OPINION: Imagine what those who perished at Bergen-Belsen might have achieved
Defence Minister Lord Coaker reflects on his visit to Bergen-Belsen and the costs of victory in Europe
Last month in northern Germany, I had the stark privilege of visiting the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp alongside AJEX – The Jewish Military Association.
I heard the retelling of the scene, eighty years ago, of British soldiers arriving in this place and discovering the unimaginable suffering faced by some 60,000 emaciated souls clinging to life amid unburied corpses, typhus and despair.
The liberation on 15 April 1945 was no ordinary victory. For British troops, it was a descent into horror: skeletal figures too weak to cheer, children with hollow eyes, and the stench of death hanging heavy in the spring air. Nearly 14,000 survivors perished after liberation – their bodies broken by a regime already in its death throes.
The 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, marking the beginning of the end of the Second World War, reminds us not only to celebrate peace and the courage of the greatest generation but also to reflect deeply on the brutal cost of that victory. Eight decades is a human lifetime – enough time to imagine what those who perished at Bergen-Belsen, especially the many children, might have achieved. Teenagers like Anne Frank and her sister Margot, whose lives were cruelly cut short, symbolise this lost potential.
Yet, some survivors transformed tragedy into triumph. Professor Peter Lantos BEM, deported here at age five, later pioneered treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Mala Tribich MBE, who endured Bergen-Belsen’s brutality as a child, dedicated her life to educating generations about the Shoah. Their presence at the ceremony was a powerful rebuke to oblivion – a testament that resilience can bloom even in the darkest soil.
One of the most poignant moments at the commemoration I attended came when AJEX announced it was time for British Jewish cadets to join their German counterparts to visit the site’s museum together. This simple act carried profound symbolism: young people once divided by unimaginable hatred now walking side by side on ground marked by suffering. It transformed a site of horror into one of hope and reconciliation.
As a Defence Minister, I pay my sincerest tribute to the British soldiers who liberated Bergen-Belsen, bearing witness to the harrowing consequences of unchecked antisemitism. We must be proud of what they achieved, not just burying the dead and doing all they could to contain the spread of disease, but also giving survivors hope for the future.
As we celebrate VE Day 80, we must never forget Bergen-Belsen and the horrors of the Holocaust. The testimonies of survivors remain vital reminders of the atrocities humanity can inflict when hatred and racism go unchallenged. They remind us of the enormous price paid by millions for the freedoms we have today. And their resilience and courage inspire us to confront hatred and bigotry, so that we may work to achieve a better world.
- Lord Coaker is Defence Minister and Member of the House of Lords
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