“We were informed beforehand what to expect, but even though I kept pictures in my mind of atrocities which I’d seen in the newspapers, I was more than shocked by the sights that met my eyes. I hope you never see such things. but it would do many doubters good to feast their eyes on what we have seen. I myself have read about such camps and seen pictures in the papers, or the films, but all that and seeing for one’s self is an entirely different thing. I say seeing bad, perhaps smelling worse…”
So wrote Gunner Jack Fairweather from County Durham’s 113th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery (Durham Light Infantry) Territorial Army regiment, in a letter home to his wife about what he had experienced at Bergen Belsen Camp when the DLI were involved in the Relief of Belsen in April and May 1945.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2025
80 years later, Jack’s poignant words were remembered in Newcastle at an event staged by A Living Tradition, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, as part of an excellent art exhibition by young people from North Benwell Youth Project. Julie Ward and I gave talks, and we also heard from Frank Lavin, whose father Wilf was also at Belsen with the DLI. This was part of the Newcastle City Council commemorations.
Peter took us through the details of what happened during the Liberation and relief of Belsen and how The DLI had arrived at Belsen in mid-April 1945, to be met by a scene that was hard to comprehend and how they had to work hard to save lives that had been so badly mistreated and deal with a typhus epidemic at the same time.
Meanwhile Julie spoke about her visits to Lety and Terezin and also mentioned her visit to Lidice. Lety was a camp for Roma victims of the Holocaust in what is now the Czech Republic. A pig farm had been deliberately put there after the war, to further denigrate the memory of those who suffered there. Julie was part of the campaign that finally saw the pig farm closed and a memorial to those who died erected.
Terezin was part of a cynical campaign by the Nazis to try and hoodwink the rest of the world, that they were actually looking after the Jews in their custody very well. It was set up as a ‘model camp’ with lots of interesting leisure activities for inmates. A film was made, making look like the Jewish inmates were having a fine old time. By the time that the film was released to the world, it is thought that every single Jewish person on the film was already dead, murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Lidice was a town also in what is now the Czech Republic, about 45 miles northwest of Prague. When leading Nazi Reich Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Reynard Heydrich was killed by British SOE forces in June 1942, revenge was laid at the door of the innocent people of Lidice. The small town was physically destroyed. Meanwhile all of the town’s male population over the age of 16, over 170 in all, were herded to a local farmstead and gunned down. Seven women were shot trying to flee, and the rest were deported to the notorious Ravensbruck camp. A small number of the children were deemed to be Aryan enough to be taken to live with German families, but at least 80 died at Chelmo.
Lidice had been a coalmining town and was rebuilt after the war, to a large extent by funds raised by miners from Staffordshire and County Durham. Will Lawther, the Miners Federation leader and native of Chopwell in County Durham launched a £1 million fund (equivalent to about £40 million today) and County Durham miners paid a levy each week towards the Lidice Shall Live campaign.
Julie Ward had this to say about the event and remembering the DLI at Belsen:
“As the years go by we are in danger of forgetting our difficult past but if history teaches us anything it is the importance of learning how atrocities such as the Holocaust do not happen in a vacuum. Economic, social and political factors can combine to create the conditions whereby minorities become scapegoats, demonised in the public sphere and persecuted for their race, religion, sexual orientation, or other factors. When such behaviour is normalised, for example by politicians or the media, we are in dangerous territory.
“From my perspective, education (both formal and informal) along with inter-generational and intercultural dialogue are crucial to counter the drift towards the ‘dehumanisation’ of others, which is one of the universally understood stages leading to genocide.
“The wide-ranging programme of events organised by Newcastle City Council to mark this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day play an important role in this process, linking past to present and highlighting the power of creativity and collective action to both inform and touch hearts and minds.
“It was a honour to be invited to contribute my experiences particularly in respect of the often-forgotten Roma community who were also victims of the Nazi regime with more than 500,000 being killed between 1933-45 during what is known as the ‘Porrajmos’ or ‘devouring’. The Roma continue to be the most discriminated against minority in Europe today which tells us something about the work we still have to do. Thanks to everyone who continues to raise awareness of these terrible atroticities and commits to positive action.”
Remembering through art
As part of the remembrance of the work of the DLI at Belsen, young people from North Benwell Youth Project, in west Newcastle have put together an excellent exhibition of artwork about the Relief of Belsen and indeed I am indebted to one of them for the quote from Jack Fairweather above.
The artwork produced by young people is really good and very moving. It includes representations of Auschwitz, prisoners’ striped uniforms, a beautiful picture of a dove of peace escaping from a dark cage, a Star of David themed picture. A picture portraying the horror of life behind the wire, a picture of chains being broken, a plea to remember the victims and a homage to some of the groups who suffered at camps like Belsen, including Jewish people, Roma, homosexuals and the disabled.
The artwork was produced by a worker from the youth project, but mostly by the young people themselves, including young Roma. Roam were on the groups of people saved by the DLI 80 years ago.
Commenting on the project. Keera Storey said: ‘I feel I’ve learnt a lot about the Holocaust doing this project and how millions of people suffered’, while Nicholas, one of the young people involved in producing the art work said: “I didn’t know British soldiers were the first to liberate Belsen, I am thankful for the freedom I have.”
The artwork is currently on display at the West End Library in Newcastle.
Hearing from Frank Lavin
There was also a film featuring Frank Lavin from Hartlepool, whose father had been one of the DLI at Belsen. Frank has said this about his dad’s reaction when reaching Belsen in April 1945: “Well, they didn’t know what they were coming to…they got to this place where they were stopped at the gates. The smell was horrendous. What’s going on here. …my father’s sergeant major went in first and said, ‘for God’s sake don’t go in there’ . they opened the gates and as we know Anne Frank had just died and they had shot Royal Marine commandos through the night. My father said: ‘bodies were everywhere. It was unbelievable. I had never seen anything like it in all my life’”
There is a short film of Frank talking about his father’s experiences at Belsen here:
This is an important story from our regional heritage and one which we should keep remembering. My thanks to all who helped us to do just that this year as part of the Newcastle City Council Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
