page_title: Alderney
section_title: Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: Alderney / History / Second World War
caption_attribution_description: English: During the German Occupation (1940 - 1945), after the evacuation of Alderney, the Nazis transported thousands of workers of many nations to the island to build military fortifications. This plaque records the sites of the principal camps where these workers were held. The workers originated from many countries but were treated with great cruelty and brutality. Approximately 400 graves have been identified in Alderney. The full number, however, of those who perished either on the island or in camps on the European mainland subsequent to leaving Alderney is unknown. They are remembered at the Hammond Memorial at Saye. Norderney - Helgoland - Borkum - Sylt
context_page_description: Alderney is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is 3 miles long and 1 ¹⁄₂ miles wide. The area is 3 square miles, making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick. It is around 10 miles to the west of La Hague on the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, in France, 20 miles to the north-east of Guernsey and 60 miles from the south coast of Great Britain. It is the closest of the Channel Islands to France and to the United Kingdom. It is separated from Cap de la Hague by the dangerous Alderney Race.
  As of 2018, the island had a population of 2,039; natives are traditionally nicknamed vaques after the cows, or else lapins after the many rabbits seen in the island. Formally, they are known as Ridunians, from the Latin Riduna.
  The only parish of Alderney is the parish of St Anne, which covers the whole island.
  The main town, St Anne, historically known as La Ville, is often referred to as "St Anne's" by visitors and incomers, but rarely by locals.
context_section_description: In June 1940, the entire population of Alderney, about 1,500 residents, were evacuated. Most went on the official evacuation boats sent from mainland Britain. Some, however, decided to make their own way, mostly via Guernsey, but due to the impending occupation many found themselves unable to leave and were forced to stay on Guernsey for the duration of the war. A few Alderney people elected not to leave Alderney with the general evacuation. However, boats from Guernsey came and collected them before the German Army arrived, on the basis that it was best for their personal safety. During the Second World War, the Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles that was occupied by Germany, although other parts of the Empire were occupied by the Axis powers.
  The Germans arrived to a deserted island, and began to follow their orders to fortify Alderney as part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall. In January 1942 they built four camps in Alderney: two work camps, Lager Helgoland and Lager Borkum, and two concentration camps, Lager Sylt and Lager Norderney. The jail behind the main police station was used by the Nazis as a prison. They were built by the Nazi Organisation Todt (OT) to house the labour used to build fortifications including bunkers, gun emplacements, tunnels, air-raid shelters and other concrete and field fortifications. Lager Norderney, containing Russian and Polish POWs, and the Lager Sylt camp holding Jewish slave labourers, were transferred to SS administration in March 1943 under the control of Hauptsturmführer Maximilian List. There are 397 graves in Alderney, which when added to the men who died in ships, takes the total to over 700 out of a total inmate population of 6,000 who lost their lives before the camps were closed and the remaining inmates transferred to France in 1944. On the return to their island, Alderney evacuees had little or no knowledge of the crimes committed on their island during the occupation, because by December 1945, the first date civilians could return home, all the slave labourers had been sent away and the majority of the German troops left behind were not senior staff. Evidence, however, was all over the island, with concrete fortifications and graveyards for the prisoners kept there during the occupation.
  The Royal Navy blockaded the islands from time to time, particularly following the liberation of Normandy in 1944. Intense negotiations resulted in some Red Cross humanitarian aid, but there was considerable hunger and privation during the five years of German occupation, particularly in the final months when the Germans themselves were close to starvation. The Germans surrendered Alderney on 16 May 1945, eight days after the Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, and seven days after the liberation of Guernsey and Jersey. 2,332 German prisoners of war were removed from Alderney on 20 May 1945, leaving 500 Germans to undertake clearing up operations under British military supervision. The people of Alderney could not start returning until December 1945 due to the huge cleanup operation needed simply to make the island safe for civilians. When the islanders returned home they were shocked to see the state of the island, with many houses completely derelict: the Germans had burned anything wooden, including front doors, for fuel. Archival and object evidence of the general evacuation in 1940 and the subsequent occupation of Alderney can be found in the Alderney Society Museum.
  A series of tunnels also remain in place on Alderney, constructed by forced labour. These are in varying degrees of decay, being left open to the public and the elements.
caption: Alderney camps memorial plaque
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