in his souvenir shop - so of course we purchased a mug!