Bergen-Belsen 1945: A Medical Student's Journal

Hargrave's journal begins on 28 April 1945 when, in battledress, he travelled with the other students from Westminster Hospital medical school to meet the British Red Cross, have some official photographs taken, and receive his documents.[4] Although he was to initially to fly to Holland, Belsen in Germany had recently been liberated by British troops and a request for extra help was made upon realising the extent of the problems there.[4] The students were subsequently informed that they would be re-directed to Belsen.[4]

Hargrave wrote that same day "this was the first news we had been given about going to Belsen but we were all so excited about going, after a month of waiting, that we did not think much about the change in destination".[4] Following several attempts to reach Celle due to bad weather and involving one failed attempt resulting in a landing at Croydon Airport, his flight in one of six Dakotas from Cirencester reached Celle on 2 May 1945.[4]

Women in hut at Bergen-Belsen[6]

Of his first encounter with the camp, Hargrave wrote:

We found Hut 224. We went into the hut and were almost knocked back by the smell. The sight that met us was shocking. There were no beds whatsoever and in this one room there were about 200 women, from 15 to 30 years old, lying on the floor. In some cases they wore few rags and in some cases they wore no clothes at all. The floor was covered in faeces and soaked in urine. They all had extremely severe diarrhoea and were too weak to move.[7]

Medical students at Belsen in converted hospital ward[5]

He was allocated hut 217, which contained only women,[2] and described how on his first day he could not do much more than offer the 240 inmates a restricted supply of food that included an "ovaltine/horlicks/cocoa mixture, two cups of glucose solution, one square of chocolate and one biscuit.[8]

He described performing simple operative procedures;

Opened a breast abscess with a razor blade heated in a flame and then cooled in alcohol. Made quick 2″ incision and then back with Marine gauze – no anaesthetic and patient must have been in great agony – did not yell. Opened boil on forearm in similar way.[8]

The "human laundry", May 1945.[9]

The journal contains a number of diagrams drawn by Hargrave, including one of the "human laundry", which was constructed in two stables of Camp II. Inmates chosen by the students were sent there from Camp I with the 11th Field Ambulance, to be cleaned and deloused by groups of German nurses who were dispersed around 17 tables.[2][4][8] Four nurses attended to each inmate at one time. After they were washed with soap and water, their hair was cut and they were sprayed with the pesticide DDT. They were then wrapped in fresh blankets and transferred to the hospital in Camp II in a clean ambulance.[2][4] Those that were deemed fit could go to Camp III or IV where they could be repatriated.[8] Hargrave recorded that several of these nurses contracted typhus.[4]

On his final full day in Germany, while he was out in the German countryside with nutritionist Arnold Meiklejohn and a few other students,[4] Hargrave noted that "all the German women and children were fair haired and ... a dark head was the exception." By contrast, at Belsen he did not see any blonde-haired people during the whole time he was there.[10] As the students approached the end of their time at Belsen, they handed over operations to Belgian medical students.[4]