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Yad Vashem to assist with official UK inquiry into Alderney concentration camp
German forces established four forced labour camps established on Alderney, at least one of which became a concentration camp
July 26, 2023 12:55
German forces established four forced labour camps established on Alderney, at least one of which became a concentration camp
July 26, 2023 12:55Yad Vashem will help a newly launched government inquiry to determine how many Jews died at a concentration Nazi camp in the Channel Islands.
Located 10 miles from the French coast, the crown dependency of Alderney was the site of what is thought to have been the only German concentration camp on British soil, but the full scale of the horror that took place there has never been uncovered.
Now, 80 years after Nazi forces occupied Alderney, the government has announced it will conduct an official investigation to establish how many Jews were killed on the island.
The inquiry will be carried out in consultation with Shoah experts at Israel’s Yad Vashem, led by Yossi Gevir, the memorial’s senior adviser for international affairs, the government’s envoy on post-Holocaust issues, Eric Pickles, confirmed.
Lord Pickles’ assurances came after one of country’s foremost historians, Sir Simon Schama, called for Jewish representation on the committee, saying it would be “right and fitting”.
Sir Simon said: “The enormity of suffering experienced at the hands of Nazi occupiers of Alderney makes the announcement of a government historical inquiry welcome.
“But since it is now known that some hundreds of French Jews were transported there from Drancy, Alderney has become a chapter in the dark history of the Holocaust.”
The Channel Islands were occupied by the German army from 1940, with Alderney’s 1,400 residents totally evacuated. Thousands of prisoners were brought to the island to construct massive concrete defences against an anticipated invasion.
Up to 6,000 people, including French Jews, prisoners of war and civilians from eastern Europe, and political prisoners from Germany and Spain were all deported to four Nazi camps established on Alderney, at least one of which became a concentration camp.
Some were reportedly murdered through forced labour, while others were tortured and shot, or sent to extermination camps on the continent. The scale and extent of the killing that took place there, however, has long been contested by historians.
States of Alderney president William Tate described the inquiry as “long overdue”.
He said: “We have always recognised the tragedy and the extent of the inhumanity of the atrocities at the hand of the Germans. It is part and parcel of our lives.
“If I look out of my window now, I can see a tank wall constructed by the Germans. Evidence of the occupation is everywhere on the island.”
Martin Winstone, senior historical adviser at the Holocaust Educational Trust also welcomed the inquiry.
“We hope this review will shine a light on the facts of what happened during the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands,” he said.
Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, whose family fled Nazi persecution, expressed relief that the government was “finally” investigating.
She said: “Transparency and full accountability are the only ways we truly learn from history. I am really glad the horrors of the only Nazi concentration camp to exist on British soil will finally be investigated in full.
The inquiry is expected to be published next March.