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Strange New World
Belsen's First Year of Freedom
Brief Description
The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on 15 April 1945 was hailed as a triumph of British victory over Nazi Germany. But for the 55,000 survivors of the 'Horror Camp', freedom brought new tragedy: a quarter died in the following five weeks. For many of those...
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See moreA riveting work of historical merit and storytelling that tells the untold tale of what happened at Belsen concentration camp after liberation.
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Description
The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on 15 April 1945 was hailed as a triumph of British victory over Nazi Germany. But for the 55,000 survivors of the 'Horror Camp', freedom brought new tragedy: a quarter died in the following five weeks. For many of those who lived, liberation meant barbed wire, military rule and a different kind of confinement.
Evacuated to a nearby army barracks – soon Europe’s largest Jewish Displaced Persons’ camp – survivors faced endemic disease, bureaucratic indifference and an uncertain future. Josef Rosensaft, Jewish political leader in the camp, called the first year of freedom ‘more oppressive to our souls than the years in the hell of Auschwitz and Belsen’: ‘we saw before us a new kind of world, cold and strange’.
Strange New World is the untold story of Belsen’s survivors. Refusing to remain victims, they fought to reclaim agency, build community and forge new lives from the ruins. Their history resonates today as millions of displaced people worldwide navigate the gap between rescue and true freedom.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781923451445
Publisher: Monash University Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 01 April 2026
Country: Australia
Imprint: Monash University Publishing
Illustration: More than 50 b&w images
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 153.0mm
Height: 234.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 416
About the Author
Over a career of forty years, Nadia Wheatley has published a number of award-winning works of fiction, history and biography. Strange New World is the culmination of a decade’s research into the history of post-war Germany that began with the memoir Her Mother’s Daughter, winner of the 2019 Nib Literary Award.
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