| Original caption: “A camp inmate, reduced by starvation to a living skeleton, delouses his clothes.” This unidentified man is believed by many sources to have died shortly after Armed Forces Photographic Unit (AFPU) cameramen photographed him attempting to remove lice from his clothes. Typhus was rampant in the camp at the time, just 3 day after liberation. On April 12, 1945, the British and the Nazis reached a truce to allow Heer (“Regular German Army”) and Schutzstaffel (SS) fighters to withdraw within their lines; in exchange, the retreating Axis forces surrendered the Bergen Belsen Konzentrationslager (KZ; “Concentration Camp”). When the 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment and the 11th Armored Division arrived at Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945, its soldiers were totally unprepared for what they found. Inside were about 55,000 prisoners, many of whom were emaciated and ill prisoners in desperate need of medical attention. Thousands of corpses in various stages of decomposition lay littered around the camp. The 1st AFPU team to arrive on April 15, 1945, consisted of Sergeants Mike Lewis (1918 – 1986) and William F. Lawrie (July 1, 1919 – 1991) with film cameras, and Sergeant Harry Oakes (1921 – 2012) and Lieutenant Harry Martyn Alan Wilson (1917 – after 1996) with still cameras. They continued coverage until April 26, 1945, when another team took over. Mike Lewis later wrote: “There were hundreds dead and dying in the camp. Mostly Jews as far as I can see. Most countries of Europe were represented, including Germans. One thing noted was that the prisoners included those who in a normal life would have constituted the leading sections of a community in education, training and culture. Members of the SS men and women were made to bury the dead, greatly to the joy of the people. Even though we could give them little food at first, they were ill for a few days due to the high fat content which their digestions were unaccustomed to for so long. In spite of all the efforts made many hundreds continued to die. Official figures are 10,000 dead on our arrival; 13,000 died subsequently. Those who survived will long be branded by their memories.” The film taken by Lewis and Lawrie was used in the Belsen war crimes trial at Lüneburg in September 1945, and was the 1st use of film as corroboratory evidence. A compilation, supported by affidavits from the cameramen, was screened in the courtroom. Lewis viewed the rough film shortly after it was cut together and never wished to see it again. Stripped of sound and particularly of smell, the film did not convey the horror of Belsen as he saw it; a memory that never left him. Lewis’s superior wrote on his “You deserve much credit for consintently high technical work in such trying conditions, Your coverage is too complete to single out particular shots, but the many very telling close ups you obtained will cut into Sergeant Lawrie’s work well and punch home – if the powers that be permit them to be shown generally – facts that some people still find hard to believe, judging by letters to newspapers.” Stout work. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0566.jpg |
| Image Size | 243.66 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1290 x 1227 |
| Photographer | Martin H. Wilson |
| Photographer Title | Number Five United Kingdom Royal Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 23, 1945 |
| Location | Konzentrationslager Bergen-Belsen |
| City | Bergen |
| State or Province | Lower Saxony |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | Imperial War Museum |
| Record Number | BU 3766 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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