1. Liberation

2. A quick activity… You have 2 minutes: Write a list of as many words as you can which you associate with the term ‘liberation’ Compare your list with your neighbour – what similarities and differences are there?

3. Liberation of the camps – some key dates 23 rd July 1944 – Majdanek (USSR) 27 th January 1945 – Auschwitz (USSR) 11 th April 1945 – Buchenwald (USA) 15 th April 1945 – Bergen-Belsen (UK) 29 th April 1945 – Dachau (USA) 30 th April 1945 – Ravensbrück (USSR) 5 th May 1945 – Mauthausen (USA)

5. Who were the liberated? Death marches – summer 1944-April 1945, i.e. last months of the war From different victim groups including Jews, political prisoners and even prisoners of war

7. Who were the liberators? Soldiers of Allied armies: mainly Soviet, American and British but also Canadian, French, etc Not just soldiers: doctors and nurses, relief workers, priests and rabbis

8. Numbers liberated Some camps were almost deserted; others held huge numbers of people, e.g. Auschwitz – c.7,000 Buchenwald – c.20,000 Bergen-Belsen – c.60,000 Dachau – c.28,000 Ravensbrück – c.2,000 Mauthausen – c.66,500 c.250,000 people were in Displaced Persons (DP) camps in 1945 after liberation

9. Why did liberation mean different things to different people?