How the first report from Belsen concentration camp shocked the world

In April 1945, the BBC’s Richard Dimbleby was the first reporter to enter the liberated Belsen concentration camp. 

His report describing the unimaginable horror he found, was the first time many listeners had heard the bleak truth of what it was like to have endured life and death under the Nazis.

Around 70,000 people died in the Bergen-Belsen camp. 

The broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby told Witness History how his father broke down recording the report and why the BBC were at first reluctant to broadcast it.

Witness History: The stories of our times told by the people who were there.

For information about concentration camps and the Holocaust visit BBC Bitesize or the BBC Archive.