many of the former ss staff who survived the typhus epidemic were tried by the british at the belsen trial. over the period in which bergen-belsen operated as a concentration camp, at least 480 people had worked as guards or members of the commandant's staff, including around 45 women. from september 17 to november 17, 1945, 45 of those were tried by a military tribunal in lüneburg. they included former commandant josef kramer, 16 other ss male members, 16 female ss guards and 12 former kapos (one of whom became ill during the trial). among them were irma grese, elisabeth volkenrath, hertha ehlert, , johanna bormann and fritz klein. many of the defendants were not just charged with crimes committed at belsen but also earlier ones at auschwitz. their activities at other concentration camps such as mittelbau-dora, ravensbrück, neuengamme, the gross rosen subcamps at neusalz and langenleuba, and the mittelbau-dora subcamp at gross werther were not subject of the trial. it was based on british military law and the charges were thus limited to war crimes. substantial media coverage of the trial provided the german and international public with detailed information on the mass killings at belsen as well as on the gas chambers of auschwitz-birkenau.