Leonard Berney

Leonard Berney in his 80s
Leonard Berney
Born(1920-04-11)11 April 1920
London, England
Died7 March 2016(2016-03-07) (aged 95)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1939–1946
RankLieutenant-Colonel
CommandsMilitary Governor of Schleswig-Holstein
Battles / warsSecond World War
Other workCompany Managing Director

Lieutenant-Colonel Leonard Berney (11 April 1920 – 7 March 2016) was a British soldier who was one of the first British officers at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.[1][2][3] He also testified in the Belsen trial.[4]

In 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust, he published the memoir Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp – A Personal Account by (former) Lt-Colonel Leonard Berney.[5] He attended Brighton College[6] and then St Paul's School, London 1933–38.[7]

  1. ^ "Major Leonard Berney: First British officer to liberate Bergen-Belsen Nazi camp dies aged 95", The Independent
  2. ^ "Lieutenant-Colonel Leonard Berney - obituary", The Telegraph
  3. ^ "Holocaust Memoirs of a Bergen-Belsen Survivor & Classmate of Anne Frank", Nanette Blitz Konig, Amsterdam Publishers (2018), ISBN 978-9492371614
  4. ^ "Major Leonard Berney's son on Belsen concentration camp", The Argus
  5. ^ Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp – A Personal Account by (former) Lt-Colonel Leonard Berney, page i., 2015 ISBN 978-1511541701
  6. ^ "Major Leonard Berney's son on Belsen concentration camp", The Argus
  7. ^ "Lieutenant-Colonel Leonard Berney - obituary", The Telegraph