Alderney concentration camps

Only old bunkers such as this one remain

The Alderney concentration camps were prison camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during its World War II occupation of the Channel Islands.[1] The Channel Islands was the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the Nazis.

The Nazis built four concentration camps on the island of Alderney, subcamps of the Neuengamme camp outside Hamburg. They were named after the Frisian Islands: Lager Norderney, Lager Borkum, Lager Sylt and Lager Helgoland. The Nazi Organisation Todt operated each subcamp and used forced labour to build bunkers, gun emplacements, air-raid shelters, and concrete fortifications. The camps commenced operating in January 1942 and had a total inmate population of about 6,000.

The Borkum and Helgoland camps were "volunteer" (Hilfswillige) labour camps[2] and the labourers in those camps were treated harshly but marginally better than the inmates at the Sylt and Norderney camps. The prisoners in Lager Sylt and Lager Norderney were slave labourers forced to build the many military fortifications and installations throughout Alderney. Sylt camp held Jewish enforced labourers.[3] Norderney camp housed European (mainly Eastern but including Spanish) and Russian enforced labourers. Borkum camp was used for German technicians and "volunteers" from different countries of Europe. Helgoland camp was used for Russian Organisation Todt workers.

In 1942, Lager Norderney, containing Russian and Polish POWs, and Lager Sylt, holding Jews, were placed under the control of SS Hauptsturmführer Max List. Over 700 of the inmates lost their lives before the camps were closed and the remaining inmates transferred to Germany in 1944.[3]

War crime trials

After World War II, a court-martial case was prepared against former SS Hauptsturmführer List, citing atrocities on Alderney.[4] However, he did not stand trial, and is believed to have lived near Hamburg until his death in the 1980s.[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ Matisson Consultants, Aurigny ; un camp de concentration nazi sur une île anglo-normande (English: Alderney, a Nazi concentration camp on an Anglo-Norman island ) (in French), retrieved 2009-06-06
  2. ↑ Christian Streit: Keine Kameraden: Die Wehrmacht und die Sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen, 1941-1945, Bonn: Dietz (3. Aufl., 1. Aufl. 1978), ISBN 3-8012-5016-4 - "Between 22 June 1941 and the end of the war, roughly 5.7 million members of the Red Army fell into German hands. In January 1945, 930,000 were still in German camps. A million at most had been released, most of whom were so-called "volunteers" (Hilfswillige) for (often compulsory) auxiliary service in the Wehrmacht. Another 500,000, as estimated by the Army High Command, had either fled or been liberated. The remaining 3,300,000 (57.5% of the total) had perished."
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Subterranea Britannica (February 2003), SiteName: Lager Sylt Concentration Camp, retrieved 2009-06-06
  4. ↑ The Jews in the Channel Islands During the German Occupation 1940-1945, by Frederick Cohen, President of the Jersey Jewish Congregation, http://web.archive.org/web/20031217122111/http://www.jerseyheritagetrust.org/edu/resources/pdf/cijews.pdf
  5. ↑ Noted in The Occupation, by Guy Walters, ISBN 0-7553-2066-2

Coordinates: 49°43′N 2°12′W / 49.717°N 2.200°W