- 6/18/2025
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Music
00:27When we think of the Holocaust, that industrial level of genocide that went on during the war,
00:32we think of death camps like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belsen.
00:39But what's often forgotten?
00:41There were concentration camps run by the SS on British soil.
00:48All of the slave labourers had horrific stories of brutality.
00:53People randomly shot.
00:54People were crucified.
00:57They were tied to the back of trucks and dragged along the streets.
01:02We knew what was going on.
01:04People dying of starvation and being beaten to death.
01:07Everybody heard the screams.
01:11The Soviet boy had stopped working.
01:15An SS guard walked up to him, unshouldered his rifle,
01:18and shot him at practically point-blank range.
01:20This is the site of the most appalling war crime to take place on British soil.
01:27You cannot read of the atrocities without becoming almost physically sick.
01:52Brutality and murder.
01:54On an absolutely vast scale.
02:01how many people died each day varied sometimes it was six sometimes a dozen when i got up in
02:18the morning i saw dead bodies in the neighboring bunks sometimes i saw that their lips nose and
02:27ears had been eaten by rats we were beaten with everything they could lay their hands on with
02:37sticks spades pickaxes some of us were more than 60 years old and who were ill two of the prisoners
02:47collapsed where they stood and to my horror they were thrown over the cliff into the sea
02:53rats run over bodies while we were sleeping looking for the dead
03:00there's been a long legacy since the second one war
03:30of a kind of British exceptionalism.
03:34Now, Britain was the one place that stood up to Nazism.
03:37Not one scrap of British soil was occupied.
03:41But British territory was invaded, it was occupied,
03:45and war crimes took place there.
03:48There's an embarrassing truth
03:50that's always been a little bit inconvenient.
03:53The Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans
03:55right through to 1945.
03:57Early in the war,
04:01the Channel Islands were regarded actually
04:03as a safe place to be.
04:04So people left London to go to the Channel Islands.
04:08Even German Jewish refugees
04:09thought the Channel Islands looked like a safe haven.
04:14In 1939, that was the assumption,
04:17that the Channel Islands would be very little affected.
04:20Really, let's just sit tight, sit this one out.
04:23Then everything changed.
04:27Suddenly, the Islanders were on the front line.
04:37Six and a half thousand Jersey Islanders left,
04:42out of a population of 50,000.
04:4517,000 Guernsey Islanders left,
04:48out of a population of 41,000.
04:51The Island of Alderney was always very different.
05:00Alderney, funnily enough,
05:02is the closest bit of British soil
05:05to being overseas or abroad,
05:07because it's just eight miles to the French coast.
05:10It's important to remember, it is really small.
05:16Three miles long,
05:18one and a half miles wide,
05:21about twice the size of Central Park in Manhattan.
05:25There was only a population of 1,400,
05:28and of those, almost all evacuated.
05:31For a historian, it's a fascinating place to visit.
05:38Alive with the past.
05:42The self-contained microcosm of all of Britain.
05:46But at the same time, it also feels a bit French.
05:50You feel you're still in Britain,
05:52but you know you're abroad in some way.
05:54You have got so many different types of defensive structure
06:02littering that little island.
06:06Napoleonic forts,
06:08Victorian forts on an epic scale.
06:13Alderney's always been a kind of prime target
06:15for whoever's controlling France
06:16to want to come and snatch it.
06:19Despite being tiny,
06:20Alderney is actually probably one of the most heavily fortified places on Earth.
06:25The Channel Islands have a strategic importance
06:29in the history of the Second World War.
06:33Hitler regarded the Channel Islands,
06:36and Alderney in particular,
06:38as a kind of German Gibraltar.
06:42The Germans give the three major Channel Islands codenames.
06:47So, Jersey becomes Julius,
06:50Guernsey becomes Gustav,
06:51and Alderney becomes Adolf.
06:57It was of great importance to Hitler.
07:03He thought that Alderney would be
07:06the western end of the Atlantic Wall
07:10to ensure that Fortress Europe, as he saw it,
07:13would be safe from attack from the British.
07:15If we go to the British,
07:16then we are at the British.
07:19Alderney is actually invaded
07:21on July 2nd, 1940.
07:25It's just 80 German troops
07:27come over from Cherbourg,
07:29and they turn up to tiny little Alderney.
07:33Nazi troops take a move
07:34that surprises the world.
07:36England, just across the Channel,
07:37seems in easy reach.
07:39Where's everybody gone?
07:40You've got to imagine these troops
07:51walking around the streets of Alderney's only town, St Anne.
07:57It's very quaint, cobbled streets.
08:04There's nobody there.
08:05They're thinking, we've just got this entire island to ourselves.
08:11We've basically been gifted it by the residents.
08:16If you were sitting very close to France,
08:18you're probably thinking, we're better off in the UK.
08:23That was why so many left Alderney.
08:26There were only about 18 people living there,
08:29of whom the most significant are the Pope family.
08:33George and Daphne Pope.
08:35My name is Janet Pope.
08:42My parents were George Pope and Daphne Pope.
08:48My mother saw no option but to stay.
08:53Judge French was the leader of everybody on the island.
08:57My mother said to Judge French, look, George is out at sea.
09:04If he doesn't get back in time for the evacuation,
09:07well, I will just stay and wait for him.
09:10And that's exactly what she did.
09:11For a while, my mother refused to speak any German.
09:17But the children learnt to say Guten Tag.
09:20And the Germans loved it because we were the only children on the island.
09:24But, of course, I was never bored.
09:27How could I have been?
09:28Every day was a struggle to find food.
09:30Every now and then, soldiers would turn up on the doorstep,
09:37clump, clump, clump in their big boots,
09:39to see if there was anything that shouldn't be there.
09:45After a year or so, definitely the rules were coming down,
09:50but not quite so thick and fast as they did a year later.
10:02For the first year and a half of the war,
10:05life on Alderney is pretty quiet for the German garrison.
10:11You've got about 450 troops there.
10:15They're having a pretty easy, pretty relaxed time.
10:17That early honeymoon phase, if you like,
10:21changed in a really significant way.
10:33Hitler seemed to have a sort of obsession with these islands.
10:39And huge numbers of German soldiers began to arrive.
10:42The concentration of soldiers in the Channel Islands
10:47was pretty much unequalled across occupied Europe.
10:52Hitler decides to turn Alderney into an obstacle to any British invasion.
11:15Hitler was able to keep a very close watch on works here.
11:19He followed the monthly reports,
11:23made constant calls for improvement in performance,
11:27took very close interest,
11:28very small, detailed interest in the design of new bunkers.
11:33This building behind is the fire direction post
11:37for the coastal artillery,
11:40overlooking the French coast.
11:42It is truly a unique bunker.
11:47There is no other of this design
11:48on the whole of the Atlantic coast.
11:52You've got emplacements for huge naval guns
11:56capable of firing at shipping up to 15 miles away
12:01right in the middle of the English Channel.
12:03Also, the Germans don't just put on concrete fortifications.
12:12There's this whole network of tunnels,
12:15the purpose of which isn't really understood even today.
12:21Most of this island was divided up into defensive locations
12:25or either coastal batteries or anti-aircraft defences
12:30or beach defences.
12:33And then in between you have minefields.
12:36What you've also got on Longji Beach
12:42is this vast anti-tank wall.
12:4620 foot high,
12:48half a kilometre long.
12:51The Atlantic wall is probably the biggest civil engineering project
12:54that's ever taken place in Europe.
12:57Even though Alderney's not a very big island,
13:00to turn a place that's three miles by one and a half miles
13:03into a fortress is going to require a lot of manpower.
13:08What they decided was that the organisation TOT,
13:11the German forced labour system,
13:13was going to bring in thousands of people.
13:21Wherever the German Wehrmacht was in occupation,
13:26Hitler's Holocaust-related policies were carried out.
13:31And one of those policies was
13:33the reintroduction of slavery into Europe.
13:39The Nazis have a lot of slave labourers
13:41from all the countries they've conquered.
13:44By June 1942, they start to arrive on the island.
13:48The slave labourers came from a huge variety of backgrounds.
13:58Many of them were captured on the Eastern Front.
14:01Russians, Ukrainians,
14:03from the vast majority of those who come.
14:06But you've also got French Jews.
14:08The Germans have selected this group of French Jewish men
14:13not to go to the extermination camps,
14:15or at least not immediately,
14:16but to be sent to Alderney
14:18because they have categorised them differently.
14:22Either married to non-Jewish wives
14:26or they have mixed heritage.
14:30So in their ancestry,
14:31perhaps two grandparents are not Jewish.
14:36In the horrendous Nazi racist terminology,
14:39they are considered as Mischling.
14:42Part Jewish.
14:44This means that they have some value,
14:47albeit just their value as labourers.
14:50My father was arrested by the French police
15:00and led to Drancy with his father.
15:06And then, in the camp of Aurémy.
15:12My father and my grandfather
15:14had a life saved
15:17because my father was
15:20so-called the son of a woman Catholic woman.
15:25And so my father was not Jewish
15:27because the religion
15:30was transmitted by the mom.
15:33My father had said
15:34that we had a life saved.
15:36Justly, my mother was so-called Catholic.
15:40Some members of this family
15:42had been sent to Auschwitz.
15:51One of the most extraordinary stories
15:53is that of one of the French-Jewish prisoners,
15:57a man called Leon Cartoon.
15:59This very accomplished musician before the war.
16:03This is a huge figure
16:04suddenly finding himself on Alderney.
16:12Leon Cartoon was my great-uncle
16:14born and brought up in Paris,
16:17a very well-known concert pianist in his day.
16:22He had a great following, I think,
16:23of people who admired him
16:25and went to his concerts.
16:28He was arrested eventually
16:30and then was taken to Drancy,
16:35the main transit camp for Jewish people.
16:38He's then selected.
16:42They had selections daily
16:43and he was selected not to go to Auschwitz
16:47because his wife was not Jewish
16:49and he was something called an Aryan husband,
16:52henceforth used as a slave
16:53rather than actually exterminated.
16:57He was sent to Alderney
16:59to work in what is effectively a slave labour camp,
17:04whereas Helene, his mother,
17:06was fully Jewish
17:08and therefore she was for extermination.
17:18In 1942,
17:20when Alderney became part of the Atlantic Wall,
17:24thousands more forced labourers
17:26were sent to the island.
17:27and that's when we see
17:30the four named camps
17:32that are most well-known.
17:34Silt,
17:36Nordenie,
17:37Halgaland
17:37and Borkum,
17:40essentially in the four corners
17:41of the island.
17:43The German forces amounted
17:45to 3,200.
17:47We know there were about
17:495,500 workers.
17:52Today, we have a population
17:53of 2,000 people.
17:54You can imagine
17:57the actual space
17:58that you could move freely around in
18:00in this island
18:02was very, very small.
18:09Subtle traces do remain
18:10in the landscape.
18:13For example,
18:13at Helgaland,
18:14all the barracks have been demolished
18:16and houses built.
18:18But there are
18:20a set of gateposts
18:21that still exist.
18:26Borkum is now
18:28partially in fields.
18:31Again,
18:32you can see
18:32the gateposts
18:33of the camp.
18:38Today,
18:39the site of Nordenie Camp
18:40is just a kind of green field
18:43by this really nice
18:45silver sandy beach.
18:48In the summer,
18:49it's used as a campsite.
18:52Very few of those
18:53camping there
18:53know what happened there
18:55during the war.
18:57There would be very little
18:59to indicate
18:59that this had been
19:00the biggest camp
19:01on Aldenie.
19:04Exceptionally brutal
19:05place.
19:08Beatings
19:08and terrible living conditions
19:10for the prisoners
19:11who were sent there.
19:15In August 1943,
19:18we were loaded
19:19onto boats
19:20with kicks
19:21and shouts.
19:22The Germans
19:23splat on us
19:23from the bridge
19:24above us.
19:26A German,
19:27Henrik Evers,
19:29greeted us
19:29with slaps,
19:31kicks
19:31and threats
19:32of his revolver.
19:35People died
19:36of
19:36dysentery,
19:39anger,
19:40or bad food.
19:43The food
19:43was just water
19:44with
19:45a few bits
19:46of turnip
19:47floating in it.
19:49Life was a
19:49constant struggle
19:50to find food.
19:53If they caught you
19:54at a rubbish heap,
19:56you would be beaten.
19:57You've got a huge
20:06amalgam of people,
20:08like a microcosm
20:10of the occupied people
20:11of the Third Reich.
20:14You even have
20:15Spanish Republicans
20:16who had fled
20:17Franco's regime.
20:19Rise of a revolution,
20:20and Madrid, Spain
20:21becomes a seething city.
20:22and then find
20:23themselves in France.
20:26Vichy France,
20:27in order to
20:28ingratiate themselves
20:29with the Nazis,
20:30hand them over
20:31to the Germans.
20:31My name is Gary Font.
20:42I am the son of
20:44Francisco Font,
20:47Spanish Republican
20:48slave worker.
20:48It would be nice
20:52if you could actually
20:53see some markings
20:54of where the camp was.
20:57But there's nothing
20:58to give you any idea
21:00of where the huts were,
21:01how the camp
21:02was laid out.
21:04I can't see any of that.
21:07I was arrested
21:08by the Vichy French
21:09in a big group,
21:11and these SS guards
21:12came and started
21:13beating him
21:14with his trungeon.
21:15So my father retaliated,
21:17other guards joined in,
21:18and beat him
21:19practically unconscious,
21:20and ended up
21:21sending him the next day
21:23to Alderney
21:24as a punishment.
21:27If atrocities means
21:29killing people
21:30for no reason whatsoever,
21:32yeah, we saw some of them.
21:34We saw a Russian,
21:35apparently stole somebody
21:36from somebody else.
21:39He was hanging,
21:40strung up
21:41from the main gate.
21:42The Germans treated
21:46their prisoners
21:46barbarously,
21:48crucified
21:49on the camp gate,
21:51and then doused
21:52in water
21:53so it would freeze
21:54on their bodies.
21:55Guards shooting
21:56at the feet
21:57of prisoners
21:57to make them dance.
21:58political prisoners
22:04or Jews
22:06had to jump
22:08fighting bullets
22:09off their feet.
22:11When one was hit
22:12and fell,
22:13another bullet,
22:15this time in the head,
22:16finish him off,
22:18discontinued
22:19until the last one fell.
22:20The degree of brutality
22:27towards the prisoners
22:27varies from camp to camp.
22:30Facts are very scarce.
22:35The RAF were flying
22:36reconnaissance flights
22:37over the island.
22:39There was this very
22:41obvious cemetery
22:41where they could estimate
22:47perhaps a few hundred
22:48people were buried.
22:50This level,
22:52flat area here
22:53was the main cemetery
22:55for the foreign workers.
22:58There were about
22:59seven rows
23:01which stretched here
23:02from the northwest
23:03and southeast.
23:05The total
23:06exhumed from this space
23:08was 329 bodies.
23:14They're these
23:15much more ill-defined,
23:16clearly disturbed
23:17pieces of ground.
23:20there you have to
23:21start asking
23:22what or who
23:23is being buried there.
23:26There have been
23:27many attempts
23:27to play down
23:28the story
23:29of what happened
23:29in Alderney.
23:31Conscious attempts
23:32to sort of brush over
23:33something that happened
23:34on British soil.
23:35We have this
23:36incredible range
23:38of the number of deaths
23:39that may have taken place there.
23:41a panel of experts
23:44was convened
23:45to try and get
23:48something near
23:49to a reliable figure.
23:50In June 1944,
24:12you have the
24:15Allied invasion
24:16of Northern Europe.
24:18D-Day.
24:18That is happening
24:22just down
24:23the Normandy coast
24:24from the Channel Islands.
24:31My mother said,
24:32this is the end
24:33of the war.
24:34The Germans
24:35were really frightened
24:36and she said,
24:38this is it,
24:38they know it's up.
24:41No boats
24:42were coming in,
24:43there were no supplies
24:43or very little
24:44and the Germans
24:45were starving.
24:48They were so vain
24:49about how they looked,
24:51how tiny their waists were.
24:53She said,
24:54they don't have to worry
24:55about that anymore.
24:56They were thin.
24:57Our dear Channel Islands
25:04were to be liberated
25:05at last.
25:06With the unconditional
25:07surrender complete,
25:08British troops
25:09go ashore.
25:15The liberating forces
25:17arrived finally
25:18in 1945.
25:21The islands
25:22were the last place
25:23to be liberated
25:24in Western Europe.
25:25from the start
25:28they knew
25:28there would have
25:29to be some investigations.
25:34A young captain
25:35called Theodore Panchev,
25:36nicknamed Bunny Panchev,
25:38is sent over
25:39to investigate
25:40what happened.
25:42Panchev is only 24
25:44at the time
25:45but he's already had
25:47three years
25:48of really intense
25:49interrogation work.
25:53Alderney is a natural choice
25:54because that's where
25:55he was brought up.
25:57He knew it like
25:58the back of his hand
25:58and he loved
25:59Alderney.
26:03My name is
26:04Andrew Panchev.
26:05I'm the son
26:06of Bunny Panchev
26:07who conducted
26:08the investigations
26:09post-war
26:10on Alderney.
26:12The most important thing
26:15for him
26:15is the human element.
26:18You may have
26:19these wonderful
26:20fortifications
26:21and so on
26:22but how many people
26:22did you kill
26:23to make them?
26:27His work
26:28would involve
26:28piecing together
26:29information
26:31from eyewitnesses,
26:33interrogation
26:34of prisoners
26:34themselves
26:35to gather
26:36the evidence.
26:37The first three
26:40camps
26:41Borkum
26:42Helgeland
26:43Norderney
26:44are run
26:45by this big
26:46state-backed
26:47construction firm
26:48organisation
26:49Tote.
26:51It's the fourth
26:52camp
26:52Silt
26:53that's run
26:55by a very
26:55different organisation
26:56altogether
26:57and that
26:59is the SS.
27:00The SS
27:06are the
27:07Schufstafel.
27:09They started off
27:10as Hitler's
27:11personal guard,
27:12his protection unit
27:13and it has
27:15various branches.
27:16There is a
27:16combat unit
27:17but there is
27:18also the
27:19horrendously
27:21named
27:21Death's Head
27:22unit
27:22and they
27:23are responsible
27:24for the
27:25concentration
27:25camp network.
27:28In Alderney
27:28they have
27:29direct
27:30responsibility
27:30for the
27:311,000
27:32prisoners
27:33in Silt
27:34camp.
27:38I was
27:39sent to
27:39Silt
27:40camp
27:40to do
27:41hard labour.
27:43The men
27:43were beaten
27:44so long
27:45that they
27:46fell down
27:46from sheer
27:47weakness.
27:48They were
27:49beaten
27:49every day.
27:52Silt
27:52was
27:52terrible.
27:55Terrible.
27:57I saw
27:57one man
27:57crucified
27:58for stealing.
27:59We were
28:01marching
28:01from camp
28:02to work
28:03once
28:03and I
28:04saw this
28:04man
28:05who
28:06couldn't
28:06walk
28:06any
28:06longer.
28:08He was
28:08shot down
28:09right there
28:09by the
28:09Germans.
28:14About
28:151,000 people
28:16were held
28:16in this
28:17camp.
28:18Lots
28:18of people
28:19compressed
28:19into a
28:20very,
28:20very small
28:21space
28:21in terribly
28:22constructed
28:23buildings.
28:23there was
28:26very little
28:26in the
28:26way of
28:27heating
28:27for
28:27these
28:28people.
28:29The
28:30SS guards
28:30were stealing
28:31the food
28:31so malnutrition
28:33was a
28:34major
28:34problem.
28:37There were
28:37people who
28:38were strung
28:38up on the
28:39camp gates.
28:41We also have
28:42testimony about
28:43prisoners being
28:44shot trying to
28:45escape which
28:47was a euphemism
28:47for the SS
28:49encouraging them
28:50to run away
28:51and then they
28:52would kill
28:52them when
28:52they did.
28:55Recruits to
28:56the SS
28:57have absorbed
28:58this racial
29:00concept behind
29:01Nazi ideology.
29:03So for them
29:04when they are
29:05guarding camps
29:06full of
29:07Russians or
29:08Poles they
29:09don't really
29:09consider them
29:10human.
29:12They consider
29:13them
29:13intermention
29:14subhuman
29:15and they
29:16believe they
29:17have the
29:17right the
29:18responsibility
29:18even to
29:20kill them.
29:21my father
29:26witnessed an
29:27execution of
29:28a young
29:29Soviet boy.
29:31This Soviet
29:31boy had
29:32stopped working
29:33to change
29:35his footwear
29:36and his footwear
29:37was cement
29:38bags.
29:39That's all he
29:39had to wear.
29:40An SS guard
29:41had walked up
29:42to him,
29:42unsholdered his
29:43rifle and shot
29:44him at
29:45practically
29:45point-blank
29:46range.
29:46what happened
29:50next was
29:50just as
29:51disturbing.
29:53An argument
29:54between the
29:55SS guard
29:55and an
29:57officer
29:57and the
29:58argument was
29:59if you're
30:00going to do
30:00that sort
30:01of thing
30:01do it in
30:02the camp
30:02because we're
30:02now a man
30:03down.
30:07A German
30:08believed or
30:09not, a
30:09German
30:10prisoner, a
30:11dissident who
30:12had ended up
30:13in silt.
30:15The SS
30:15discovered that
30:17he'd gone
30:17missing.
30:21He'd gone and
30:22hidden in the
30:22church.
30:24They did catch
30:25him.
30:26He begged
30:27for his
30:27life but
30:27they shot
30:28him in
30:30broad daylight
30:30for everyone
30:31to see.
30:35Seeing those
30:36sort of things
30:36probably stayed
30:37with him right
30:38to the very
30:38end.
30:39He had
30:40already been
30:40through a
30:41war, had
30:42already been
30:42taken prisoner,
30:43already been in
30:44concentration camps
30:45in Spain,
30:46suffered typhoid
30:47and now he's
30:48in Alderney and
30:49for the first
30:49time his heart
30:50sunk into his
30:51boots so it
30:52must have been
30:52pretty horrific.
30:55You couldn't
30:57keep things
30:57quiet.
30:59We knew
30:59pretty well
31:00what was going
31:00on.
31:02People dying
31:03of starvation
31:04and being
31:04beaten to
31:05death.
31:07There were a
31:08couple of
31:08incidents where
31:09somebody had
31:10been caught
31:11stealing food
31:12and I think
31:13everybody heard
31:14the screams.
31:17My father
31:18woke up hungry,
31:19went to bed
31:20hungry.
31:22They were
31:23emaciated,
31:23they were cold,
31:24they were
31:24frightened.
31:25They were
31:28literally
31:28working them
31:29to death.
31:39When he
31:40comes to the
31:40end of his
31:40investigation,
31:41Panshev comes
31:42up with a
31:42figure of
31:44just under
31:45400 deaths.
31:48Some say
31:49that Panshev
31:49doesn't actually
31:50capture the
31:51full horror.
31:53Mass burial
31:54sites, people
31:55being thrown
31:56into the
31:56sea, deaths
31:58that were
31:59ultimately
31:59unrecorded.
32:01My father
32:02was well
32:02aware that
32:03there were
32:03more people
32:04killed here
32:05than that
32:06official figure
32:06would give
32:07and he says
32:08so in his
32:08report.
32:09dead.
32:10John
32:11down there, the
32:12Spanish
32:13force laborer
32:14here, saw
32:14corpses in
32:15the water
32:15in the
32:16harbor.
32:18What he
32:19did not
32:19see were
32:20German boats
32:21going out to
32:22bring them
32:22back to
32:22count them.
32:24Ain't gonna
32:24happen.
32:24I was
32:28used as a
32:29diver.
32:30Among the
32:31rocks and
32:32seaweed, there
32:33were skeletons
32:34all over the
32:35place.
32:36Crabs and
32:37lobsters were
32:38having a feast
32:39on their bodies.
32:41I was not able
32:42to sleep properly
32:43for a long
32:43time.
32:44Pansheff
32:48realized terrible
32:49atrocities had
32:50happened.
32:50He strongly
32:51suspected that
32:52more people
32:52had died.
32:54He even
32:55exhumed some
32:56of the graves
32:56to find out
32:58if they were
32:58mass graves.
33:02Five graves
33:03had two bodies
33:03in.
33:05Some were
33:05unmarked.
33:08Some had
33:08two names
33:09on back and
33:10fronts of
33:10crosses.
33:12And not
33:13all the
33:13deaths
33:14from the
33:14SS camp
33:15were recorded
33:17as burials
33:17here.
33:19We know
33:20that hundreds
33:21of people
33:22died on
33:22Alderney
33:23who didn't
33:23have marked
33:24burials.
33:25It's highly
33:26likely that
33:27additional
33:27human remains
33:28exist in
33:29these areas.
33:44one area
33:46that really
33:47piqued our
33:47interest was
33:48to the north
33:49of the
33:49official cemetery.
33:51This has
33:53clearly been
33:53disturbed
33:54and this
33:57area gets
33:57bigger over
33:58time as we
33:59know more and
34:00more deaths
34:00are happening.
34:01thing.
34:03It was never
34:04investigated after
34:05the war.
34:08We did
34:09some ground
34:09furnishing radar
34:10survey over
34:11this area.
34:13What it does
34:13is it shows you
34:15an area of
34:15disturbance here
34:16that extends to
34:18a depth of
34:18about 1.5 metres.
34:20It's consistent
34:21with a pit.
34:23It's consistent
34:23with considerable
34:24ground disturbance.
34:25I'm an archaeologist.
34:31I'm interested
34:32in the ancient
34:32history of the
34:33island.
34:34My team has
34:35been over to
34:36Alderney more
34:37or less every
34:38summer since
34:392007.
34:42We dug
34:43probably two
34:45dozen trenches.
34:47We found
34:48plenty of pieces
34:49of barbed wire,
34:50bullet cases,
34:52anti-aircraft
34:52shell cases.
34:53We found a bit
34:54of a landmine.
34:55The only human
34:58remains we found
34:59have been Iron
34:59Age.
35:01Also, we found
35:02a Victorian baby
35:04burial as well.
35:05We found nothing
35:06later than that,
35:08not even things
35:09like buttons
35:10or shreds of
35:11uniform or
35:12anything like that
35:13which could relate
35:13to, say,
35:14slave workers.
35:16If the Germans
35:17were planting
35:18graves all over
35:19the island,
35:20we might have
35:22come across one
35:22accidentally by now.
35:25Those excavations
35:27happened in areas
35:28away from the
35:28cemeteries.
35:30I can't speak for
35:31other people's
35:31projects, but I
35:33think if people
35:33started to search
35:34where we know the
35:36cemetery was and
35:36where we suspect
35:37there may well be
35:38further burials,
35:39you're much more
35:40likely to obviously
35:41come across remains
35:42there.
35:45There's this new
35:46research that
35:48suggests what
35:49could be fresh
35:51mass graves.
35:55There's an RAF
35:56reconnaissance flight
35:57that takes place on
35:57the 12th of June,
35:581944, so six days
36:01after D-Day, and
36:02that shows very near
36:04the Fort Albert
36:05military installation
36:06what looks like
36:09some mass graves
36:10which could hold
36:11around 100 to
36:12300 people.
36:19Around D-Day,
36:20there was an
36:21interest along the
36:21whole coast as to
36:22what was happening.
36:24The quickest and
36:25best way to gain
36:26information was
36:28aerial reconnaissance.
36:30I am a
36:30professional
36:31archaeologist and
36:32historic aerial
36:33photographic
36:34interpreter.
36:35The detail you
36:37can extract from
36:38them can be
36:40extremely fine.
36:43We're now looking
36:44at some known
36:45grave sites.
36:47You can see the
36:48linear areas in
36:50between the dark
36:52rectangular areas
36:53in the middle of
36:54each feature.
36:57Here is the other
36:57side of the island,
36:59the typically shaped
37:00bastions of Fort
37:01Albert with the
37:02shadow cast by the
37:03higher parts here,
37:04the gun emplacements,
37:05the buildings inside.
37:07This area here is
37:09the area that we've
37:09been investigating.
37:17Within it,
37:18I can see linear
37:20sections which define
37:22interior dark-toned
37:24sections which are
37:25regular, rectangular,
37:27and laid out.
37:28very similar to the
37:30known grave sites on
37:31the other side of
37:32the island.
37:34The direction of the
37:35sun suggests that
37:37some of them could
37:37actually be shadows
37:38of, let's say,
37:39terracing.
37:40They also look a
37:42little bit small
37:43compared to the
37:44size of the graves
37:46out at Longy.
37:47It doesn't seem to me
37:50a position where you
37:52would want to put a
37:55cemetery, but this
37:57is where I would
37:58advocate doing the
38:00necessary investigation.
38:02That's one of several
38:03spots where digging
38:04might take place, and
38:07then it might satisfy
38:08those people who are
38:10making those claims.
38:12Antonio has been
38:16tasked with calculating
38:17the number of
38:18Spanish Republicans
38:19who came to
38:20Alderney.
38:22We were also joined
38:23by Colin Partridge.
38:25We've identified an
38:47upper limit of just
38:48over 1,100.
38:50We're talking about
38:52hundreds of bodies
38:53disposed of somewhere
38:54on Alderney.
38:57We have records that
38:59name people who
39:00definitely died.
39:01We have witnesses who
39:02saw the bodies of
39:04people that they knew,
39:06and we know in many
39:07cases those bodies were
39:08not buried in the
39:09official cemeteries.
39:11It wasn't within our
39:13remit to do
39:14archaeological
39:14investigations because
39:16some of the victims
39:17were Jewish, and
39:19Jewish burial law is
39:20very specific about not
39:22disturbing human
39:24remains.
39:26Clearly, there is a
39:27rationale for
39:29undertaking that
39:30kind of work.
39:32Of course, without
39:33excavation, we can
39:34never know exactly how
39:36many bodies might be
39:37there.
39:38these atrocities happened
39:42here on British soil.
39:44I had an emotional
39:46tie to Alderney,
39:46but also my father.
39:48But I would not like the
39:50thought that there are
39:51still remains of people
39:53here in Alderney, and
39:56they have not been found.
39:57We've now got a figure of
40:06the number of people who
40:07died on Alderney, were
40:09murdered on Alderney.
40:13We know as historians, you
40:15can never get the absolute
40:17truth.
40:19You can never close the
40:22curtain on a piece of
40:23history as horrific as what
40:24happened on Alderney.
40:28But I think it's really good
40:29for our own sense as a
40:31nation that we have a much
40:32better understanding of what
40:34took place on what is
40:35British soil.
40:36I remember being here with my
40:50father when I must have been
40:5212, 13 years old.
40:56The boat would come in and
40:57there would be French flags
40:58waving.
41:00These were survivors of Alderney.
41:04I remember them all embracing
41:06each other at the harbour, and
41:07there was a side of my father
41:09I'd never really seen.
41:14I'm now going to pay homage
41:16to those who lost their lives
41:18here in Alderney.
41:21This was something which
41:22stayed with my father right to
41:24the very end.
41:26All of them would have wanted
41:27their fellow prisoners to be
41:30recognised.
41:32Those who died.
41:33And they should have never been
41:36found.
41:48Pancha knew there were Germans
41:49who should be prosecuted.
41:51We have the witnesses, we have
41:52the people.
41:53Is there some sort of weird
41:55sinister motive that's making
41:56the British avoid trials about
41:58crimes committed on British soil?
42:03My father said to them,
42:05you must know what happened.
42:07I want to tell you.
42:09Somehow they just brushed him
42:11aside.
42:14Here you've got strong and
42:16compelling evidence that two
42:18Englishmen had been murdered.
42:21It does represent the only known
42:24incident of British dying at the
42:27hands of Nazis on British soil.
42:29Were it true that two
42:30Englishmen had been murdered on
42:32Alderney, that would really
42:33change the story of the war.
42:35Alexandria feels good.
42:37What happened quite a bit?
42:39What happened was then the
42:40other time of the activity
42:41video, what happened was two
42:43oneHow to show.
42:45We will receive a bill of
42:45grenadines.
42:46Will we fit in and
42:48for our world?
42:50In shall we wait
42:51to do that.
42:53This is a certificate of
42:54religion.
42:54We hope that celular
42:56is the only thing
42:56that we are attorneys
42:57through the insists
42:58of the cuts
42:59of error from
43:00before we
43:02Altars
43:03were
43:03believed
43:04that there was
43:05ç”» controlescending
Recommended
44:13
|
Up next
59:08
1:02:21
59:14
45:55
43:42
44:30
56:45
53:17
46:59
59:49
45:25
49:26
49:33
45:12