{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,15]],"date-time":"2025-08-15T02:42:05Z","timestamp":1755225725760,"version":"3.43.0"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"1","content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["J R Army Med Corps"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2015,3,8]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2016,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) has justly regarded its relief of the appalling conditions found in the liberated Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen in April 1945 as one of its more glorious achievements. This view has, in the last decade, come under attack from historians who have, inter alia, criticised the nature and speed of the medical measures employed by the British. This has focused particularly on the management of the typhus epidemic, erroneously claimed to be the major disease killer of the survivors, and which was the catalyst for the premature German surrender of the camp to the approaching Allies about 3\u2005weeks before the end of the war. This review examines the veracity of this statement and the nature of the evidence on which it was based.<\/jats:p>\n               <\/jats:sec>\n               <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Review of all the relevant extant primary source written evidence both published and archived in major collections in London, Washington and Belsen, in addition to the relevant subsequent secondary evidence.<\/jats:p>\n               <\/jats:sec>\n               <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Disprove the ill-considered and scientifically flawed attempts to discredit the RAMC and demonstrate that the RAMC can be shown to have made the correct prioritising decisions in relieving starvation as well as in implementing the appropriate public health anti-typhus measures and to have acquitted itself honourably.<\/jats:p>\n               <\/jats:sec>\n               <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Underlines the pitfalls of basing sweeping conclusions on an imperfectly understood inadequate selection of the available evidence.<\/jats:p>\n               <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1136\/jramc-2015-000416","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,5,8]],"date-time":"2015-05-08T20:41:09Z","timestamp":1431117669000},"page":"44-49","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["The RAMC at Belsen 1945: typhus revisited"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"162","author":[{"given":"Rowan","family":"MacAuslan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,5,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.1","unstructured":"Kolb E . Bergen-Belsen: from \u201cDetention Camp\u201d to Concentration Camp, 1943\u201345. (trans) Gregory Claeys and Christine Lattke. Gottingen: Vandenhoek & Rupprecht, 1985."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"313","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(45)90931-7","article-title":"Medical aspects of Belsen Concentration Camp","volume":"246","author":"Lipscomb","year":"1945","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"401","DOI":"10.1017\/S0269889706000998","article-title":"\u2018\u2018Belsenitis\u201d: liberating Belsen, its hospitals, UNRRA, and selection for re-emigration, 1945\u20131948","volume":"19","author":"Weindling","year":"2006","journal-title":"Sci Context"},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.4","unstructured":"MacAuslan R . Some Aspects of the Medical Relief of Belsen Concentration Camp, April\u2013May 1945, Birkbeck Coll. 2012. Wellcome Library CAD 37.AA9."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.5","unstructured":"Peterkin DB . Observations on the outbreak of louse-borne Typhus Fever at Belsen concentration Camp April 1945. Doctorial thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1946. Belsen: Gedenkst\u00e4tte Library, 107."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.6","unstructured":"Glyn Hughes H . Medical Report on Belsen Concentration Camp by DDMS 2nd Army 19th April 1945. Kings College Archives: LH 15\/5\/104\/214. 1945."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.7","unstructured":"Flanagan B , Reilly J , Bloxham D , eds. Remembering Belsen: eyewitnesses record the liberation. UK: Vallentine Mitchell, 2004:5."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.8","unstructured":"Pares A . Transcript: \u2018The Story of Belsen,\u2019 c.1945 (D\/DLI 7\/404\/10) Durham County Record Office."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.9","unstructured":"Glyn Hughes HL . Medical Report on Belsen Concentration Camp (based on continuous observations throughout the first 4 days). BRC Archives."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.10","unstructured":"Belsen: An Annex to British Zone Review, 13 October 1945. The official publication of the British Military Government and Control Commission TNA: RG 153\/83\/100\u2013881."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.11","unstructured":"Hoff EC , ed. Preventive medicine in WWII, Vol VII. Washington DC: Office of the Surgeon General, Dept of the Army, 1964:232\u201349."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.12","unstructured":"Draper WF . Public health experiences in the European theatre of operations 1946. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.13","unstructured":"Report on Medical Services of 21 Army Group, June 44\u2013May 45. Wellcome: RAMC 1184\/1:38."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.14","unstructured":"Willink, The Rt. Hon. Sir Henry, Statement on the danger of Typhus to the British population, Coll 1522, Hansard, 12 June 1945."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.15","unstructured":"Horwell AR . Private Papers of Arnold Horwell, IWM: 116 91\/21\/1."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.16","unstructured":"Shephard B . After Daybreak: The liberation of Belsen, 1945. Jonathan Cape: 2005."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.17","unstructured":"Miles WH . 224 Military Government Detachment Report. TNA: WO 171\/7950."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.18","unstructured":"British Zone Review December 1945. Belsen: An Annex to British Zone Review, 13 October 1945. The official publication of the British Military Government and Control Commission. PRO: RG 153\/83\/100-881."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.19","unstructured":"Phillips R , ed. Trial of Josef Kramer and forty four others: the Belsen trial. London: Hodge, 1949:18."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.20","unstructured":"Johnston JAD . The relief of Belsen concentration camp: Recollections and Reflection of a British Army doctor. 1981: USHMM ref: RG-04.020.1."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.21","unstructured":"Lipscomb FM . Daybook April\u2013May 1945 (Wellcome: RAMC 792\/3, 1-3:29."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Weindling P . Epidemics and Genocide in Europe 1890\u20131945. UK: OUP, 2000.","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780198206910.001.0001"},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"448","DOI":"10.7326\/0003-4819-34-2-448","article-title":"Typhus at Belsen. II. Clinical course of epidemic typhus in persons who had received Craigie typhus vaccine","volume":"39","author":"Davis","year":"1951","journal-title":"Ann Intern Med"},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.2.4485.953"},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.1.4408.927"},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Crauford-Benson HJ . \u2018Naples Typhus Epidemic: As Seen by an Entomologist, 1942\u20133,\u2019 (BMJ, 1946).","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.1.4449.579"},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.27","unstructured":"Davis WA . Diary\u2013Typhus at Belsen Camp. USHMM: Nancy Ruhl Papers: 2000.244, 23 April 1945."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.28","unstructured":"K Fergusson, Belsen Diary, personal possession Dr Fergusson."},{"key":"2025081310242787000_162.1.44.29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJM197705052961806"}],"container-title":["Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.1136\/jramc-2015-000416","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,13]],"date-time":"2025-08-13T17:24:33Z","timestamp":1755105873000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/militaryhealth.bmj.com\/lookup\/doi\/10.1136\/jramc-2015-000416"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2015,5,8]]},"references-count":29,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,1,25]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2016,2]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1136\/jramc-2015-000416"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/jramc-2015-000416","relation":{},"ISSN":["0035-8665","2052-0468"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"0035-8665"},{"type":"electronic","value":"2052-0468"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2015,5,8]]}}}