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An artist whose work focuses on historic and cultural documentation has given a speech to London’s Jewish community about the occupation of Alderney and the atrocities experienced during World War II.
The inspiration for Piers Secunda’s work continues to be the destruction of culture and his latest efforts have been focused on documenting the atrocities wrought upon the island of Alderney.
Express recently spoke with Mr Secunda about an exhibition he launched in London, which included a piece of work moulded from a wall in Platte Saline. It was commonly theorised that the wall was a firing wall, pockmarked with bullets from executions from the island.
Mr Secunda managed to confirm this theory after working with two ballistics experts from the United States.
During a lecture he gave to the JW3 (a Jewish community centre in London) Mr Secunda expanded on his investigation into the wall at Platte Saline and how it confirms what many in Alderney already thought to be true.
“It's a good idea to look quickly at three theories which have been put forward about the nature of the... wall inside Plat Saline,” he said. “One suggestion speculates that the wall inside the fort was for target practice.
“An enclosed space without something like the human body to slow down the bullet... is likely to result in a shooter shooting themselves. Another suggestion is all was shot from a nearby machine gun position.
“You would need to be able to fire over the fort wall, the perimeter wall, but remain perpendicular to the bullet damage wall... so, clearly the wall wasn't shot by a machine gun position.
“The ballistics and the forensics which I've presented make it very clear that this is an execution wall.”
He said there are “precious few documents” indicating how many people were brought to the island during its occupation, “but we know that they numbered in their thousands”.
Mr Secunda was helped in his work by the States of Alderney and by a local man who’d once dug a bullet out the wall at Platte Saline. The bullet was matched with German ammunition from the era and began Mr Secunda’s investigation into the wall. Despite the help he received, he said the topic of Alderney’s occupation remains a sore point for some.
“The nature of the occupation of Alderney is pretty controversial amongst the inhabitants. The older people really just don't want to have to think about it. They want to get on living their lives enjoying their retirement and it’s the younger inhabitants predominantly who are interested in understanding what went on.”
His exhibition Alderney: The Holocaust on British soil’ will continue until the 16 April and you can watch his lecture in full ONLINE.
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