Background
Bergen-Belsen first opened under the Nazi Germany control in April 1943. It was built near the city of Celle in Lower Saxony in 1940. Bergen- Belsen was originally a transit camp but later got it’s official name as a concentration camp. Although thousands died there, Bergen-Belsen was not a death camp but it was one of the more infamous camps. Built between the villages of Bergen and Belsen in Germany, it had first become a prisoner of war camp for the French and Belgium prisoners. The camp also had the purpose of exchanging prisoners for Germans in allied territories under the German Government.The camp was run by the SS, whose commandants were Adolf Haas, Siegfried Seidle, and Josef Kramer. It was built by Jewish prisoners from Buchenwald and Natzweiler. Bergen Belsen is known for being the camp where Anne Frank and her sister Margot died in 1945.