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What went on at the two Nazi concentration camps on British soil is a question researchers are still hoping to answer.
The small island of Alderney, located 130 km from the British mainland, was taken under Nazi control for a period of five years ending in 1945. It is the only British territory the Nazis occupied during the Second World War.
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The Nazis built two concentration camps and labour camps on the scenic island, only three square miles (775 hectares) in size. Prisoners were brought in from Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Spain, including some who were Jewish, and made to build fortifications to protect against Allied attacks.
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The British military’s investigation into the deaths on the island after Nazi occupation is estimated to be somewhere in the low hundreds. Reports from the original investigation were classified, and none of the SS officers who were running the camp were ever charged.
In a visit to the crumbling concentration camp of Lager Sylt, Holly Williams, an anchor for the CBS news program 60 minutes, spoke to a researcher who said he wanted to know the true toll of Nazi activity on the island.
Marcus Roberts, an Oxford-educated amateur historian, said at least 10,000 people died during the occupation, based on a controversial count involving the estimated number of workers needed to build the towering fortifications, which still stand today.
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Thousands of labourers were brought to the island, and many are believed to be buried there. After 80 years, the British government is conducting a public review of Nazi records to determine the true count.
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“The Nazis were meticulous record keepers — and British archives contain first hand testimonies from survivors,” Williams notes.
Sifting through some of the documents, Williams found journals revealing what the prisoners endured.
“‘On certain days, five to six, up to 10 men died,” one first hand account reads.
“We were beaten with everything they could lay their hands on: with sticks, spades, pickaxes,” says another, adding that a friend had died from the beatings.
The Nazi occupation on the Channel Islands, the group of islands Alderney is part of, relied on residents who remained there. The Islands, located off the coast of France, have been a British possession for centuries. The historical oversight was due to the island being left undefended, and the residents who remained becoming pawns for the SS, some historians have said.
“When the Germans arrived, the locals mostly co-operated — often with little choice. Hitler’s portrait was hung outside this cinema on the island of Guernsey,” Williams says. “Nazi propaganda showed the British police working for German troops. And British newspapers on the islands printed orders from Berlin.”
Jenny Lecoat, the grand niece of someone who was murdered by a Nazi, said the British government has been “ashamed” and “horrified” to know what actually happened on the island.
The revised death toll is expected to be released next month.
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