The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
A broken and twisted mound of emaciated corpses lay strewn in one of three open burial pits. At the liberation of Belsen on 15 April 1945, British troops were faced with over 10 000 dead inmates who required immediate burial to halt the spread of typhus and other diseases which were rampant in the camp. Former SS (Schutzstaffel) guards were formed into work squads to bury the bodies and face responsibility for the victimization of their prisoners. Belsen, one of many Nazi concentration camps of the German Third Reich, was used as an instrument of genocide against Jews and those of other nationalities and categories. Photographer, VX93880 Lieutenant (Lt) Alan Moore, Australian official war artist, was present with the Allies in the liberation of Belsen. Whilst at Belsen, Lt Moore made several paintings, sketches and drawings as a record of Nazi atrocities committed against the predominantly Jewish inmates. A personal camera was used to record events observed in the Allied occupation of the camp and these black and white images also provide witness to one Australian's experience of the Holocaust. A copy negative of this image is held in the collection under the accession number P03007.015.
German soldiers face the outcome of the 'Final Solution' against the Jewish people and those of other races and categories victimized by the Third Reich. A long line of SS (Schutzstaffel) guards, both
Dr Fritz Klein faces his British Army captors on the liberation of Belsen concentration camp. In the background, former guards (now prisoners) load corpses of inmates onto a truck as British troops ob
Back to camera, VX93880 Lieutenant (Lt) Alan Moore, an Australian official war artist, sketches captured SS (Schutzstaffel) guards after the liberation of Belsen concentration camp on 15 April 1945. T
A work party of SS (Schutzstaffel) guards unloads a truck heaped with emaciated naked corpses. Belsen was a notorious Nazi concentration camp which was responsible for the deaths of thousands of priso
An unidentified German guard, possibly a member of the SS (Schutzstaffel), stands above an open pit containing the bodies of hundreds of victims of Belsen. Jewish inmates, along with other nationaliti
A large group of corpses, among 10 000 others, lie strewn in the grounds of Belsen. Broken by disease, starvation and maltreatment, these emaciated inmates had died before British troops finally liber
