"WE CAN'T FEED THEM, THEY'RE STARVING!
IF WE FEED THEM THEY'LL DIE!".
I think if given the choice the prisoners would have rather died with busted bellies than go even one more day without food...especially now that they were liberated...KNOWING food was now available as was their feeedom.
At least give them 'some' food. And get them to understand the reasoning behind the decision to lock them back up and continue to not feed them
What needed to be done was carefully monitor the nutritional intake of starving camp survivors; overfeeding could have caused even more serious health problems, or death (and in many tragic cases, it did). Dr. Kent, the regimental surgeon, says the following to Winters and Nixon about the prisoners: "We need to keep them in the camp til we can find them a warm place in town...we need to keep them centralized so we can supervise their food intake and medical treatment."
Dr. Kent never says: "We will continue to starve them."
http://www.nutrition411.com/content/refeeding-syndrome-0
Even if prisoners would have rather "died with busted bellies," it would have been irresponsible for Allied forces to allow that to happen; it wasn't their job to finish off individuals the Third Reich considered undesirable.
And Liebgott does, in fact, tell the prisoners why they have to remain in the camp for the time being, but it's nonetheless distressing news for them to hear - and for Liebgott to deliver.