In early April 1945, at the request of the British Army, the British Red Cross and the War Office called for 100 volunteer medical students from nine London teaching hospitals to assist in feeding starving Dutch children who had been liberated from German occupation by advancing Allied forces. However, in the meantime, British troops had liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the students were diverted there on the day they were due to travel to the Netherlands. The students had previously spent most of the Second World War at school and in medical training.
The students were tasked with taking over one or two of the 200 camp huts each, with the responsibility of cleaning and feeding the survivors and supervising a fair distribution of food. Their work was instrumental in reducing the death rate from over 500 a day at liberation to less than 100 a day by mid-May 1945.
Sources show that twelve students came from each of Guy's Hospital, St Thomas', St Mary's, The London and University College, eleven from Westminster, nine from St Bartholomew's, eight from the Middlesex and the remainder from King's.
The Imperial War Museum holds a number of the students' letters and diaries which were a source for Ben Shephard's 2005 book After Daybreak: The Liberation of Belsen, 1945. Their story has also been portrayed in the 2007 feature-length drama, The Relief of Belsen. The diary of Westminster student Michael Hargrave was published in 2014.
Recruitment
In early April 1945, a call for 100 volunteer medical students in their final 18 months of medical school was made by the British Red Cross and the War Office at the request of the British Army, to assist in feeding starving Dutch children. However, in the interim, British troops had liberated Belsen and at the request of Brigadier Hugh Glyn-Hughes, the students were diverted to Belsen on the day of departure to Holland. The total number of students who volunteered was more than 100 and they were therefore shortlisted by ballot. Somewhere between 95 and 100 took part, with the exact number uncertain. Laurence Wand, a student from St Bartholomew's, later recounted the events of 1945 and gave with certainty the number as 96 as "this number fitted neatly into six Dakota aircraft which were to be used for our transport to Germany". Up until this time, these students had spent the larger part of the Second World War at school and in medical education. Several students had previously attended Epsom College.
Journey to Belsen
At the end of April 1945, the students were immunised against typhoid, typhus and diphtheria. Dressed in battledress, at 2pm on 28 April 1945, they met the British Red Cross at 5, Lowndes Street after having some official photographs taken. Student Michael Hargrave described in his diary that day that there were "some very faked photographs of me shaking hands with the Dean - supposed to be saying goodbye". Upon arrival at Lowndes Street, they were given their passports, ranking cards and military documents. They were to fly to Holland. However, Belsen, in Germany, had in the interim been liberated by British troops and a request for extra help was made upon realising the extent of the problems there. The students were subsequently informed that they would be re-directed to Belsen. Hargrave, wrote that same day "this was the first news we had been given about going to Belsen but we were all so excited abound, after a month of waiting, that we did not think much about the change in destination".
Over the following few days, six Dakotas set off from Cirencester with the destination of Celle in Germany. Due to problems with the weather, the aircraft arrived at Celle on different days, with two having to return to Cirencester via Croydon. They were to be under the supervision of nutritionist Arnold Peter Meiklejohn.
Belsen
Arrival
The first students arrived at Belsen at the end of April 1945, with the remaining students reaching the camp at the beginning of May 1945. Following a briefing by Meiklejohn on 2 May 1945, they began work at Camp 1 the following day.
Roles
Initially, the role of the students was to take over one or two of the 200 huts each, with the responsibility of getting them cleaned (human laundry) and supervising the feeding of and fair distribution of food to the inmates. The association of intravenous feeding and Nazi activities rendered this kind of feeding inappropriate. An unpopular mixture known as the "Bengal mixture" was used for feeding. In addition to malnutrition and starvation, tuberculosis, typhus and cancrum oris were common, and later Wernicke's encephalopathy and pellagra.