| Belsen | |
| Ortsteil of Bergen | |
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Belsen
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| Coordinates | |
| Administration | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Lower Saxony |
| District | Celle |
| Town | Bergen |
| Basic statistics | |
| Population | 331 |
| Other information | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) |
| Postal code | 29303 |
| Area code | 05051 |
Belsen is a village within the German borough of Bergen in the northern part of Celle district on the Lüneburg Heath in Lower Saxony. It lies about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) southwest of Bergen and has 331 inhabitants (as at: 31 December 2000). The Belsen concentration camp was named after it. Today Belsen is dominated by the British Army camp of Hohne (German: Lager Hohne) on the edge of Bergen-Hohne Training Area.
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Belsen was first mentioned in the records in 1235 under the name Bellenhusen. Since the district reforms of the early 1970s it has fallen administratively under the town of Bergen.
The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was located near Belsen. The site of the former concentration camp and the present day Bergen-Belsen Memorial Centre fall mainly within the municipality of Winsen (Aller) and its parish of Walle (Winsen). Between Bergen and Belsen, there were railway ramps onto which prisoners from the incoming goods wagons alighted and from where they had to cover the remaining distance of about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to the camp on foot. The original ramps have been replaced and the current ones are used today to off-load military vehicles of the British, Dutch, French, German, Belgian, Luxembourg and Polish forces in order to take part in exercises on the NATO military training area of Bergen-Hohne.
Since the merging of local councils as part of the Lower Saxon administrative reforms of 1971, Belsen has been part of the borough of Bergen. Belsen is represented by a local council (Ortsrat) and a chairman (Ortsbürgermeister). The council is empowered, inter alia, to make decisions about public services in the village, is responsible for maintaining the appearance of the village and for overseeing its clubs and societies, and has to be consulted by the town of Bergen on all important matters affecting the village.[1] It consists of five elected representatives who, together with the chairman, sit on the Bergen town council. The village council elects its own chairman. The current incumbent is Sven Marquardt.
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