Channel Islands' links with Nazis

First Edition

SECRET documents released yesterday disclosed links between the civilian administration in Guernsey and the smaller island of Alderney where the Germans ran slave labour and concentration camps, writes Stephen Ward.

British forces evacuated the Channel Islands after the fall of France in June 1940, and advised the Jersey and Guernsey administrations to stay to work under the Germans. Alderney was evacuated.

But a newly released British military intelligence report for

19 April 1944 says 22 Channel Islanders worked on Alderney, including two paid by the States of Guernsey as part of the administration of the island. The document is among 27 thick bundles on the Channel Islands' occupation released by the Government yesterday. It had been classified until 2045.

The Sylt concentration camp was established on Alderney from March 1943 to July 1944, with up to 1,000 prisoners. The islands were not mentioned at the Nuremburg war trials and there were no allied prosecutions for atrocities on Alderney.

However, Obersturmfuhrer Kurt Klebeck, second in command of the camp, was tried for war crimes elsewhere and served seven years. He now lives in Hamburg.

John's story, page 3