Latest news with #RichardDimbleby
Telegraph
05-05-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Jonathan Dimbleby: My Father and Belsen, review: After 80 years, the broadcaster's words still have the power to shock
Very few news reports linger in the memory. We remember the news itself, of course, but not how it was delivered or by whom, because that barely matters. I can recall only two in vivid detail: Michael Buerk's 1984 dispatch on the Ethiopian famine, and Brian Hanrahan informing us of a successful mission by British jet fighters during the Falklands conflict: 'I counted them all out and I counted them all back.' Richard Dimbleby's radio report on the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, as the first war correspondent to enter the camp and reveal the true depravity of the Nazi regime, remains the gold standard. It was revisited in Jonathan Dimbleby: My Father and Belsen (BBC Four), as part of a weekend of VE Day scheduling. This was a short but not slight programme, just 20 minutes long, and one imagines that the older man would have approved of its concision. It was not an indulgent piece of television, but a respectful tribute to one of the BBC's finest broadcasters. Dimbleby's words in that April 1945 report still have the power to shock. The mother 'distraught to the point of madness,' putting her baby in the arms of a British soldier, who opened the bundle of rags to find that the child had been dead for days. The line: 'I have never seen British soldiers so moved to cold fury as the men who opened the Belsen camp.' According to his son, two things made him a master of the craft. 'One is an air of authority and gravitas in what he was saying; he used words well, which is critical in broadcasting. And he had an eye for the telling detail.' Consider this description of Belsen prisoners on that day: 'Behind the huts, two youths and two girls who had found a morsel of food were sitting together on the grass in picnic fashion, sharing it. They were not six feet from a pile of decomposing bodies.' Remarkably, Dimbleby was only 32 at the time but, as Jonathan said, 'he had an air of authority, a measured, calm delivery that was oddly reassuring'. He did also love the excitement of war reporting, according to his son, and pinched some 'AH' monogrammed cutlery when he went into Hitler's bunker. Where is today's Richard Dimbleby? There is no present-day equivalent, although there are several news presenters I can think of who have big enough egos to imagine themselves as his successor. Nobody has his gravitas, and these days, it's all a scramble for breaking news or viral clips. He died in 1965 at the awfully young age of just 52, a few months after recording a Panorama in which he revisited Belsen to mark the 20th anniversary of the war's end. Jonathan said the programme was important to him because it was one of his father's final appearances while he was ill with cancer, but as a journalist, he also couldn't help marvelling at the technique on display: speaking to camera, no notes, delivered in one take. 'The professionalism,' said Jonathan. 'I look at it not only as a son but as a professional broadcaster thinking, 'Oh my goodness.''
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Eighty years on, survivors and families remember horrors of Bergen Belsen
There had been rumours. There had been aerial photographs. There had been the written testimony of a few escapees. But it took liberation for the revelation of the shocking reality of the Nazi's concentration camps. Nowhere was this more true than when British and Canadian troops advanced on the camp at Bergen-Belsen, near Hanover, in April 1945. A truce with local German commanders enabled them to enter without a fight. They were met with a stomach-churning vista of death, a torrid panorama of human suffering. The troops calculated there were 13,000 unburied corpses. A further 60,000 emaciated, diseased, spectral-like survivors stood and lay amongst them. On Sunday, to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belsen, more than a thousand survivors and families will attending commemoration events at the camp. "To me, Belsen was the ultimate blasphemy," wrote one British soldier, Michael Bentine, who, after World War Two, went on to become a famous entertainer. Other chroniclers, film-makers and diarists struggled to convey in words and pictures the scenes that made unwanted incursions into their minds. The BBC's Richard Dimbleby was the first broadcaster to enter the camp shortly after liberation. In his landmark broadcast he included the words: "This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life." 1945: Richard Dimbleby describes Belsen Belsen's notoriety soon stood out, not just because of the chillingly vivid accounts of journalists, soldiers and photographers, whose testimonies were sent around the world, but because it was found with all its grotesqueness intact. Other camps further east, like the death camps of Treblinka, Sobibor and Auschwitz, had either been destroyed by the Germans to hide their crimes in the face of Soviet advances or emptied of their inmates. At Belsen, the huts, the barracks, the evidence, remained. At Belsen, there were witnesses, perpetrators, victims. It was where many of those eastern concentration camp prisoners ended up. Overcrowding led to dysentery, malnutrition and typhus. There were no gas chambers at Belsen. It was Nazi cruelty and incompetence that accounted for the 500 deaths a day that the camp endured. And most of it came in the final weeks of the war, well into April 1945. As the Third Reich collapsed and freedom came to those in other occupied territories, the dying continued at Belsen: between 50,000 and 70,000 people in total, more than 30,000 of those between January and April 1945. Around 14,000 of the prisoners died after liberation, their digestive systems unable to cope with the high calorific, rich, sustenance offered by well-meaning cooks and medics. The vast majority were Jews, with Soviet prisoners of war, Sinti and homosexuals among other groups to be engulfed by the horrors of the camp. WATCH on iPlayer: Belsen: What They Found - Directed by Sam Mendes Among the survivors and relatives attending the event on Sunday are 180 British Jews. Their journey is being organised by AJEX, the Jewish Military Association. Wreaths will be laid by AJEX veterans, as well as dignitaries, including Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. A psalm will be read by UK Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis. They will do so amid the verdant surroundings of Lower Saxony where the watch towers, fences and buildings have gone. That's because, in the end, to contain disease, the British soldiers decided they had to burn the huts at Belsen. And so, today, little remains. A visitor centre is a focal point, near to where a handful of memorial stones and crosses have been erected. The inscription on one reads Hier ruhen 5,000 toten - here rest 5,000 dead. It is just one of the graves, one of the memories, that haunt the grassed landscape. How Auschwitz became centre of Nazi Holocaust 'Horror of Belsen changed Dad's view on the war'
BBC News
26-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Bergen Belsen: Eighty years on, survivors and families remember camp's horrors
There had been rumours. There had been aerial photographs. There had been the written testimony of a few escapees. But it took liberation for the revelation of the shocking reality of the Nazi's concentration was this more true than when British and Canadian troops advanced on the camp at Bergen-Belsen, near Hanover, in April 1945. A truce with local German commanders enabled them to enter without a fight. They were met with a stomach-churning vista of death, a torrid panorama of human troops calculated there were 13,000 unburied corpses. A further 60,000 emaciated, diseased, spectral-like survivors stood and lay amongst Sunday, to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belsen, more than a thousand survivors and families will attending commemoration events at the camp. "To me, Belsen was the ultimate blasphemy," wrote one British soldier, Michael Bentine, who, after World War Two, went on to become a famous chroniclers, film-makers and diarists struggled to convey in words and pictures the scenes that made unwanted incursions into their minds. The BBC's Richard Dimbleby was the first broadcaster to enter the camp shortly after liberation. In his landmark broadcast he included the words: "This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life." Belsen's notoriety soon stood out, not just because of the chillingly vivid accounts of journalists, soldiers and photographers, whose testimonies were sent around the world, but because it was found with all its grotesqueness camps further east, like the death camps of Treblinka, Sobibor and Auschwitz, had either been destroyed by the Germans to hide their crimes in the face of Soviet advances or emptied of their Belsen, the huts, the barracks, the evidence, Belsen, there were witnesses, perpetrators, was where many of those eastern concentration camp prisoners ended up. Overcrowding led to dysentery, malnutrition and were no gas chambers at Belsen. It was Nazi cruelty and incompetence that accounted for the 500 deaths a day that the camp most of it came in the final weeks of the war, well into April 1945. As the Third Reich collapsed and freedom came to those in other occupied territories, the dying continued at Belsen: between 50,000 and 70,000 people in total, more than 30,000 of those between January and April 1945. Around 14,000 of the prisoners died after liberation, their digestive systems unable to cope with the high calorific, rich, sustenance offered by well-meaning cooks and vast majority were Jews, with Soviet prisoners of war, Sinti and homosexuals among other groups to be engulfed by the horrors of the on iPlayer: Belsen: What They Found - Directed by Sam Mendes Among the survivors and relatives attending the event on Sunday are 180 British Jews. Their journey is being organised by AJEX, the Jewish Military will be laid by AJEX veterans, as well as dignitaries, including Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.A psalm will be read by UK Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim will do so amid the verdant surroundings of Lower Saxony where the watch towers, fences and buildings have because, in the end, to contain disease, the British soldiers decided they had to burn the huts at Belsen. And so, today, little remains. A visitor centre is a focal point, near to where a handful of memorial stones and crosses have been inscription on one reads Hier ruhen 5,000 toten - here rest 5,000 is just one of the graves, one of the memories, that haunt the grassed landscape.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Now more than ever, remembering the Holocaust is vital
When Richard Dimbleby, then the BBC's war correspondent, entered Bergen-Belsen shortly after its liberation on this day in 1945 he was confronted with a scene of unthinkable horror. His description of what he saw was so graphic the BBC refused to broadcast his despatch for several days and when aired. It was for many the first time they learned of the horrific crimes perpetrated by the Nazis. At the end of his broadcast, Dimbleby said: 'I have set down these facts at length because, in common with all of us who have been to the camp, I feel that you should be told, without reserve, exactly what has been happening.' I'll be thinking of that broadcast when I attend a ceremony at the camp to commemorate the 80th anniversary of its liberation by the British Army. Dimbleby assumed that one day people would deny the Holocaust. He was right. In spite of all the evidence – physical, printed, filmed – an entire industry has grown around Holocaust denial. In some countries it is prohibited by law, but in many it is not and in some, such as Iran, Holocaust denial is actively promoted. Social media is awash with it. Conspiracists argue that the camps never existed and the facts have all been fabricated. Of course, the real fabrication lies in the minds of those who want to deny truth in order to justify their own belief systems. Constant vigilance is the only defence we have against such lies. Hence why the trips to the camps, museums and memorials – as well as hearing directly from Holocaust survivors themselves – are so essential. The last year-and-a-half has shown us why. On October 7 Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, murdering 1195 people. That day was the deadliest single day for Jews since 1945 and marks the second-highest number of British deaths from an overseas terror attack after 9/11. Because the perpetrators recorded their actions, we now have a ghastly archive of video footage of the last minutes of the lives of terrified young people killed in their cars, on the streets and in their homes. Of stripped women and murdered children. We also have the testimonies of those who were there and miraculously survived, as well as the forensic evidence of scientists and medics. The evidence is unassailable, yet the facts of that day are being denied. Claims have been made that the videos were staged, that the attack was planned by Israel, that what occurred doesn't count as terrorism. The Holocaust showed the world why the Jewish people needed the state of Israel. The world's reaction to Oct 7 highlights why remembering what really happened has never been more vital. Keith Black is the chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Now more than ever, remembering the Holocaust is vital
When Richard Dimbleby, then the BBC's war correspondent, entered Bergen-Belsen shortly after its liberation on this day in 1945 he was confronted with a scene of unthinkable horror. His description of what he saw was so graphic the BBC refused to broadcast his despatch for several days and when aired. It was for many the first time they learned of the horrific crimes perpetrated by the Nazis. At the end of his broadcast, Dimbleby said: 'I have set down these facts at length because, in common with all of us who have been to the camp, I feel that you should be told, without reserve, exactly what has been happening.' I'll be thinking of that broadcast when I attend a ceremony at the camp to commemorate the 80th anniversary of its liberation by the British Army. Dimbleby assumed that one day people would deny the Holocaust. He was right. In spite of all the evidence – physical, printed, filmed – an entire industry has grown around Holocaust denial. In some countries it is prohibited by law, but in many it is not and in some, such as Iran, Holocaust denial is actively promoted. Social media is awash with it. Conspiracists argue that the camps never existed and the facts have all been fabricated. Of course, the real fabrication lies in the minds of those who want to deny truth in order to justify their own belief systems. Constant vigilance is the only defence we have against such lies. Hence why the trips to the camps, museums and memorials – as well as hearing directly from Holocaust survivors themselves – are so essential. The last year-and-a-half has shown us why. On October 7 Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, murdering 1195 people. That day was the deadliest single day for Jews since 1945 and marks the second-highest number of British deaths from an overseas terror attack after 9/11. Because the perpetrators recorded their actions, we now have a ghastly archive of video footage of the last minutes of the lives of terrified young people killed in their cars, on the streets and in their homes. Of stripped women and murdered children. We also have the testimonies of those who were there and miraculously survived, as well as the forensic evidence of scientists and medics. The evidence is unassailable, yet the facts of that day are being denied. Claims have been made that the videos were staged, that the attack was planned by Israel, that what occurred doesn't count as terrorism. The Holocaust showed the world why the Jewish people needed the state of Israel. The world's reaction to Oct 7 highlights why remembering what really happened has never been more vital.
