The Ethics of Rescue: True Stories Behind Bergen-Belsen’s Liberation

A hybrid event (in-person and virtual) by Dr. Bernice Lerner

About the Event: 

In mid-April 1945, a small group of liberators entered Bergen-Belsen, where they found tens of thousands of unburied dead and 60,000 “displaced persons,” of whom 25,000 were in dire need of medical attention. What principles guided their leaders’ excruciating choices? What ethical questions consumed the men as they endeavored to feed the starved, control the spread of disease, and equip the largest hospital in Europe? Dr. Lerner will share astonishing stories about the unprecedented liberation–from the perspectives of both liberators and survivors, including 15-year-old Rachel Genuth, her mother.

About the Speaker: 

Bernice Lerner, Ed.D., is the author of All the Horrors of War: A Jewish Girl, a British Doctor, and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, and other writings on the Holocaust and virtue ethics. She is the former dean of adult learning at Hebrew College and a lecturer on the Holocaust and character education.

*Zvi Asaria-Hermann Helfgott- Helping Survivors in Bergen-Belsen Video: https://youtu.be/cmxz6S0sobE?si=evvCmJylZESgysoH

★ Support this podcast ★