The terrible riots in Hartlepool last week brought to my mind a time when 200 brave, decent men from Hartlepool stood up to racism and saved many innocent lives. The North East certainly played its part in defeating the Nazis and below is one of the most important stories of that dark period.
Ellen Wilkinson
The greatest horrors of the era arguably took place at the Nazi death camps, such as Auschwitz and Belsen-Bergen. Jarrow MP Ellen Wilkinson was the chairperson of the Labour Party Conference of 1945 and took time out from the celebration of Labour’s victory in the general election of that year to move a resolution, which acknowledged the debt which the Labour movement owed to those who had died in the concentration camps and those who had survived after the great fight against fascism. Ellen said:
“The service of these men, women and children to the common cause of human freedom will not be forgotten. These great souls, Socialist, Communists, Jews and a cross-section of all creeds, stood up to torture and….died in secret for faiths that were in them…They went with their heads held high, each to face the fires of the crematorium”.
It is further reported that those listening to this appeal to the qualities of compassion and empathy within the delegates, passed the resolution in silence with every delegate standing as a show of respect to those who had lost their lives in the struggle against fascism.
North East soldiers at Belsen
Ellen Wilkinson was not the only person from North East England who was involved in notable actions against fascism during the Second World War. On 12 April 1945, the British Second Army was able to break into Germany after the Rhine crossing, and 8 Corps was approached by the German Military Commander at Bergen-Belsen with a view to negotiating a truce and avoiding a battle in the area of Belsen Concentration Camp. There were known to be 45-55,000 internees in the Concentration Camp of whom a very large number were reported to be suffering from typhus, typhoid, tuberculosis and gastro-enteritis.
There was no bread and very little food and the electricity and water supply had failed. There were also in occupation of the area 800 Wermacht, 1,500 Hungarians with their wives and families, and certain SS Prison Guards. The situation was desperate.
It was soldiers from the North East affiliated to the Durham Light Infantry who were the saviours of the Belsen survivors, and in particular 113 L.A.A. REGIMENT R.A. (D.L.I.) T.A. arriving three days after the first British troops had arrived at Belsen, they were able to save the lives of many Jewish, Roma and other prisoners there, who by that time had been reduced by Nazi cruelty, to being living skeletons. 200 of the North East soldiers were from the town of Hartlepool.
The situation at Belsen Concentration Camp between 13 April and 21 May 1945 was dire when the Durham Light Infantry reached it on 18 April 1945. There was a large concentration camp there with a tank training centre nearby and a prisoner of war camp with 800 Russian prisoners and a military hospital. The danger of disease was so great that it was agreed that there should be a truce in the interests of both the British troops involved and the internees, and from the point of view of preventing, the spread of disease, the same typhus which only a month earlier had claimed the life of Anne Frank.
It was agreed on the basis that the German military authorities would erect notices and white flags at all the road entrances, marked ‘Danger – Typhus’ on one side and ‘End of Typhus Area’ on the reverse, with a disarmed German post at each notice. German and Hungarian troops had to remain at their posts armed, wearing a white armband on the left sleeve. The Hungarians were placed at the disposal of the British for such duties as might be required and would be there indefinitely.
The ordinary members of the Wehrmacht were to be released within six days and conveyed back to the German lines with their arms, equipment and vehicles. SS Guard personnel were to be removed by 1200 hrs 13 April and any remaining to be treated as POWs. SS Admin personnel would remain at their posts, carry on with their duties, and hand over records.
Fifty years after the event, County Durham soldier Eric Simpson, described the scene that faced the men from Hartlepool on arriving at Belsen:
“When we first arrived, we set up a hospital outside the camp, and we would go into Belsen in working parties. I’ll never forget what it was like the first time we walked through the gates. As we went in, we could see dead bodies strewn all over and just rotting away in the sun. The stench was terrible and many of our men were sick on the spot. We could see people walking round the camp in a kind of daze. I say people, they were nothing more than skeletons, with bones sticking out and their eyes shrunk into their heads. It was a pitiful sight. I took some men to have a look in the huts and I don’t think any of us were prepared for what we saw in there. The rooms were filled with rows and rows of bunks and there was as many as four people sharing one bed. The living were sleeping next to the dead. It was hard to believe the sheer scale of it. We were there for only five weeks, and we buried 25 000 people in that period.”
In engaging in the relief of Belsen and dealing with the terrible threat of disease, the Durham Light Infantry was able to save thousands of lives and release prisoners from the terrible nightmare which they had had to endure.
Remembering the relief of Belsen
Reflecting on what he saw, Eric Simpson said 50 years later that, “looking back, the worst thing about the whole thing for me was the first time we entered the huts and saw all those people in the bunks sleeping with the dead… It’s a strange thing, but they say no birds are ever seen in Belsen”.
The death of a County Durham soldier, who had been at Belsen was reported in the Hartlepool newspaper, The Mail on 25 January. The headline was “Horror of Nazi camp could never be forgotten, Death of soldier who freed Belsen.” It was reported that Wilf Lavin, who had been at Belsen camp had died at the age of 84. The newspaper reported it as follows:
“Wilf Lavin was serving with the 113th Light Anti-Aircraft Royal Artillery (Durham Light Infantry) when they liberated the Nazi Death camp in 1945. He was never able to forget what he saw there – and pleaded that those war crimes should be remembered so that they would never be repeated”.
North East soldiers such as Eric Simpson and Wilf Lavin should be remembered for the role, they and in all 200 men from Hartlepool played in the relief of Belsen.
And perhaps at this time we should particularly remember the brave, decent and principled men from Hartlepool, who stood up to racism and reflect on the fact they represented the real spirit of the North East and still do.
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