Nazi Camp on Alderney

[geoff22]

Hi everyone

 

I have a difficult task of putting together a family story that started in 1945 when my relative Hyam Skollins was told by the Red Cross in England that two of his relatives were tortured and then murdered in the Channel Islands.......   

One was a tailor and the other a musician both were Jewish and that is all we know.

The only information I have researched so far is that there was a death camp on Alderney

If someone knows of a list of those that perished in the Channel Islands during the war I would be very grateful to receive it

Best wishes tp all

Geoff

[acorngen]

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/a/alderney/lager_sylt/index.shtml  may be of use to you.

[gortonboy]

   this book may be of some help if you can get hold of it..the alderny death camp by solomon h steckoll

Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Mayflower; paperback / softback edition (22 April 1982)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0583134785
ISBN-13: 978-0583134781

[geoff22]

Hi There

Many thanks for that information I have ordered one at the huge cost of 1 pence! and 25 Pounds airmail to New Zealand where I live

Regards

Geoff

[la grande-méthe]

It rather depends on what you mean by 'death camp'.

The entire population of Alderney was evacuated by the Germans and was used as a concentration/labour camp. Thousands of slave labourers were sent there to build fortifications and the conditions were so extreme that many of them died. It did not have gas chambers or a crematorium.
Most of the POWs were Soviets with some Polish and some Jewish.

About 400 graves were found on the island after the Liberation but many hundreds more were simply dumped in the sea so I doubt if there is a comprehensive list of those who died.

You might have some luck by contacting www.occupied.guernsey.net

[acorngen]

Jerseylily,

Your facts are not correct about Alderney.  Not all the locals left and in fact after the war there were many trials of locals who had collaborated with the Germans

[la grande-méthe]

A small percentage were indeed left behind mainly to tend the animals and work the farm but the message could have got a bit tortuous going into the minutia of the Occupation. A few Channel islanders actually ended up in the camps.

Lager Sylt was the main concentration camp that was used by Organisation Todt for Russian and Jewish forced labourers, when they became too ill to work these labourers were 'disposed of' by the SS.

In many, although not all instances, it was a case of collaborate or die - this was true of all the Channel Isalnds, not just Alderney

[monica meg]

Sorry not much to add, but yesterday there was a short programme on I think BBC2 it was part of the coast series with Neil Oliver, and it was solely on the channel Islands in WW2 and the German occupation and camps. You may be able to access this via the net?
Good luck monica meg 

[acorngen]

JerseyJilly,

When I did my research into lager Sylt I did note that a few islanders who refused to collaborate ended up there.  I was surprised that only 460 people were killed at that camp.  It is still too much.  I do think the government on the island should put some plaque as a memorial up though