Alderney camps

The Alderney camps were prison camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during its World War II occupation of the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands was the only part of the British Isles to be occupied.

The Nazis built four camps on Alderney. The Nazi Organisation Todt (OT) operated each subcamp and used forced labour to build fortifications in Alderney including bunkers, gun emplacements, air-raid shelters, tunnels and concrete fortifications. The camps commenced operating in January 1942. They were named after the Frisian Islands.

The four camps on the Island had a total inmate population that fluctuated but is estimated at about 6,000. Exact details are impossible to determine as many records were destroyed.

The two work camps were:

The Borkum and Helgoland camps were "volunteer" (Hilfswillige) labour camps and the labourers in those camps were treated harshly but better than the inmates at the Sylt and Norderney camps.

Borkum camp was used for German technicians and "volunteers" from different countries of Europe. Helgoland camp was used for Russian Organisation Todt workers.

The other two camps became concentration camps when they were handed over to be run by the SS from 1 March 1943, they became subcamps of the Neuengamme camp outside Hamburg:

The prisoners in Lager Sylt and Lager Norderney were slave labourers forced to build the many military fortifications and installations throughout Alderney. Sylt camp held Jewish enforced labourers.

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