This is very much a long shot, I am trying to research my late grandfather's time during WW11. There have been numerous articles in local newspapers regarding my grandfather and the information given in these is pretty much all I know as he never spoke to us regarding his experiences. To be honest I have no idea where to start but would be most grateful for any links or information that anyone could provide.
He was Sgt John Stainley West of Stokesley, North Yorkshire and was one of the first to land on the Normandy beaches in 1944, helping to clear minefields in northern France and other parts of Europe while serving with a division of the Canadian Army where he specialised in mine detectors and detonators. He also became a POW for half a day.
On April 15th 1945 he entered Belsen as the Official British War Photographer. At the time he was serving with the 116th Light Ack Ack Company, Royal Artillery. My Grandfather spent 4 months in Belsen recording the scenes of the few victims left alive and also working in the maternity ward. He also helped collect bodies and supervise the burial of 23,000.
He had a photocopy of a Belsen record card, on the back of which were some brief notes compiled at the time. The following extracts illustrate only too vividly the grimness of the war which was nearing its end.
"We feel that some of you who were not here at Belsen from the beginning might like to see these notes. They give the most accurate facts available, We would liked to have produced them before, but we were one and all rather busy on the first main job of clearing the concentration camp. That job is now finished. On the 12 April 1945 the Chief of Staff of the 1st German Para Army approached the Brigadier General's staff of the British 8th Corps and said he had a terrible situation on hand at Belsen and that the place must be taken over. On 13 April 1945 the terms of a special truce were drawn up, although we must remember that a battle was going on all around the Belsen area. Under these terms, the British agreed to come in and take over the camp, a neutral area was defined around Belsen, the German SS camp staff were to remain, the British doing what they liked with them, and the Hungarians to remain armed and be used by the British until such time as they had no further use for them. It is believed that Brig Glyn Hughes, deputy director of medical services, was the first to arrive. The First British unit in was an Anti-Tank Battery which arrived on 15 April. The scene which met the first officers beggars description. There were an estimated 30,000 people in camp, of which about 10,000 lay dead in the huts or about the camp. Those still alive had been without food or water for about seven days, after long periods of semi-starvation. Typhus, amongst other diseases, was raging. Corruption and filth were everywhere. The air was poisoned. You have no doubt heard these terrible details from those who saw them. The tasks which faced the firstcomers must have appeared insurmountable. Nevertheless they were tackled with outstanding success when one considers the resources available.
The Document says that, eventually the Army took over control of all the concentration camps. All the living inmates of Belsen were moved into hospitals and transit camps. The total moved numbered 28,900, although 2,000 died later.
A memento which he kept to remind himself of man's inhumanity to man was a knife, fork and spoon wrapped in a cloth folder which belonged to the Nazi Commandant, the infamous "Beast of Belsen" I believe his name to be Kramer. My Grandfather confiscated it after being spat on by this officer during one of the morning parades.
He left the camp to return to England in September 1945 after contracting a disease at Belsen that attacked his nervous system and which kept him in hospital for 5 months. His illness affected him for the next ten years, resulting in loss of memory and repeated nightmares.
