With the ring of enemies closing in ever more tightly, Himmler was determined to hold on to his surviving prisoners. They were intended to serve one final purpose—as hostages. Bergen-Belsen was one of the last concentration camps remaining on German-held soil. By the time Gustav arrived, the camp, designed for only a few thousand, had swollen beyond all sense or reason, and despite thousands of deaths every month from starvation and disease—7,000 in February, 18,000 in March, 9,000 in the first days of April—the living population had climbed to over 60,000 souls, existing among piles of
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