Editing Josef Kramer (section)

===Belsen===
[[File:Bergen Belsen Liberation 01.jpg|thumb|Former guards at [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Bergen-Belsen]] are made to load the bodies of dead prisoners onto a truck for burial, 17–18 April 1945]]
In December 1944, ''[[SS-Hauptsturmführer]]'' Kramer was transferred from [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Birkenau]] to [[Bergen Belsen]], near the village of Bergen. Belsen had originally served as a temporary camp for those leaving Germany, but during the war it had been expanded to serve as a convalescent depot for the ill and displaced people from across north-west Europe. Although it had no gas chambers, Kramer's rule was so harsh that he became known as the "Beast of Belsen".<ref>{{cite book|last=Celinscak|first=Mark|title=Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Concentration Camp|year=2015|publisher=University of Toronto Press| location= Toronto| isbn= 9781442615700}}</ref>

As Nazi Germany collapsed, administration of the camp broke down, but Kramer remained devoted to bureaucracy. On 1 March 1945, he filed a report asking for help and resources, stating that of the 42,000 inmates in his camp, 250–300 died each day from [[Epidemic typhus|typhus]]. On 19 March, the number of inmates rose to 60,000 as the Germans continued to evacuate camps that were soon to be liberated by the Allies. As late as the week of 13 April, some 28,000 additional prisoners were brought in.<ref>{{cite book |last=Naggar |first=Carole |date=2003 |title=Goegre Rodger: An Adventure in Photography, 1908-1995 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |page=136 |isbn=978-0-815-60762-5}}</ref>

With the collapse of administration and many guards fleeing to escape retribution, roll calls were stopped, and the inmates were left to their own devices. Corpses rotted everywhere, and [[rat]]s attacked the living too weak to fight them off. Kramer remained even when the British, led by Major [[Brian Urquhart]], arrived to liberate the camp, and took them on a tour of the camp to inspect the "scenes". Piles of corpses lay all over the camp, mass graves were filled in, and the huts were filled with prisoners in every stage of emaciation and disease.<ref name=Kemp1997>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_jvBBB22IlIC&q=kemp&pg=PA141|title=Belsen in History and Memory|last=Kemp|first=Paul|date=1997|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=07146-43238|editor-last=Reilly|editor-first=Jo|pages=134–148|language=en|chapter=The British Army and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen 1945|editor-last2=Cesarani|editor-first2=David|editor-last3=Kushner|editor-first3=Tony|editor-last4=Richmond|editor-first4=Colin}}</ref>