INSIGHT: Islander stories from occupied Alderney

Friday 31 May 2024

There were hundreds of Channel Islanders working in Alderney while it was under Nazi control, most being teenagers and young men who witnessed terrible atrocities firsthand.

The revelations came as part of the Alderney Expert Review into the island’s occupation commissioned by the UK government, with that part of the report penned by Dr Gilly Carr, the IHRA representative for Guernsey and Jersey.

429 Channel Islanders were sent to Alderney at various points throughout the occupation, most of which came from Guernsey who were either volunteers or forced labourers.

Those who came sometime later from Jersey were conscripts, a large amount of them originally hailing from Ireland.

Most were employed by the Germans, but some worked for the States of Guernsey before later reporting to the Germans when States involvement in the island was cutback over several months

Teenagers were the most prevalent age group, closely followed by 20- to 24-year-olds.

Dr Carr also noted that German court records and family testimony shows many locals were forced to work in the island because of previous convictions or criminal offences committed during the occupation.

She told an audience at the Imperial War Museum that many islanders working in Alderney “saw things they were never able to unsee.

“The work was not much fun despite the pay and rations. Even from the beginning, before they were working for the Germans, the conditions were clearly not good.”

She said the high number of teenagers was down to the low school leaving age at the time, while others may not have been in jobs in Guernsey that the Nazis deemed to be “gainful employment”.

“All of these people (and some who had left Alderney earlier) were interviewed by the war crimes investigators and were able to testify to conditions of work, starvation and ill-treatment of foreign labourers by named military personnel and OT overseers in different parts of the island. They were also able to relay information told to them by various foreign labourers,” Dr Carr said.

“A small number of islanders themselves ended up in Norderney camp and were able to talk about the ill-treatment they endured and what they had witnessed”.

Listen: Express’ audio-documentary on the Alderney Expert Review.

The sights seen by anyone in the island throughout the occupation were nothing short of horrific.

There are descriptions in the report of Germans tormenting Russians with dogs, savagely beating them for stealing food, emaciated corpses lying in the street, sick workers having stones tied to their feet and thrown in the sea, crucifixions on camp gates in mid-winter, making Jews jump by shooting at their feet, and public hangings.

“Peter Tostevin, a Channel Islander, stated that in 1942 he saw Russians laying a cable, beaten to the ground and left to die. He saw Russians beaten to the ground by Todt guards 20 to 30 times,” the report says.

“Ernest Clark, a British farmer who had returned to the island told [the British war crimes investigator, he had seen prisoners eating food the dogs had left.

“On one occasion he saw them eating a calf buried under manure and also bad cows’ feet, they were ‘being systematically starved’. SS officers, he stated, ‘competed in gaining leave from duties by shooting prisoners for the smallest offences. The guards would throw away cigarette ends and as soon as an inmate bent down to pick it up, they would be shot’.”

Pictured: Dr Gilly Carr carried out the research into Channel Island experiences in the island.

Some Guernsey farmers initially travelled to the islands to rescue cattle after the Alderney was evacuated, and the States later requested men to collect crops and supplies stored in the island. 35 men went at different points to carry out the work.

By January 1941 another Guernsey group returned to prepare for the growing season and returned cattle to the island. While the food was for Guernsey residents, the Germans ordered that a third of grains grown was handed over to feed their horses.

Work was also carried out to prepare housing for worker and to fix the breakwater. Over the course of 1942 German requests for tradesman became more frequent, with the offer of good pay and rations touted.

Many islanders complained about the benefits, but as food became harder to come by many chose to carry out work for the Germans even despite having to witness the brutality committed against foreign labourers in Alderney.

There were fewer than 100 Channel Islanders working in the island when June 1944 and the Allied invasion of mainland Europe came around.

The Germans allowed them all to return to Guernsey, but eight chose to stay for unknown reasons. They remained in the island until the islands were liberated, with the British finding 18 civilians in the island at the time including George Pope and his family and Eric Kibble who was imprisoned in Alderney.

Dr Carr also debunked limited testimony that British people had been shot by the Germans.

“Channel Islanders were the only Britons in Alderney and not one of those interviewed at liberation referred to any colleagues being shot or shot at. No Channel Islander family reported, after liberation, that their family member was shot or killed.

“No Channel Islander family has come forward in the last 80 years to make such a claim. No other archival evidence exists to back up such a claim, and the names of all islanders in Alderney are known.”