Survival and legacy

This sign was erected at the site of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation in the summer of 1945. In total, approximately 50,000 people died at Bergen-Belsen.

Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.

This sign was erected at the site of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation in the summer of 1945. In total, approximately 50,000 people died at Bergen-Belsen.

Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.

1 / 1

In 1944 and 1945, Allied forces liberated thousands of people from Nazi incarceration as they advanced towards Berlin. On 7 May 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered and the Second World War was over. Although the war had ended, for survivors, and Europe more widely, the process of reconstruction was just beginning.

This section will explore the difficulties survivors of the Holocaust faced as they attempted to reconstruct their lives: Displaced Person’s (DPs) camps, the denazification process, the postwar trials of Nazis and their collaborators, and how the Holocaust has been remembered and memorialised.