Alderney concentration camp

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Aerial view of the approximately eight square kilometer island
One of the concrete fortifications on Alderney Island

The Alderney concentration camp , also known as the Sylt camp , was a subordinate camp of the SS , which was initially subordinate to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and later to the Neuengamme concentration camp . From March 1943 to June 1944 it was one of the Neuengamme satellite camps . It was located on the channel island of Alderney, which had been occupied by Germany in 1940 , making it the only concentration camp in an area of ​​the British crown possession .

history

The island of Alderney was occupied by the Wehrmacht on July 2, 1940 during the Second World War . Great Britain had already evacuated the approximately 1400 inhabitants to England in June . The island formed part of the Atlantic Wall and should be fortified by strong defenses.

The SS Construction Brigade I came on March 5, 1943 1000 concentration camp prisoners on the island. Until June 1944 they were housed in the barracks of the Alderney satellite camp, known as the Sylt camp , on an airport site in the south of the island. 730 prisoners, including Erich Frost , came from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and 270 from the Neuengamme concentration camp. These included around 500 Russians, 130 Poles, 60 Dutch, 20 to 30 Czechs, 20 French and 180 so-called work - shy , criminals and political prisoners . In addition to Sylt , the three labor camps Helgoland , Borkum and Norderney also bore the names of German North Sea islands, and there was another small camp called the Citadel . In total there were around 3800 Wehrmacht soldiers, around 3000 forced laborers and 1000 concentration camp prisoners on the approximately eight square kilometer island.

The prisoners were used for physically difficult work in the construction of military ports, bunkers and fortifications or in the quarry. The exact number of inmates housed cannot be given, as the Alderney camp was used as a so-called labor education camp for the other camps of the Organization Todt (OT) on the island in order to exert pressure on the other inmates. OT main troop leader Johann Hoffmann, commandant of the Helgoland camp, stated that 70 to 75 Russian prisoners from his OT camp and from May to August 1943 60 prisoners from the Norderney OT camp were transferred to the Alderney satellite camp.

Due to poor nutrition and hard work, around 200 concentration camp prisoners were no longer able to work in June 1943 and were transported back to Neuengamme concentration camp. About 100 concentration camp prisoners were killed by the SS guards because of malnutrition and illness, combined with hard work and the resulting physical weakness. The dead were buried on the premises of the barrack camp. When the Allies landed in Normandy, the SS construction brigade was relocated. 636 prisoners arrived on the mainland in Cherbourg , 572 in Belgium. Some had fled or died on the transport; 27 prisoners were shot.

Warehouse staff

Otto Panzer and, from September 1944, Leo Ackermann, an engineer from the Todt Organization, were responsible for carrying out the construction work on the fortifications . SS-Hauptsturmführer Maximilian List was the command leader. He was replaced in March 1944 by SS-Obersturmführer Georg Braun .

The leader of the guard team, SS-Obersturmführer Kurt Klebeck , who later became the commanding officer of the Akkumulatorenwerke satellite camp , was indicted in the so-called Ahlem trial and sentenced to ten years in prison for crimes on a death march . List came into the public eye after the end of the war through British press publications, but he was not legally prosecuted until his death in the 1980s.

memorial

A memorial, called the Hammond Memorial because it was donated by the Hammond family, commemorates the Alderney concentration camp with a cross and multilingual plaques. The memorial is located on the site of the former barrack camp. Commemorations are held there every year.

literature

  • Karola Fings : Alderney (SS Construction Brigade I). In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-52965-8 , p. 347ff.
  • Frederick Cohen: The Jews in the Channel Islands during the German Occupations: 1940-1945. Jersey Heritage Trust. 2nd edition Jersey 2000 ( PDF )
  • Susanne Frömel: The concentration camp in the English Channel. In: mare . No. 69, August 2008, pp. 41-51. ( Excerpt )
  • David Wingeate Pike ; Anne Farache: Les îles anglo-normandes sous l'occupation allemande et la singularité des Républicains espagnols en captivité . In: Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains , 2015/4 (N ° 260); 2016/1 (N ° 261); Part 3: tba

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Ministry of Justice : Directory of the concentration camps and their external commands in accordance with Section 42 (2) BEG No. 6a, Alderney, location of the 1st SS construction brigade, Sachsenhausen, from mid-February 1943 Neuengamme
  2. ^ A b Cohen: Jews, p. 131.
  3. ^ Cohen: Jews, p. 111.
  4. ^ Fings: Alderney, p. 347 f.
  5. ^ Fings: Alderney, p. 348.

Coordinates: 49 ° 42 ′ 18.2 "  N , 2 ° 13 ′ 16.4"  W.