Page 16 - TORCH Magazine - Issue #19

Homecoming
The reinforced bastion of Alderney
was the last of the Channel Islands to
be liberated, nine days after VE Day. The people of Alderney could not immediately return to the island due to the removal
of over 30,000 landmines. But when the first islanders began to return, it was a very different island to the one they had left.
Today a simple plaque, only installed in 2008 at the request of former prisoners, can be found on a remaining gatepost among overgrowth at the entrance of the Lager Sylt camp.
In 2017, the Alderney government formally designated Lager Sylt a conservation area, barring development that would threaten the site. Colonel Kemp believes Alderney’s unique history would qualify it as a world heritage site to protect it at all costs, and should feature a Holocaust memorial.
But how the legacy of the concentration camps on Alderney under Nazi occupation should be remembered is still a matter of debate on the island.
In July 2021, a delegation from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) visited the island, meeting with Alderney’s government and members of the community to discuss ways to safeguard the sites, including proper signage, an exhibition, educational materials for schools, as well as proper boundary marking of the Longis Common burial ground.
“There is still a small group of people who want to put the past behind them and continue without looking into it too much,” Graham McKinley, an Alderney legislator told National Geographic. “I believe we should be doing a lot more to show the world what actually happened here.”
On our doorstep
Like its rugged cliffs sustaining a cycle of crashing waves, this peaceful island
will continue to stubbornly hold tight to its hidden past without ever giving us a complete picture of what took place there. What more can this little island tell us that will bring some respectful closure to the people who suffered there?
These findings remind us just how close the Nazis came to the shores of mainland Britain. Not only did the Nazis occupy
the Channel Islands, they had turned innocent Alderney into a fortress of evil in preparation for invasion.
It compels us to be thankful for the sacrifice that was made by British troops and our allies to prevent the stronghold of Alderney from extending further into our isles with devasting consequences. But it is with a sense of regret that we wonder how it took so long to properly acknowledge the magnitude of atrocities that took place on our very doorstep, and why to this day the truth remains largely buried.
We must continue to pursue answers for the sake of the memory of the victims, for the relatives of loved ones who perished
there, for truth about what took place against Jews and others in the Holocaust, and on behalf of the islanders who were displaced.
And to fully appreciate the cost of those who gave their lives, we must understand the extent
of wickedness that was ultimately defeated. Meanwhile, we look to a day when the things that are hidden will be exposed.
People returning to Alderney after it had been liberated.
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