- Lager Sylt
Lager Sylt was the name of the Nazi concentration camp on
Alderney in theChannel Islands between March 1943 and June 1944. It is thought to have been mainly alabour camp with possibly 1,000 inmates. 460 people are believed to have died in the Alderney camps. These were the only Nazi concentration camps to have existed on British soil.It was organised by the Schutzstaffel - SS-Baubrigade I and ran as the
Neuengamme camp in northernGermany ; it was located near the old telegraph tower atLa Foulère . It was used byOrganisation Todt , aforced labour programme, to buildbunker s,gun emplacement s,air-raid shelter s, and concrete fortifications.The prisoners were from
Russia andEurope , usually the east, but including Spanish Republicans. Some of the few remaining unevacuated Alderney natives (round about 2% of the population) also found themselves in there. In 1942,Lager Norderney , containing Russian and Polish POWs, and Lager Sylt, holding Jews, were placed under the control of SS HauptsturmführerMax List . Over 700 of the inmates are said to have lost their lives before the camps were closed and the remaining inmates transferred to Germany in 1944.Alderney has been nicknamed "the island of silence", due to the fact that little is known about what occurred there during the occupation. The rest of the island was heavily
fortified , mainly through theslave labour of the camp inmates. The German officer left in charge of the facilities, CommandantOberst Schwalm , burned the camps to the ground and destroyed all records connected with their use before the island was liberated byBritish forces on16 May 1945 . The Germangarrison on Alderney surrendered a week after the other Channel Islands, and was one of the last garrisons to surrender in Europe. The population were unable to start returning until December 1945.The States (Alderney's governing body) decline to commemorate the sites of the four labour camps. Local historian
Colin Partridge feels this may be due to the locals' desire to dissociate themselves from the accusations of collaboration. A faded memorial plate, tucked away behind the island's parish church, vaguely mentions 45 Soviet citizens who died on Alderney in 1940-45, without saying how they died and why.It was named after the North Frisian Island of
Sylt .ee also
*
List of Nazi-German concentration camps
*List of subcamps of Neuengamme
*Occupation of the Channel Islands * "For more information, please see" Talk -
Lager Norderney .External links
* [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/a/alderney/lager_sylt/index.shtml Lager Sylt Concentration Camp]
* [http://www.spanishrefugees-basquechildren.org/B5-Slave_Labourers_and_Slave_Labour_Camps.html A Spanish Republican slave labourer]
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