![]() Over 700 of the OT workers are said to have lost their lives in Alderney, or in shipping that was sunk the remaining inmates transferred to France in 1944. The population were not allowed to start returning until December 1945. The German garrison on Alderney surrendered a week after the other Channel Islands, and was one of the last garrisons to surrender in Europe. The German officer left in charge of the facilities, Commandant Oberst Schwalm, burned the camps to the ground and destroyed all records connected with their use before the island was liberated by British forces on. It was used by the Organisation Todt, a forced labour programme, to build bunkers, gun emplacements, air-raid shelters, and concrete fortifications on the island.Īlderney has been nicknamed "the island of silence", because not much is known about what occurred there during the occupation. It was taken over by the Schutzstaffel – SS-Baubrigade I, which was first under supervision of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp from mid-February 1943 it ran under the Neuengamme camp in northern Germany, located near the old telegraph tower at La Foulère. Tietz was brought before a court-martial in April 1943 and sentenced to 18 months penal servitude for the crime of selling cigarettes, watches and other valuables he had bought from Dutch OT workers on the black market. Shocked to see a black man beating up white men from the camp, a German naval officer threatened to shoot him if he saw him doing it again. The Lager Sylt commandant, Karl Tietz, had a black French colonial as an under officer. Norderney camp housed European (usually Eastern but including Republican Spaniard) and Russian enforced labourers. 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. It was built by the Organisation Todt (OT) in January 1942 by and for their forced labourers who would be employed in building fortifications including bunkers, gun emplacements, air-raid shelters and tunnels. The commandant's house was later moved to another part of the island. ![]() Some ruins remain, including a number of sentry posts, some foundations and a small tunnel, which led from the camp commandant's house to the inside of the camp. Three gateposts to the rear of the island's airport mark the entrance one has had a commemorative plaque attached. ![]() (For further information on Alderney camps, see Appendix F: Concentration Camps: Endlösung – The Final Solution Alderney, a Nazi concentration camp on an island Anglo-Norman. ![]() Lager Helgoland was filled with Russian Organisation Todt workers. Lager Borkum was used for German technicians and volunteers from different countries of Europe. The Borkum and Helgoland camps were "volunteer" (Hilfswillige) labour camps and the labourers in those camps were treated harshly but better than the inmates at the Sylt and Norderney camps and were paid for work done. Two of these camps were the only Nazi concentration camps on British soil. Built in 1942, along with three other labour camps by the Organisation Todt, the control of Lager Sylt changed from March 1943 to June 1944 when it was run by the Schutzstaffel - SS-Baubrigade 1 and Lager Sylt became a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp (located in Hamburg, Germany).Įach Alderney camp was named after one of the Frisian Islands: Lager Norderney located at Saye, Lager Helgoland at Platte Saline, Lager Sylt near the old telegraph tower at La Foulère and Lager Borkum, situated near the Impot. Lager Sylt was a Nazi concentration camp on Alderney in the British Crown Dependency in the Channel Islands. ![]()
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