Screening of "No Asylum" in presence of Anne Frank's stepsister to mark 74th anniversary of liberation of Belsen

Senior Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence, Kinloss Synagogue; Eva Schloss, Anne Frank's stepsister; Simon Bentley, Chairman, Yad Vashem UK Foundation; John Wood, son of Belsen liberator, Leonard Berney. Photo by Hy Money

15 April 2019 - Finchley, London - To mark the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp by the British Army, a special screening of the documentary 'No Asylum - The Untold Chapter of Anne Frank's Story' was held at the Kinloss Synagogue in Finchley, north London on 15 April 2019.

Eva Schloss, Anne Frank's stepsister and Auschwitz survivor, who appears in the film, attended the evening event which was attended by around 100. Following the screening, Eva gave a short account of her life story and answered questions.

The late Belsen liberator, Leonard Berney, who was a 25-year old major in the British Army on the day Belsen was liberated on 15th April 1945, also appears in the film. Leonard's son, John Wood, was in attendance at the screening as was Simon Bentley, the Chairman of Yad Vashem UK Foundation, Holocaust survivors Freddy Knoller, Mala Tribich and Eve Kugler, and the renowned film producer Mark Forstater, author of 'I Survived a Secret Nazi Extermination Camp'. And proceedings were conducted by Kinloss Synagogue's Senior Rabbi, Jeremy Lawrence.

The evening event was co-hosted by the Kinloss Synagogue and Yad Vashem UK Foundation.

Rabbi Lawrence: "At a time of increased antisemitism and racism in the public arena, it is important to hear survivor testimony. Those who have witnessed the escalation of intolerance and abuse; those who have been rebuffed as they have cried out at persecution or as they have tried to flee, remind us of the dangers of standing by and hold us to account. 'No Asylum' is a powerful and relevant film for 2019."

About Kinloss Synagogue

Kinloss (Finchley United Synagogue) has a membership of 3,000 and is the jewel in the crown of the United Synagogue. It is a thriving community and hosts many social and educational events throughout the year.

About Yad Vashem UK Foundation

Yad Vashem UK Foundation believes in the importance of educating, imparting and bequeathing to future generations the legacy of the Holocaust to ensure that the tragedy is never forgotten, to honour the memory of those who perished and to impart the legacy of the Holocaust to shape a more humane future. Yad Vashem UK Foundation bears the responsibility of passing the torch of remembrance from the Survivors to the coming generations. There are growing waves of hatred and anti Semitism throughout Europe which must be repelled and the world must never be allowed to forget the lessons of the Holocaust.

About "No Asylum - The Untold Chapter of Anne Frank's Story" (2015)

No Asylum, the Paradise Filmworks International feature-length documentary, brings Otto Frank’s voice to light through his recently discovered letters, which reveal for the first time, the emotional tale of how the world turned its back on the Frank family as he desperately tried to obtain visas to save his family from the Holocaust. Starring: Leonard Berney, Jonathan Brent Ph.D., Richard Breitman, Ph.D., Meta Doran, Buddy Elias, Estelle Guzik, Lydia Lebovich, and Eva Schloss (Anne Frank's stepsister).

High res images:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Tc2RCC8wijoWWKdp9
Captions are given in the information section of each photo. Please photo credit those images marked "Photo by Hy Money" with "Hy Money".

For more information:

Kinloss Synagogue - www.kinloss.org.uk - 020 8346 8551

Yad Vashem UK Foundation - www.yadvashem.org.uk - 020 8359 1146

"No Asylum - The Untold Chapter of Anne Frank's Story" is streaming on Amazon and iTunes: www.noasylumfilm.com To host a screening, visit: www.noasylumfilm.com/host-a-screening

Screening of "No Asylum" in presence of Anne Frank's stepsister to mark 74th anniversary of liberation of Belsen

Unique Personal Account of the Liberation of Belsen Concentration Camp Marks its 70th Anniversary

Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp - A Personal Account
by (former) Lt-Colonel Leonard Berney R.A. T.D.

"Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp - A Personal Account by (former) Lt-Colonel Leonard Berney R.A. T.D." is the only book published that recounts the events that led up to the British Army’s uncovering of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp and its 60,000 prisoners, and their subsequent liberation.

Forewords by Nanette Blitz Konig, Belsen survivor and former classmate of Anne Frank, and Major-General Nicholas Eeles CBE, with the introduction by the Oscar®-nominated film director Joshua Oppenheimer.

London - In this first-hand memoir, former Lt-Colonel Leonard Berney captures the drama and horror encountered by the British Army, and recounts the heroic efforts by the liberating troops to provide food, medical care, housing, and rescue the thousands upon thousands of concentration camp survivors. 

On 15th April 1945, the then 25-year-old Leonard Berney (now 95 years old) was one of the officers of the advance party detailed to take over Belsen Concentration Camp from the Germans and one of the first of the liberators to go through its gates. 

"We drove the length of the camp and back; it was nearly half a mile long. Announcements were made in German and other languages that the British Army had arrived to take over the camp; the inmates were now safe but had to stay where they were. As we drove along the camp’s main road we saw dead bodies lying beside the road, and many hundreds of emaciated men and women prisoners still mostly behind barbed wire. 

"We saw many long wooden huts with corpses littering the ground between them. In open areas at the rear of the huts, more piles of corpses. At the end of the road, we saw a large open mass grave containing hundreds of corpses. The sights, the stench, the sheer horror of the place, were indescribable." 

"Then at the end of the road, we arrived at a large pit partly full of corpses, both men and women—there must have been several hundred."

This is the only book to be published that recounts:

• the events that led up to the British Army’s uncovering of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp and its 60,000 prisoners
• how the Army dealt with the unprecedented horror that existed in the camp
• how the surviving prisoners were rescued
• how the inmates were evacuated
• how the Royal Army Medical Corps established the world’s largest hospital to care for the many thousands of sick and emaciated ex-inmates
• how the survivors were rehabilitated and cared for
• how they were repatriated to their own countries
• why many thousand refused to return ‘home’ and 
• the eventual establishment of the Belsen Displaced Persons camp, the largest DP camp in Germany. 

It includes a foreword by Belsen survivor Nanette Blitz Konig, a foreword by the General Officer Commanding Scotland and Chairman of the Royal Artillery Historical Trust, Major-General Nicholas Eeles CBE, and an introduction by Oscar®-nominated film director Joshua Oppenheimer whose work includes "The Act of Killing" and "The Look of Silence", both of which document the genocide that took place there during the Indonesian Killings of 1965-66.

Leonard Berney was a senior British Army officer who participated in the liberation of the Camp, who was in charge of evacuating the ex-prisoners to the vast Rehabilitation Camp that the Army set up, and who was then appointed as the Commandant of that Camp until its management was handed over to the United Nations, and who gave evidence against the SS guards at the Belsen War Crimes Trial.

Leonard Berney as a 2nd Lieutenant, aged 18 in 1939 before the outbreak of war.

The book is available on:

• Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1511541709 and 
• Amazon US http://www.amazon.com/dp/1511541709/ref=cm_sw_su_dp and 
• CreateSpace https://www.createspace.com/5404219 and has a presence on 
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LiberatingBelsenBook and 
• Twitter http://twitter.com/BelsenBook and its website is
• http://www.LiberatingBelsenBook.com

Some responses to "Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp":

"I wept through much of your account of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. Minutes after I reached the end, I felt the urge to start again from the beginning." 

Joshua Oppenheimer

"The importance of your historical observations are more relevant today than ever before. Thank you for devoting your energy and talent to the task."

Judy Sheindlin (Judge Judy)

About the Author

Leonard Berney was born in London in 1920. After leaving St Paul’s School, Hammersmith in 1938 he joined the Territorial Army as a Second Lieutenant. At the beginning of 1939 he and his Anti-Aircraft Regiment were mobilized for full-time military service in the defence of London. He took part countering The Blitz and the V1 flying bomb attacks. In August 1944 he was in Normandy as the Staff Officer, Anti-Aircraft Defence, of XIII Corps of the British 21st Army. This is his personal account of his experience of the Liberation of Belsen Concentration Camp and as the Commandant of the Displaced Persons camp that housed the survivors. Following his time at Belsen, he was appointed Military Governor of Schleswig-Holstein and was released from the army at the end of 1946, rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He pursued a business career until he retired. Today, Leonard Berney is regularly asked to deliver lectures on the Liberation of Belsen, by groups such as Congregation Ner Tamid, Las Vegas and Greenwich University, London and he is often asked to take part in documentaries on the Holocaust such as Night Will Fall which was broadcast on television in twenty countries around the world to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2015. Leonard now lives on the residential ship The World. In his 95th year when he wrote this book, he has to be one of the very few survivors of the liberators of the infamous Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.

Leonard Berney today

For more information, please contact:

John Wood

+44 7771 520001

johnalexwood@gmail.com

Unique Personal Account of the Liberation of Belsen Concentration Camp Marks its 70th Anniversary