text: Amid the horror of a Nazi concentration camp, liberated by the British Army 70 years ago this week, love blossomed against all the odds between an emaciated inmate and one of the soldiers sent to arrest her SS guards. But the love between British soldier, Sergeant Norman Turgel, 24 at the time, and teenage Polish girl Gena, 20, was only kindled because of the generosity and kindness of the camp's British commander Major Leonard Berney. This week survivors and liberators of the notorious Bergen-Belsen camp in northern Germany gathered to commemorate the day British soldiers entered its gates and began the task of saving as many of the 60,000 starving inmates as was possible. Gena and Norman were married two months short of their golden wedding anniversary of 50 years, pictured before his passing in 1995 . Norman Turgel pictured as a young soldier in the British Intelligence Corps in his early 20s (l) and Gena Turgel as a young girl (r) Gena, weighing only a few pounds was, like many others in the camp, a walking skeleton, for whom certain death was only days away. Among the recently dead was Dutch girl Anne Frank whose diaries while hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam became world renowned. But through the striped and filthy prison uniform, Sergeant Norman Turgel of the 53 Field Security section of British Intelligence Corps, spotted an eternal beauty and began talking to her. Before long Norman had fallen in love with the young Jewish girl who at last was being fed proper food and was being given clothes to wear again. Anne Frank, whose diaries of persecution at the hands of the Nazis became the defining account of the Holocaust, was just one of Bergen-Belsen's many victims. Frank was living in the Netherlands when the Nazis seized it in 1940, leaving them trapped. In 1942 they were forced into hiding in secret rooms hidden inside Otto Frank's office building. They spent two years there, but were anonymously betrayed and sent to the concentration camps. Anne, and her sister Margot, were taken to Bergen-Belsen, where they died of typhus in February 1945, just months before the Allies liberated it. Bergen-Belsen's SS commandant, the cruel and tyrannical Joseph Kramer, was among those Norman helped to round up and capture. Other soldiers helped hand out fresh bread and fruit. Norman became so besotted with Gena that he told her he was going to marry her one day. But here the story could have ended had it not been for Major Leonard Berney, the new commanding officer of what became Belsen Camp for Displaced Persons. With Norman posted away and other prisoners being repatriated to all parts of Europe, there was a danger of the young lovers being parted forever. Major Leonard Berney, who is now 95, was the commanding officer of liberated Belsen. He played cupid for soldier Norman  and Gena. Pictured in uniform (l) and more recently (r) Bergen Belsen was located in northern Germany, south-west of the town of Bergen itself. From 1941 ro 1945 almost 50,000 people were killed there along with 20,000 Soviet inmates . The Camp was liberated on 15 April 1945 by the British 11th Armoured Division and soldiers discovered roughly 60,000 starved, and ill prisoners inside. 13,000 unburied corpses littered the ground around the camp when they arrived . When the Allies arrived at Bergen-Belsen, it was in the grip of a terrible typhus outbreak, with prisoners dying at a rate of 500 a day. A sombre sign erected by the British Army, and photographed by Mr Parsons, documents at least part of that grisly death tool, revealing that 13,000 people perished even after troops came to their aid. Shortly after the camp was liberated by British and Canadian troops in 1945, it was torched, and at least part of that suffering was destroyed forever as the buildings, along with the Reichskriegs flag and Hitler portrait which adorned them, were consumed by flames. Major Berney, now 95 and living in retirement, took a personal interest in their unlikely romance, making sure messages to each other reached their destination in the chaos of the post-liberation activity. Major Berney wrote about his experiences in 'Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp' and gave evidence at the Belsen war crimes trials. His son, John Wood said: 'My father gave the young couple permission to hold an engagement party and they were grateful for ever for his personal interventions. Without him, they might well have lost touch.' Historic: As a crowd of people watch on, British troops burn the buildings to the ground . Horrific: Around 500 people were dying per day of typhus and starvation when the Allies arrived . The camp, which became the final resting place of 50,000 Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Nazi opponents and those with disabilities, is burned to the ground after liberation in 1945 . Once Gena had been released from her living hell and been restored to health, Norman and she married and started lived in London. They went on to have three children, Hilary 68, Bernice, 63, and Harris 62, eight grandchildren and 12 great grand children. Norman died in 1995, two months short of their golden wedding anniversary. He passed away a few years ago but Gena was prominent this week in the anniversary of Belsen's liberation. Gena at a book launch with Major Berney's son, John Wood, who said: 'My father gave the young couple permission to hold an engagement party and they were grateful for ever for his personal interventions' She said: 'Today it is hard to imagine what it was like in the camp, people so thin and so defeated that it was hard to tell if they were men or women. 'I spent many days with Anne Frank. She was a beautiful, sweet girl but she got ill and I was with her to almost the last. She gazed into the distance as the days went by and I could tell she had gone. 'I was lucky and for that I can thank Major Berney. He was a wonderful man and made sure that Norman and I kept our romance alive in the most testing conditions. 'We had him to thank for a wonderful marriage and for coming together at a time when it would have been easy to have lost touch.' Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp, the personal account of former Lt-Colonel Leonard Berney, can be purchased from Amazon by clicking here. Slaughter: More emaciated bodies are piled in one of the many shallow graves that surrounded the camp, located in northern Germany . Send off: In dramatic scenes soldiers line up in front of a stage as the camp is torched, bringing to an end the suffering .
target: British soldier Norman Turgel and teenage Polish girl Gena met at Belsen .
  He was sent to arrest her SS guards - and fell in love with her .
  Commander Major Leonard Berney took a personal interest in the romance .
  Made sure messages to each other reached their destination amid chaos .
  The pair wed months later when Gena, now 91, was 20 and Norman was 24 .
  Stayed married for 50 years, living in London, until Norman's death in '95 .