United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland / Alderney

Remembrance of Lager Sylt Concentration Camp

The remains of a former subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp are located on the Channel Island of Alderney, a British Crown Dependency.

History

The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the southern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy. When the German Wehrmacht defeated the French Army in May/June 1940 and forced the British forces to retreat from the continent, Great Britain evacuated large parts of the population on the Channel Islands, including almost all of the 1,400 residents of the third-largest island, Alderney. The islands were then occupied by the Wehrmacht. Anticipating an Allied invasion, the German occupying forces began constructing the Atlantic Wall - a series of fortifications along the coast - in 1942. The strategically important Channel Islands were also to be secured. Concentration camp prisoners, prisoners of war and Organisation Todt construction units were deployed for this purpose. In March 1943, SS Construction Brigade I arrived on Alderney comprising 730 prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and 270 prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp. They were accommodated in »Lager Sylt«, which officially became a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp. There were three further camps on the island - also named after German North Sea Islands -, however, they were administered by Organisation Todt. Prisoners were frequently transferred from these camps to Lager Sylt, including many Soviet prisoners of war. After the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944 (in the course of which the Channel Islands did not play a military role), the SS dismantled the camp and evacuated the prisoners to the mainland. Only 572 prisoners arrived in Belgium; some of the prisoners had fled, others were murdered by the guards.

Alderney, 2008, The former camp gate to Lager Sylt, Yolanta Boot

Alderney, 2008, Survivor Sylwester Kukula in front of the former gate to Lager Sylt, Yolanta Boot

Victims

Soviet prisoners of war comprised about half of the inmates at Lager Sylt; other prisoner groups included Poles, Dutchmen, Czechs and Frenchmen as well as criminals and people deemed »work-shy«. Some residents of Alderney who had not been evacuated in 1940 were also held at the camp and deployed in forced labour. Sources differ on whether or not there were Jews among the prisoners.
It is not possible to determine the exact number of prisoners or fatalities for Lager Sylt because camp occupancy fluctuated due to transfers from other camps. In June 1943, the SS transported 200 prisoners who were no longer capable of working to the Neuengamme main camp; about 100 prisoner died on Alderney of undernourishment, illnesses or abuse by the camp guards. According to other sources, the camp may have claimed up to 700 lives.

Contemporary British identity is largely based on the history of the country during the Second World War. Great Britain (excluding the Channel Islands) was the only European opponent of the Third Reich not to be occupied by the Wehrmacht. As a victorious power, the UK played a decisive role in the post-war reconfiguration of Europe. Memory of the war continues to centre on military and moral self-assertion. This form of memory is symbolised by the conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874–1965), who came into office in 1940. Churchill’s speeches succeeded in creating a spirit of optimism despite the severe losses suffered by the civilian population as a result of German bombing raids. The city of Coventry is representative of the destruction but also the post-war initiatives to achieve reconciliation with the Germans. A key feature of the British war effort was the joint deployment of various population groups on the »Home Front«. For example, the aristocracy opened their estates to city children and the royal family visited bombing victims. The »Labour Party« also appealed to community spirit in its post-war election campaign in 1945 and indeed succeeded in ousting Churchill from power. With its new education and welfare laws, Labour built the foundations of a phase of social peace following the principle of equal opportunities and equality. This attitude characterised a culture of memory unique in Europe in the early post-war years. As early as 1944, a survey concluded that projects to build monuments for the victims of the Second World War should »benefit or bring joy to the survivors«. Thus a swimming pool in Wales became an official memorial and in Eastbourne six houses were established for disabled servicemen and their families. Forms of memory have since changed in Great Britain. Following the severe economic crisis of the 1970s the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) adopted a radically different political course and also changed British attitudes to their past. »Efficiency« became a key term. Entrepreneurial spirit was to make itself felt, even in the area of culture, and history was to become a consumer product. Indeed the burgeoning »history industry« also concerned the Second World War, as demonstrated by the range of items in many museum shops. In subsequent years, memory of the war increased further through the commemoration of the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944 and victory in 1945, but also through many films and television series. This was coupled with increased memory of the Holocaust, which had been almost completely blocked out until the 1960s, even though many refugees had fled persecution to settle in Britain. In 2000 Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022) opened a permanent exhibition on the murder of European Jews in the »Imperial War Museum«, the national war and military museum in London. This exhibition provides a detailed account of the crimes. On the initiative of the conservative government of David Cameron, a new UK Holocaust Memorial is to be built in London near the House of Parliament until the middle of the 2020s.

Remembrance

Little remains of Lager Sylt on the historic site. This is probably due to the fact that most of the islanders (who had been away from Alderney between 1940 and 1944) do not wish to be reminded of the German occupation. By way of exception, a memorial was erected at the beginning of the 1950s and extended in 1966 by the Hammond family. The »Hammond Memorial« honours the former prisoners who perished on the island, comprising memorial plaques in several languages including French, Polish and Hebrew. Though there are numerous traces of the Atlantic Wall on Alderney, there are only few reminders of the actual camp. The entrance gate still stands and has in recent years been cleared of rank growth. In 2008, a memorial plaque was affixed to the gate in the presence of one of the last surviving former prisoners of Lager Sylt.

Alderney, 2011, The »Hammond Memorial«, Robin Oakley

Alderney, 2008, Former prisoner Sylwester Kukula during the dedication of the memorial plaque, Yolanta Boot

Open

The premises are accessible at all times.

Contact

Alderney, 2008, Memorial plaque on the former gate to Lager Sylt, Yolanta Boot

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