The Belene labour camp, also referred to as Belene concentration camp, was part of the network of forced labour camps in Communist Bulgaria

Forced labour camps in Communist Bulgaria

As in other Eastern Bloc states, Communist Bulgaria operated a network of forced labour camps between 1944 and 1989, with particular intensity until 1962. Tens of thousands of prisoners were sent to these institutions, often without trial.-Background:...

. It was located on the Belene Island

Belene Island

Belene Island or Persin Island is the biggest island in Bulgarian waters. The island is formed by the Danube River splitting into two branches passing north and south of it. The international frontier between Bulgaria and Romania follows the north branch of the river and therefore Belene Island...

, between two branches of the Danube river.

The Belene Prison is still operating as a penitentiary

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 in the western part of the island, while the eastern part is a managed natural reserve.

This camp operated officially from 1949 to 1959, though a break in deportations to Belene occurred from 1954 to 1956 but, in fact, it remained open until 1989. The enemies of the communist regime in Bulgaria, including particular Turks in Bulgaria

Turks in Bulgaria

The Turks in Bulgaria number 588,318 people and constitute 8.8% of those who declared their ethnic group and 8.0% of the total population according to the 2011 Bulgarian census. 605,802 persons or 9.1% of the population pointed Turkish language as their mother tongue. They are also the largest...

 who were resisting the policies (such as changing Turkish names and surnames to Bulgarian ones, see Assimilation Campaign in Bulgaria) of the Bulgarian communist regime, were sent to perform hard labour there. During those years, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation

Turkish Radio and Television Corporation

The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, also known as TRT , is the national public broadcaster of Turkey and was founded in 1964. Around 70% of TRT's funding comes from a tax levied on electricity bills and a sales tax on television and radio receivers...

 broadcast a series named "Belene Adası" (Belene Island) on the policies of the Bulgarian government against Bulgarian Turks.

The camp and some its survivors were the subject of a documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 by German TV program ZDF

ZDF

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...

 Vorwärts aber nie vergessen. Ballade über bulgarische Helden ("Moving on, but Never Forgetting. A Ballad of Bulgarian Heroes" authored by Ilija Trojanow

Ilija Trojanow

thumb|Ilija Trojanow Ilija Trojanow , is a Bulgarian-German writer, translator and publisher.-Life:...

.