Boards To Mark Nazi Sites In Alderney

The States is applying for planning permission but separately has decided not to reinstate Dr Gilly Carr as its International Holocaust Representative.

The States of Alderney wants to put up interpretation boards to mark the sites of the four main slave and forced labour camps.

In addition, there will be boards at the site of the former 'Russian' cemetery at Longis Common and the hospital bunker off Longis hill, near a camp called Lager Borkum.

Sylt Camp near the airport, which was run by the SS between early 1943 and 1944, already has a granite marker on it.

The interpretation boards will ensure Alderney complies with the wishes of the IHRA to mark sites where slave labourers died either through exhaustion, malnutrition, beatings or shootings by Nazis or labour camp interns working for them, known as 'Kapos.'

The States has received a written apology from historian Dr Gilly Carr. It's after she was filmed at a lecture saying people in Alderney were hostile to anything that revisited the war and occupation and that any interpretation board that were put up were likely to be torn down:

“I am writing to offer a full and sincere apology to you, the States Members and the people of Alderney for the offence I have caused through my poor choice of words in the seminar at which I spoke several months ago. I deeply regret the harm I have caused to the reputation of the Island and relationships with those outside Alderney.”

Gilly Carr is among those working for the British government to examine records held across Europe, the US and Israel to try to find the exact number of slave workers who died in Alderney.

The States say Dr Carr will not be reinstated as the Alderney representative for International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance matters. Sally Sealey, the deputy head of the UK delegation to IHRA will be Alderney’s contact instead.