The forgotten Hartlepool and East Durham heroes of Belsen - was your relative a Second World War liberator?

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Family history researcher Nick Price has shared the story of the Durham Light Infantry heroes who discovered the horrific conditions in the prison camp.

Local men such as Major Murrell from West Park, Sgt Jackson from Park Street and BSM Joyce from Tenth Street, Blackhall, did everything they could to help the thousands of sick and dying.

Today Nick appealed for help to trace relatives of these and other troops whose actions saved countless lives.

Can you help with more details on the Hartlepool men who helped the sick and dying at Belsen?

The regiment was first formed from soldiers in the Stockton, West Hartlepool, Darlington, Horden and Easington TAs.

They became the Durham Light Infantry, 113th LAA, Royal Artillery around 1942 and 900 of them were sent to Normandy in June 1944.

They included Nick’s granddad Reg Price and fought their way through Europe, defending the famous Pegasus Bridge and the river and canal bridges of Belgium and Holland.

They were first to cross the newly-built pontoons over the Rhine to defend the bridges.

The 370 Battery which was part of the Durham Light Infantry, 113th LAA, Royal Artillery.

Then they were tasked with going to a prison camp 238 miles away in enemy territory.

Nick said: “Belsen was a concentration camp and the British Army had discovered something that needed urgent critical aid and recording with film and photographs for future war crime trials.

"The 113th weren’t medically trained they were simply chosen as available manpower.”

“The unit were there everyday and they remained in camp until every living internee was evacuated to a nearby barracks, converted to a hospital, or when every single body was buried."

The Durham Light Infantry, 113th LAA, Royal Artillery crossing the Rhine on a temporary pontoon bridge.

Conditions were appalling yet the unit camped just outside the wire. Two gun batteries worked throughout the day from 5am until dark, one in the men’s camp, one in the women’s, one battery was guard duty at night.

"The unit headed to local towns to requisition beds, clothes, pots and pans and made 100 cots for new-born babies.

"Scrubbing huts, dusting internees with a powerful pesticide Typhus killer, cooking suitable foods and re-establishing fresh water were the daily tasks.”

The DLI had to reassure people that they were now safe and eventually help arrived in early May from 96 British medical students and a party of American Field Service medical personnel, who helped to keep people alive.

The 113th, said Nick, "saved so many lives evacuating the people out of the infested camps to better conditions where a massive medical effort was waiting for them in the safer, cleaner areas”.

The DLI unit was disbanded and the men returned home in 1946.

"All would suffer nightmares, with what we call now PTSD. Very few would ever mention Belsen to their families.”“History has documented the wonderful people, the medical staff, volunteers and personnel that went to Belsen but the 113th role has largely been overlooked yet they were present for the longest time. The 113th refused leave after two weeks, staying for 5 weeks.”Nick has set up a new online archive to ‘name and pay tribute to all the members of the 113th LAA that took part in the huge humanitarian effort at Belsen, later called Bergen Belsen.’

Who can tell us more about Major Murrell, Sgt Jackson, BSM Joyce and the others?Email [email protected] or visit www.belsen.co.uk