Liberating the Nazi death camps

An item from the Legion Magazine.

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Prime minister invokes memory of
war in stirring pandemic speech

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked memories of Vimy Ridge, his grandfather’s role in the Second World War and the sacrifices and contributions of “the Greatest Generation” in a stirring speech about “the trials that shaped our country” delivered prior to a critical vote in the House of Commons on April 11.

“I rise here in this moment in this House as our generation faces its greatest challenge yet,” said Trudeau. “We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. Of all of those Canadians who saw our nation through difficult, tumultuous times in our history.”

Liberating the death camps

Story by Sharon Adams

On April 15, 1945, three weeks before the end of the Second World War, the British 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which was in the throes of an epidemic and was peacefully handed over by the Germans.

What they witnessed there in northern Germany was unimaginable: 13,000 emaciated corpses lying in heaps throughout the camp among about 60,000 starving and sick inmates, mostly Jewish; about 500 were children. Teen-aged diarist Anne Frank died there of typhus, just weeks before the camp was liberated.