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After Daybreak
After Daybreak
Oct 30, 2024 9:25 AM

Author:Ben Shephard

After Daybreak

When British troops entered Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945, they uncovered scenes of horror and depravity that shocked the world. But they also confronted a terrible challenge - inside the camp were some 60,000 people, suffering from typhus, starvation and dysentery, who would die unless they received immediate medical attention.

After Daybreak is the story of the army stretcher-bearers and ambulance drivers, medical students and relief workers who attempted to save the inmates of Belsen - with the war still raging and only the most primitive drugs and facilities available.

Drawing on their diaries and letters, Ben Shephard reconstructs events at Belsen in the spring of 1945 - from the first horror of its discovery, through the agonising process of trying to save the survivors. In doing so he addresses the question of whether we should regard the relief of the camp as an epic of medical heroism - as the British believed - or see the failure to plan for Belsen and the undoubted mistakes that were made there as further evidence of Allied indifference to the fate of Europe's Jews - as some historians now argue. The result is a powerful and dramatic narrative, full of extraordinary incidents and characters, and an important contribution to medical history.

Reviews

In his excellent and lucid account, Shephard fully makes his case that the aftermath of the liberation of Belsen was an episode in which the British can take pride...a powerful and dramatic narrative

—— Frank McLynn , Independent

A solidly researched, scrupulously balanced and sensitive account of the liberation that will serve as a fitting tribute and a guide to future generations about how best to remember Belsen

—— David Cesarini , Guardian

A moving story

—— Times Literary Supplement

Contributors to the ever-growing opus of Holocaust historiography have been accused by some of creating an industry. However, Shephard's contribution is not superfluous and he negotiates his harrowing material surefootedly

—— Katrina Goldstone , Irish Times

probably the most harrowing book I'll ever read...gripping....its subject matter is something that should never be forgotten

—— Bookseller

a fascinating, compelling read

—— Ham and High

Few books on the Third Reich offer a genuinely fresh perspective on the period but Roger Moorhouse's engrossing chronicle of the plots against Hitler does

—— Nick Rennison , The Sunday Times

This book shows what a murderous place Hitler's Reich was, and that the Fuhrer had the devil's own luck

—— M.R.D. Foot

The first detailed account of the numerous attempts to kill one of history's most reviled dictators

—— Herald

Osborne has written a fluent and fascinating book.... Read and enjoy this remarkable book

—— THES
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