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Holocaust

Germany Marks Liberation of Bergen-Belsen Nazi Camp as Memorial Event Canceled

Germany held a minute’s silence on Wednesday to mark 75 years since the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp was liberated, after planned commemorations were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Stephan Weil, Lower Saxony state premier, called on residents to observe the silence to remember the liberation on April 15, 1945, urging them to set aside “all of our current worries.”

More than 50,000 people died at the Bergen-Belsen camp, including the diarist Anne Frank, whose accounts of the Holocaust have become a symbol of the suffering inflicted by the Nazis during World War II.

More than 50,000 people died at the Bergen-Belsen camp, including the diarist Anne Frank, whose accounts of the Holocaust have become a symbol of the suffering inflicted by the Nazis during World War II.

Jens-Christian Wagner, head of Lower Saxony’s memorial foundation, told Bavarian Radio that the cancellation of the memorial event was a “very, very big disappointment” for survivors of the camp, who had been planning to travel to Germany from around the world.

Read More: Times of Israel