Rationale and learning intentions

This focus of this enquiry is on sources that describe the conditions at Bergen-Belsen at the time of liberation from the viewpoints of both victim and liberator.

In reviewing these different perspectives, students should come to an understanding of why the camp’s liberation was such a shock to the people of Britain when reports first reached home.

In analysing these sources, students can be encouraged to raise appropriate questions and identify areas for further investigation.

Not all sources need necessarily be read. Should the relevant facilities be available, differing pupil learning styles could be addressed by playing the Dimbleby BBC broadcast for auditory learners and showing the Gunner Illingworth film-clip to visual learners, to cite but two examples.

Resources required

• Resource C: The British response to Belsen
• Resource D: Liberation
• Resource E: The challenges of Liberation
• Resource L: Teacher guidance

1 Key questions

• How did the British respond to their discovery of Belsen? (Resource C)
• How did Jewish inmates react to their liberation? (Resource D)
• What were the main challenges facing the liberators of Belsen? (Resource E)

2 Using the resources

Pupils should be divided into groups and allocated one of the key questions.  Each group should use the relevant Resource to produce a presentation to the other groups on their allotted key question. The results could be presented in a variety of mediums e.g. read aloud or by means of a poster that draws on key sources that illustrate the answer to the given key question.  Some Resource material will be relevant to more than one question.

Alternatively, higher ability groups could tackle all three sections and examine the situation before, during and after liberation using all the Resources as well as devising further questions that they would like to have answered. For instance, ‘why are there no sources that tell us what happened to the perpetrators?’
Pupils should be divided into groups and allocated one of the key questions.  Each group should use the relevant Resource to produce a presentation to the other groups on their allotted key question. The results could be presented in a variety of mediums e.g. read aloud or by means of a poster that draws on key sources that illustrate the answer to the given key question.  Some Resource material will be relevant to more than one question.