The Reg Vardy Band will be taking part in a unique concert event to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp at the end of the Second World War by soldiers of the Durham Light Infantry.

Music and readings

In association with the InterOpera company, ‘Darkness Into Light’ will take place at Durham Cathedral on Saturday 18th April, and will include a programme of music by Beethoven, Puccini, Verdi and Mozart, as well as a new commission from Durham born composer Will Todd for double choirs and band.

Readings will be given by Dame Esther Rantzen, Emma Hignet and Lillian Black, who will read from the account written by her father, Eugene Black, a soldier with the Light Infantry, written following the immediate liberation of the camp.

50,000 prisoners

Bergen Belsen was established by the Nazis in 1940, and it is thought that well over 50,000 prisoners died there (including child diarist Anne Frank), including over 35,000 between May 1943 and its liberation on April 15th 1945.

On that date over 60,000 seriously ill prisoners were found packed into the camp by the allied forces led by the Durham Light Infantry.

The well known British actor and comedian Michael Bentine, who took part in the liberation, later described what he saw as ‘the ultimate blasphemy’4BR

Ultimate blasphemy

Over 13,000 still died in the first few weeks after their liberation through the terrible effects of typhus and other illnesses.

The well known British actor and comedian Michael Bentine, who took part in the liberation, later described what he saw as ‘the ultimate blasphemy’.