Lord Pickles announces a review of evidence into the number of prisoners who died on the Channel Island of Alderney during the Nazi occupation
Today, the United Kingdom’s Post Holocaust Issues Envoy and Head of UK Delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Lord Eric Pickles announced a review of evidence into the number of Jewish prisoners who were killed on the Channel Island of Alderney during the Nazi occupation.
The camps in Alderney were significant in the history of the Holocaust not just because they were sited on British soil, but because they provide evidence of ‘extermination through labour’ (Vernichtung durch Arbeit) in the construction of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall.
There has been considerable speculation in recent years over the number of Jewish individuals murdered by the conditions in the camps.
Lord Pickles said:
Lord Pickles has now appointed a team of eleven independent, experienced, and internationally recognised experts to build on pre-existing knowledge and come together to examine files from archives across Europe to identify what they consider to be the most accurate number of Jews killed under the occupation.
We are also pleased to be receiving expert assistance from the Archives at Yad Vashem, the world’s preeminent Holocaust Centre, in order to locate relevant documentation related to Alderney.
The expert group will announce their findings in a report to be published in March 2024.
They are:
The terms of reference for the expert group are:
1. To review knowledge and records to identify the number of prisoners who died in Alderney during the Nazi occupation.
2. To review knowledge and records to identify the number of prisoners / forced / slave labourers (of all categories/nationalities/places of origin) who passed through Alderney.
3. To evaluate submissions from the public, noting that the evidence obtained may be relevant to points (1) and (2) above and may be included feeds in the final report.
4. To produce a report on the findings of the enquiry.
As this is an open and transparent exercise we would like to invite members of the public to take part in this review of evidence.
If anybody wishes to submit their own evidence, files, or calculations of the number of the dead or of the number of forced and slave labourers/prisoners who passed through Alderney, they should do so using the instructions provided below. Submissions will be reviewed by the expert panel as part of their research.
The deadline for submissions by members of the public is 1 November 2023. All submissions must adhere to the requested specified format and should be sent by email to: ukhmfsecretariat@levellingup.gov.uk