[Bergen-Belsen liberation 15th April 1945--personal and professional reflections]

The Holocaust is presently part of the universal human identity in the 21st century, as well as a component of Jewish and Israeli identity. Contemplating the role of medicine in the Holocaust is crucial for health professionals' identity formation. This paper narrates the story of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, the events preceding its liberation and the months that followed in universal, Jewish, medical and personal dimensions. A British book (After Daybreak by S.Shepard, Shocken Books, 2005) addresses the Bergen-Belsen Liberation on 15.4.45 and focuses on the medical relief operation mounted by the British. It tells the story, among others, of 96 volunteer medical students flown in from London to assist in the survivors' care. I have also heard the tales of Bergen-Belsen in those days from my late father who was there and was fortunately Liberated by the same British soldiers. My mother too stayed in Bergen-Belsen and left two months prior to liberation. By the end of May 1945 the British soldiers had left, the camp was transformed into a refugee camp, and it became a transit camp for preparation for Aliya and immigration. In 1948 my mother's younger sisters spent time there on their way to joining a kibbutz in Palestine. This is how I found myself caught in the duality of seeing, in my mind's eye, the picture portrayed by the book, the gaze of the camp's liberators and healers, as well as imagining myself in the shoes of my family members in the same place and time. This article conveys the dual gaze: the medicaL, that the health professionals present on the one hand, and the personal outlook--on the other hand.