"By focusing on the camp's liberators and their attempts to understand and communicate ideas about their experience, Distance from the Belsen Heap adds a new dimension to our knowledge of an important aspect of the Holocaust." -- Terry Copp, Director Emeritus, Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic, and Disarmament Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University

Winner of the 2016 Vine Award for Nonfiction

The Allied soldiers who liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen in April 1945 were faced with scenes of horror and privation. With breathtaking thoroughness, Distance from the Belsen Heap documents what they saw and how they came to terms with those images over the course of the next seventy years. On the basis of research in more than seventy archives in four countries, Mark Celinscak analyses how these military personnel struggled with the intense experience of the camp; how they attempted to describe what they had seen, heard, and felt to those back home; and how their lives were transformed by that experience. He also brings to light the previously unacknowledged presence of hundreds of Canadians among the camp’s liberators, including noted painter Alex Colville.

Distance from the Belsen Heap examines the experiences of hundreds of British and Canadian eyewitnesses to atrocity, including war artists, photographers, medical personnel, and chaplains. A study of the complicated encounter between these Allied soldiers and the horrors of the Holocaust, Distance from the Belsen Heap is a testament to their experience.

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‘Required reading. Essential. All levels/libraries.’

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‘This book is a worthy addition to any scholar’s library, especially those who study the Holocaust, genocide, or World War II.’

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‘A thoughtful and useful addition to the literature on the Holocaust, Celinscak's work brings together solid archival research and interdisciplinary approaches to shed important new light on an under-research subject.’

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"This book is a valuable addition, with new information, to accounts about this infamous place"

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‘Celinscak’s book is yet again proof that much new material on the Holocaust remains to be discovered and that even the best-known parts of the history hold secrets yet to be uncovered.’

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‘A brilliant rendition of the reactions to the discovery of Bergen-Belsen and of the cultural imprint that the dreaded camp left behind…. Distance from Belsen heap deserves a wide readership outside of specialist academic circles.’

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‘The book is meticulously researched and well written. It is a necessary read for anyone who wishes to truly grasp the trauma that concentration camp victims and their liberators had to endure.’

"Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, or others involved in treating veterans could use Celinscak’s interdisciplinary insights to understand their patients better. Celinscak’s book is a major contribution to genocide and trauma studies. It shows that the victims of Nazi concentration camps were not the only ones who experienced trauma – their liberators did as well."
- The Oral History Review

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"It is the single best book on the liberation of Belsen or any other one of the camps that became symbols of Nazi depravity."