‘No more cover-ups’: Government to investigate deaths at Alderney concentration camps
British government will undertake first ever formal review into numbers of prisoners murdered by the Nazis on Channel Island
International Holocaust experts will officially review the number of deaths in the Nazi-occupied Channel Islands, the only part of the British Isles to be occupied, during World War Two.
With the support of the British government, the panel of academics from Canada, Germany, France and the UK will conduct fresh research into Jewish prisoners who were held at four camps around the tiny island and British crown dependency of Alderney.
Their enquiry will also cover the Pantcheff report, written by a British army officer after the war and believed to contain details of mass killings and burials on the island.
As reported by Jewish News in 2021, accepted histories of Alderney hold that there were some 6,000 Jewish and Russian slave labourers on the island who were brought there to build massive fortifications.
Most of those sent to the camps were Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians.
There were also French Jews, along with German and Spanish political prisoners. They were held in at least two camps at Lager Sylt and Lager Norderney.
A panel of international experts on the Holocaust is to review the number of deaths in Alderney during the Nazi occupation of the Second World War.https://t.co/qfZsViLje9
— ITV News Channel TV (@ITVChannelTV) July 23, 2023
Lord Eric Pickles, the Conservative peer who leads the UK delegation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, has long been campaigning for the investigation to take place.
In remarks reported by ITV, he said: “The panel of international experts is currently being put together. It will be an academic peer review of the numbers of prisoners murdered by the Nazis by brutality, neglect, work or judicial process. No human remains will be disturbed.
“It is time for the British government and Alderney authorities to finally face up to the horror of what happened on British soil. There can be no more lies and no more cover-up.” https://t.co/Ve21YossHe @martinbright @margarethodge @AnthonyBarnett
— The Wiener Holocaust Library (@wienerlibrary) July 24, 2023
“We want to make this as transparent as possible so in a few weeks’ time we’ll open the books and anybody, whether they are a distinguished historian or an amateur historian, or somebody who has been collecting facts about Alderney, who wants to put in a theory backed up with evidence, we’ll listen to you.”
Speaking exclusively to Jewish News, Marcus Roberts, founding director of jTrails, the National Anglo-Jewish Heritage Trail, and a professional Heritage consultant said: ‘I am pleased that the Government has now seen the logic and necessity of an inquiry, but it must be open, objective and inclusive and extend to both Jersey and Guernsey.
“The inquiry is partly the result of my persistence in challenging the received narrative and ‘cover-up’ over many years and my research which has shown that far more Jews were sent to Alderney than previously thought and good evidence I have found of the mass deaths of at least hundreds of Jews who perished there as a result of the abuse, mistreatment, epidemics and disasters, on Alderney and I have found two probable mass grave sites.
“I have also been able to tell the full story of Transport 641, where 850 French Jews ‘VIP’ political prisoners were sent from Drancy to Alderney and shown that the SS set up a second special SS camp for them there. I have also shown that Jews were imprisoned at Fort Regent on Jersey as well and that they were the first builders and victims of the Jersey War Tunnels.
“It is vital that the Jewish community take ownership of this story and insist that a proper memorial be given to the French Jews and other Jews who suffered and died and that they are accorded a central place in our national Holocaust Memorial commemorations.”
Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge told the Guardian: “It is time for the British government and Alderney authorities to finally face up to the horror of what happened on British soil. There can be no more lies and no more cover-up,”
War-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill made the decision in 1940 to abandon the Channel Islands, believing they could no longer be defended against the Nazis. Residents were evacuated and occupying-German forces used the islands to house slaves and prisoners of war.
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