Directions and Opening hours
The Bergen-Belsen Memorial is located on the southern Luneburg Heath, about 25 kilometres from the town of Celle, a former ducal seat. Founded in 1952, the Bergen-BelsenMemorial is the oldest national memorial in Germany, and it receives around 250,000 visitors a year.
The Documentation Centre, which opened in 2007, features a permanent exhibition, a bookshop, a library and a museum café. All original buildings in the adjacent grounds of the former camp were demolished after the war. The remains of foundations are all that can be found now. Today the grounds are a cemetery with numerous graves and monuments.
The Bergen-Belsen POW cemetery is within walking distance of the Memorial. The Oerbke and Wietzendorf POW cemeteries are somewhat farther away.
Visitor facilities & opening hours
Documentation Centre with visitor information and permant exhibition
October to March 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
April to September 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
There is no entrance fee.
Note: For technical reasons, the film tower with historical footage of the British Army is unfortunately not available until further notice.
Visitor information desk
The employees at the information desk are available to answer your questions and direct you. You can also find free informational flyers for the Bergen-Belsen Memorial there as well as other event information.
Tel.: + 49 (0) 5051 – 47 59-200
Fax: +49 (0) 5051 – 47 59-118
Cafeteria
A cafeteria on the ground floor of the exhibition building offers visitors hot and cold drinks and snacks as well as daily menus and soups.
April to September
Monday to Thursday: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Friday 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (and on request)
Saturday and Sunday: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
October to March
Monday to Thursday: 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Friday 10:00 to 2:00 p.m. (and on request)
Saturday and Sunday: 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Menu: Download
The cafeteria has special offers for registered groups of 12 or more.
Pre-registration for groups
Tel.: +49 (0)5051 – 47 59-220
Cafeteria owner: Marina Kuhn
Bookshop
The bookshop is located on the ground floor of the Documentation Centre, not far from the central information desk. It has the same opening hours as the permanent exhibition. Most of the books available deal with the history of the camps at the Bergen-Belsen site, but there are also a smaller number of publications on Nazi persecution in general. The bookshop focuses in particular on diaries and accounts from survivors, and it also offers foreign-language literature and DVDs.
Tel.: +49 (0) 5051 – 47 59-230
Library
The library is on the first floor of the Documentation Centre. It contains over 8,000 publications primarily on the history of Bergen-Belsen and the topics of Nazi Germany, the concentration camp system and the Holocaust. The books cannot be borrowed, but they can be used in the library's reading room. The reading room also has computer terminals for accessing the supplementary information from the permanent exhibition.
Learning Center M.B. 89
The Learning Center M.B. 89 is in the Lower Saxony Barracks, former Bergen-Hohne Barracks. In this Learning Center, we present the Exhibition "Armament, War and Crimes. The Wehrmacht and the Bergen-Hohne barracks". More details are on this page.
Grounds of the former camp
The Memorial cemetery and grounds of the former camp can be accessed daily.
Directions
By car
There are signs for the Bergen-Belsen Memorial on the A7/E45 and A352 motorways as well as the roads leading from them to the Memorial. The nearest motorway exits are the “Soltau-Süd” exit when coming from the north and the “Mellendorf" exit when coming from the west or south. It takes around 20 minutes to reach the Memorial from the “Soltau-Süd” exit via Bergen and around 35 minutes from the “Mellendorf” exit via Winsen/Aller.
Please follow the signs, as GPS directions to the Memorial are not always reliable.
Parking at the Memorial is free of charge.
Local public transport
Transport for Lower Saxony and Bremen journey planner (only available in german)
Please enter the destination as follows:
Von (Your starting point): City, ZIP Code, Bus Stop, Nach (Destination): Belsen, Gedenkstätte (Stop)
Transport connections by bus
There is no direct connection between Celle and the memorial. Visitors can change the bus in Bergen or in Winsen.
Bus No. 100 (Celle <-> Bergen) Download Timetable (PDF)
Bus No. 110 (Bergen <-> Winsen) Download Timetable (PDF)
Bus No. 900 (Celle <-> Winsen) Download Timetable (PDF)
General timetable information CeBus Fon: +49 (0) 5141 27 88 864 www.cebus-celle.de
Intercity Bus Service
Bergen is approached by Flixbus on the Hamburg-Berlin/Berlin-Hamburg route
Stop: Harburger Straße 20, 29303 Bergen (Celle) Germany
To the Learning Center M.B. 89 on the site of today's Lower Saxony barracks with exhibition “Armament, War and Crime. The Wehrmacht and the Bergen-Hohne barracks "
"Learning Center M.B. 89" is on Winsener Straße in the extreme south-east of the Lower Saxony barracks, approx. 2.2 km away from the documentation center of the Bergen-Belsen memorial in the direction of the city of Bergen. You can reach it during opening hours through a signposted gate in the barracks fence. There are parking spaces behind the gate.
To the Bergen-Belsen POW cemetery
An unpaved walking path leads from the Memorial to the cemetery; the walk will take around 15 minutes. If you are driving from the Memorial, follow the signs along “Panzerringstraße” to the cemetery; the drive is about six kilometres.
The Russian translation of the book '"Rest in peace, dear comrades ...". The cemetery of the prisoner of war camp Bergen-Belsen ... ' is available as PDF file:
To the Oerbke POW cemetery
The road to the cemetery is signposted from the centre of Bad Fallingbostel and in Oerbke.
To the Wietzendorf POW cemetery
When travelling from the centre of Wietzendorf in the direction of Meinholz, the cemetery is signposted from the edge of Wietzendorf. Please note that the 300-metre path from the car park to the cemetery is unpaved.
General information
Timing your visit
Based on the size of the Memorial grounds and the variety of exhibitions and other information, we recommend that you allow at least 2½ hours for your visit to the Memorial.
Children
The exhibition is not suitable for children under 14 years of age.
Fees
The Memorial and exhibitions can be visited free of charge. You are welcome to support the preservation of the Memorial and grounds of the former camp with a donation.
A participation fee of € 3 per person (€ 2 concession) is charged for tours and study days. These fees can be paid on site.
Luggage
Carrying backpacks or large bags into the exhibition may hinder other visitors and/or damage the displays. Please leave these items in the lockers near the central information desk.
Dress
We recommend wearing suitable clothing and sturdy footwear to visit the outdoor areas. Please note that the grounds of the former camp are now a cemetery.
Toilets
You will find toilets at the entrance of the Documentation Centre as well as behind the administration building. Wheelchair-accessible toilets are available both in the Documentation Centre building and behind the administration building. There is also a baby changing table there.
Dogs
With the exception of guide dogs, no dogs are permitted in the Memorial’s buildings, the cemetery or the historical grounds.
Wheeled vehicles
Bicycles, skateboards, roller blades and roller skates are prohibited in the grounds of the Memorial, as are motorised vehicles (with the exception of wheelchairs or walking aids). Please leave all bicycles at the designated stands in the car park.
Staff
The Memorial's supervisory staff is responsible for enforcing the house rules of the Memorial. The staff members reserve the right to ban visitors whose behaviour, attire or political symbols express hostile, racist or National Socialist ideas or who otherwise violate the dignity of the site or the house rules.
Accommodation for individual travellers
Please visit the tourism portal for Celle and the surrounding region: www.region-celle.de
Further recommendations especially for groups you can find here.
Accessibility
Extra-wide parking spaces are available in the car park. The public areas of the Documentation Centre, with the exhibition, library and cafeteria, are wheelchair-accessible and equipped with lifts. The seminar rooms in the Educational Centre are also wheelchair accessible. Wheelchair-accessible toilets are located in the Documentation and Educational Centre.
Folding wheelchairs for use in the Documentation Centre and throughout the Memorial grounds can be borrowed from the information desk for a deposit. Some of the paths outdoors are unpaved. The employees at the information desk in the Documentation Centre will be glad to advise you on which paths are wheelchair accessible.
Information on the exhibition content
Information for hearing-impaired visitors:
All of the audio-visual media in the exhibition (video points, prologue, epilogue) are subtitled in German and English.
Information for visually-impaired visitors:
Written materials in large print and braille are available in German for visitors with visual impairments. These materials, as well as audio guides with the same information, can be borrowed from the information desk for a deposit.
Guided tours
Open guided tours
For informations about this topic, please visit our site Guided tours.
Guided tours for registered groups and study days
More informations about our educational offer are on our site Education & Encounters.