Inquiry into Nazi camp in Alderney finds succession of cover-ups

During World War Two, the Channel Islands were occupied by Germany and in Alderney, four forced labour camps were built, with one turned into a concentration camp.

Forced labourers “of 30 nationalities” were made to build strong concrete fortifications – fulfilling Hitler’s vision of forming “staging posts” to invade Britain, as well as the Atlantic wall aimed at defending the coastline of Europe from Norway to the Spanish border.

Work was carried out by the Organisation Todt (OT), made up of largely forced foreign labourers – majority of whom, according to experts, were from Europe or North Africa.

Other nationalities included Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, French, Spanish, German, Belgian, Dutch, British and Italians, among others.

The report includes “detailed information” about convoys of Jews deported from France and the number of Spaniards, Channel Islanders, German political prisoners, as well as French, Belgians and North Africans sent to Alderney.

The panel found there were more than 3,200 German military personnel and staff and 5,800 foreign workers in the island at the height of operations between August and October 1943.

Some women would also have worked there, most of whom were “young and massively outnumbered by men”, with “sexual assaults and abuse” likely, the review said.

Survivors of the camps reported “beatings and torture”, with “dead bodies often found in the barracks”.

The experts found conditions were “criminal and brutal” – but that the camps were not guided by the principle of “extermination through labour”.

Prisoners in Lager Sylt, the camp taken over by the SS in 1943, were “constantly terrorised”, they said.

After the island’s liberation in 1945, British military investigator Capt Theodore Pantcheff investigated what had happened during the German occupation.

His report, described in the review document as “painstakingly thorough”, led to an official figure of 389 people having died in the camps.

But for decades there have been suggestions the number was much higher with some suggesting it could run in the tens of thousands.

In 2023, the Alderney Expert Review Panel was tasked with finding an accurate figure and investigating why no UK war crime trials were held.