An eyewitness account of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen by Reverend David Stewart. Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.

Part of The Wiener Holocaust Library’s PhD and a Cup of Tea doctoral seminar series.

The Crime of Belsen is a 58-page pamphlet in the collection of The Wiener Holocaust Library. It was written and published in Germany in July 1945 by the Reverend David Stewart, a British army chaplain. A close reading of Reverend Stewart’s report reveals a unique account of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen and the post-liberation care of Holocaust survivors. By sharing Stewart’s writing and photographs, this talk will explore how Stewart understood what he witnessed at Belsen, including his recording of survivor testimony. It is a revealing example of how one Christian encountered Jews in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust and how he first began to respond to its implications.

About the speaker:

Robert Thompson is a PhD student in the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Department at University College London. His research, Liberators, Occupiers, Pastors: Christian Encounters with Holocaust Survivors in Germany, 1945-1950, is funded by a Wolfson Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities. Rob’s MA thesis was awarded Proxime Accessit by the Royal Historical Society for their 2020 Rees Davis Prize.

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