University researchers say more than 20 sites of interest explored in unearthing Alderney’s Nazi camps

Friday 01 November 2024

A team of experts from the University of Huddersfield say they have shed new light on the “dark history of Alderney”.

Their research, featured in the Sky History documentary Hitler's British Island, revealed that over 1,000 people perished in the concentration and labour camps that had been established on the island.

The University's Centre of Archaeology employed a range of techniques, including the use of non-invasive technology, to identify sites associated with the Nazi regime. These included not only the main camps but also smaller, more clandestine facilities where forced and slave labourers were said to be imprisoned.

Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls, a leading figure in the research team, emphasised the significance of uncovering this hidden history.

"We've advocated for a long time for more to be known about what happened to the forced and slave labourers on Alderney," she said.

"As we're coming up to the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Channel Islands, there's a lot more interest in it. The stories of the people who died are finally being told in a more detailed way than they had been previously."

The research revealed that forced and slave labourers from over 30 countries were brought to Alderney. The Occupying forces established a network of camps on the island, including both formal facilities and improvised prisons.

Pictured: Prof Caroline Sturdy Colls walks next to the anti-tank wall in Longis Bay. 

"The number of camps we were able to identify on the island was a lot more than was commonly known," Professor Colls said.

"There were four main camps that were named, but we found more than 20 sites. Some had purpose-built barracks, but others were houses that were fenced off and made into kind of makeshift camps and prisons. The scale of the way that people were incarcerated was a new discovery."

The researchers also uncovered evidence of mass, unmarked burials on the island. Researchers says this shows the Nazis had attempted to conceal their atrocities by creating mock cemeteries and disposing of bodies in a systematic manner.

The University of Huddersfield's Centre of Archaeology has a long history of investigating Holocaust sites. In addition to their work on Alderney, they have conducted research at Treblinka and Trawniki in Poland. They are also currently involved in a project to archive materials related to Jewish children evacuated to the Lake District in 1945.