Bergen - Belsen displaced persons camp Bergen - Belsen displaced persons camp was a displaced persons ( DP ) camp for refugees after World War II , in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany , southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle . It was in operation from the summer of 1945 until September 1950 . For a time , Belsen DP camp was the largest Jewish DP camp in Germany and the only one in the British occupation zone with an exclusively Jewish population . Location and establishment . On 15 April 1945 the British Army liberated the Bergen - Belsen concentration camp , which was handed over by the SS guards without a fight . Diseases and the terrible hygienic state of the concentration camp buildings caused the British Army to relocate the former inmates and eventually to burn the prisoner huts . The survivors of the concentration camp became the first residents of the future DP camp , which was around 2 kilometres from the main concentration camp area , in a former German Army barracks . Initially , the British medical staff used buildings in the former " Panzertruppenschule " ( school for Panzer troops ) as an emergency hospital to treat the former inmates away from the disastrous conditions of the concentration camp . On April 21 the first patients were moved to the new location , disinfected and issued with new clothing . This movement of people was completed by May 18 and at that point the former barracks had around 12 , 000 hospital beds . The British also moved the wounded German soldiers from the Wehrmacht " Reservelazarett " ( reserve hospital , in a nearby spruce forest ) to civilian hospitals and added the " Reservelazarett " to their hospital space . This raised the number of available beds by a further 1 , 600 . Within the first four weeks almost 29 , 000 survivors from Belsen concentration camp were moved to the emergency hospital . Around 14 , 000 former inmates died after liberation despite the best efforts of the British Army , the British Red Cross and many others of various nationalities . By June 1945 , around 11 , 000 of the former inmates still required emergency treatment . The DP camp was established in July 1945 by turning the hospital wards into living quarters . After summer 1945 , only the former Wehrmacht hospital , around a kilometre from the barracks , was still used as a hospital . The British authorities tried to rename the camp " Hohne " to avoid the association with Nazi genocide at the concentration camp nearby , but the Holocaust survivors who were residents ( " Sh ' erit ha - Pletah " ) in the camp refused to accept the name change and persisted in calling the DP camp " Bergen - Belsen " . The name change only stuck after the DP camp was dissolved and the area was returned to military use . Today , the location of the former DP camp remains off - limits to the public . Even though many of the buildings are not in use anymore , they are in a restricted military area . Camp culture and politics . Conditions in the camp were initially quite poor , as the dire situation of the British economy prevented the Army from providing more than the bare necessities at first . There was not enough food , clothing and living space . In October 1945 , there was a hunger strike and demonstration against conditions in the camp . Things started to improve only by the summer of 1946 , when the population had decreased . Many of those DPs who were not in need of medical attention were speedily repatriated . In general , this was done voluntarily only , with the notable exception of Soviet citizens — as the Soviet Union had obtained consent from its Allies that its citizens would be sent back even against their own will . In early September 1945 there were still more than 25 , 000 people in the DP camp . This population consisted mainly of two groups : ( gentile ) Poles ( around 15 , 000 ) and Jews ( almost 11 , 000 ) , most of them also from Poland . DPs of other nationalities were largely repatriated by the fall of 1945 . The Polish camp . From June 1945 Poles and Jews had separate sections in the camp . In the Polish section , a lively social and cultural life developed . The Poles had established a Camp Committee on the day after liberation — initially its meetings were also attended by Polish Jews . A school opened in the summer of 1945 , attended by up to 600 children , and two kindergartens cared for 100 children . Many Polish DPs were young adults and they started new families in the camp — there were almost 400 weddings and 200 births in the Polish camp . The Committte published newspapers . A choir , a brass band , an " International Cabaret " and a sports club ( " Polonia " ) were established . On November 2 , 1945 the Polish DPs had a service in which a wooden cross on the former concentration camp site was dedicated as a memorial . The Polish camp was disbanded in September 1946 . The remaining 4 , 500 Polish DPs were transferred to other camps in the British zone , as many still hesitated to return to ( now communist ) Poland or to Soviet - occupied eastern Poland . Eventually , around two thirds of Polish DPs in the British zone returned to Poland , others went to the US and Canada . The Jewish camp . With the closure of the Polish section , Belsen became the only exclusively Jewish facility in the British sector , something for which the Jewish survivors had struggled with the British . The camp was for a while the largest Jewish DP camp in Germany . Although some had left , in late 1945 thousands of Jews who had survived the Holocaust in Poland or Hungary emigrated westward and many of them came to Belsen , although the British initially refused to give them DP status . In August 1946 , the DP camp still housed more than 11 , 000 Jews . From then on , the British Army tried to prevent any more Jews from joining the DP camp . A first Jewish camp committee was formed on 18 April 1945 . Democratic elections were held in September 1945 . The leader of the Jewish survivors , Josef Rosensaft became president of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the British Zone which represented not just the Belsen DPs but all Jewish DPs in the British zone . In September 1945 and July 1947 the first and second Congress of Liberated Jews in the British Zone took place in the former Wehrmacht officers ' mess at Belsen — in the building later known as " The Roundhouse " . Under the stewardship of Rosensaft and Norbert Wollheim and Rafael Olewski , the Central Committee grew into an organization that lobbied the British on behalf of the DPs ' political , social , and cultural aims , including the right to emigrate to British - controlled Palestine . Many survivors supported a self - determined Jewish presence in Palestine , even though they had not been Zionists before the war . Having lost their families , houses and possessions , they saw no future for themselves in Europe . DPs demonstrated against the British policy and sent protest notes . International contacts were established , e . g . to the Zionist Congress at Basel or the United Jewish Appeal to gain support abroad . In October 1945 , David Ben Gurion , president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine , visited the DP camp . The refugees maintained active opposition to British restrictions on Jewish immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine , and until early 1949 ( i . e . well after the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948 ) , British authorities did not allow free passage in or out of the camp . Nevertheless , the Haganah managed to send in agents who held secret military training programmes on the camp grounds in December 1947 . Both sections of the camp , Polish and Jewish , were largely self - administrating . External security was provided by the British Army . In March 1946 , the British transferred administration of the camp to the United Nations Relief and Rehalibitation Agency ( UNRRA ) but remained responsible for security . The British ( and later the UNRRA ) , supported by other organisations like the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ( JDC ) or Jewish Relief Unit ( JRU ) , supplied food , clothing and medicines . But the camp inhabitants otherwise ran their own affairs . The Jewish Committee established its own court and police force , whose tasks included maintaining public order and to fight black market activities . For their part , like the Poles , the Jewish refugees organised a vibrant community within the camp . Schools were established within months of the liberation . The DPs founded an elementary school as early as July 1945 , and by 1948 , 340 pupils attended the school . A high school , which was staffed partly by soldiers from the Jewish Brigade ( the Palestinian Jewish unit of the British Army ) was established in December 1945 . There was a kindergarten , an orphanage , and a yeshiva ( a religious school ) . The Organization for Rehabilitation through Training ( ORT ) vocational training schools organized occupational education . By mid - 1947 ORT had instructed around 1 , 500 people in training courses that mostly lasted six months . In 1947 , a kibbutz had 2 , 760 members . Also like the Poles , many of the Jewish survivors were young adults and in the first two years after liberation there were almost 1 , 000 Jewish weddings . By the time the camp was dissolved , over 1 , 000 children had been born in it . A Yiddish theatre called " Kazet " had been founded in July 1945 by Sami Feder . It staged plays on the fate of the Jews in ghettos and concentration camps , written by himself , as well as older Yiddish plays from Eastern Europe . Kazet was in operation until the summer of 1947 . In 1946 , Abraham Sandman founded the Socialist - Zionist " Jiddische Arbeiterbühne " . A Zionist newspaper known as " Unzer Sztyme " ( Yiddish for " Our Voice " ) was published by the DPs of Belsen and became the main Jewish newspaper in the British sector . It was edited by Paul Trepman , David Rosenthal , and Rafael Olewski and had been published initially by the Jewish Committee in Celle and then by the Culture & History Committee of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the British Zone ( headed by Olewski , Trepman , & Rosenthal ) . Dissolution of the DP camp . Large numbers of DPs began leaving the camp in 1947 as opportunities for emigration improved . Beginning in the spring of 1947 , the British government allocated 300 certificates a month to Jews in the British occupation zone — these allowed legal emigration to Palestine . Between April 1947 and the founding of the State of Israel in May 1948 around 4 , 200 Jews from the British zone , most of them from Belsen , emigrated there legally . By March 1949 , the population was down to 4 , 500 . The DP camp at Belsen was closed in September 1950 and the remaining 1 , 000 people transferred to Upjever near Wilhelmshaven . This camp in turn was closed in August 1951 . The majority of former Belsen DPs emigrated to the State of Israel . Many others went to the US ( over 2 , 000 ) or Canada ( close to 800 ) , a minority decided to stay in Germany and helped to rebuild the Jewish communities there .