Belsen covered a wide area, and seems in fact to have been several inter-linked camps. The ordinary German soldiers who accompanied the British into the main camp said that they had never been there before, and indeed, if they had attempted to go into the camp they would have been shot by the SS guards. When the small group of British and German soldiers reached the main gate they were met by the camp commandant, SS-Haupsturmfuehrer Alfred Kramer, who formally surrendered in expectation that he would be regarded as a prisoner of war - he was executed as a war criminal in December 1945.
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