A feature-length drama-documentary telling the story of one of the greatest emergency relief operations in history – and the construction of the largest hospital in Europe – is now in production, following a history of medicine grant awarded by the Wellcome Trust.

'The Relief of Belsen' will recount the previously untold story of an international team of doctors, nurses and medical students, former inmates, soldiers, prisoners of war, and local Germans, led by the medical corps of the British Army. Between 15 April and 21 May 1945, this group overcame substantial logistical and administrative hurdles to transform the 'horror camp' of Bergen–Belsen into a place of rehabilitation, saving more than 30 000 lives.

The film, from the producers of the award-winning 'Trafalgar Battle Surgeon', will put medical detail, the social dissemination of medical knowledge, and personal testimony at the centre of the story. The Wellcome Trust grant will support a year's historical research, to ensure that the final film is medically and historically authentic.

Image credit: Delousing of internees, Medical Photographic Library image L0029084, from a collection of photographs of the personnel involved with the aid to inmates of Belsen Concentration Camp.

See also

• History of Medicine (funding)