The Channel Islands At War

by Peter King

  Nazi racial ideology naturally extended to contempt for black people as their propaganda directed at black American troops was to show. When the Germans captured French black troops in the summer of 1940 this hatred was given free reign. In the latter half of 1942, over 5,000 of these Algerians and 2,000 Moroccans were among Africans still in German hands in France, and some of them found their way to the Channel Islands. Nearly all left in January and March 1944, and on liberation only five Africans, two Algerians and three Moroccans were left on Alderney, but at liberation there were still 88 North Africans on Guernsey.

  The main group of Africans arrived in Jersey in August 1943. One hundred and fifteen were housed in a camp at Pier Road together with 24 transferred later from Citadella Camp. Their camp commander, Sergeant Mohammed ben Mohammed from Marrakesh, proved an excellent leader of men, and maintained morale and probably the best standards of cleanliness and efficiency of any camp on the Island. There were North African Todt workers on Jersey earlier than this as among the first deaths of Todt workers which occurred in February 1942 were four Algerians who ate hemlock by mistake. At liberation there were stated to be three Algerians and one Arab on the Island besides the POWs at Pier Road.

  The Africans worked on the railway bridge over the English Harbour, the building of tunnels, and the petrol dump at Avranches Manor, and as POWs they were entitled to pay at the rate of 50 pfennings a day. The Germans sometimes seized this money, but ben Mohammed insisted his men form a common fund with some of it to purchase supplies.

  Because they were POWs of an ally, and readily identifiable by colour, the Africans attracted considerable help from Islanders, and when they left ben Mohammed wrote an open letter in the Jersey Evening Post to thank the Islanders. Much of this help was channelled through Leon Dubras who negotiated the purchase of cosmetics, toothpaste and soap at Granville. As liaison officer with the Africans, he was able to channel complaints to the Red Cross as conditions in the camp worsened during 1944.

  Margaret Ginns has studied the Africans in some detail and besides Dubras and Gouedart mentions a considerable number of other helpers including stall holders who gave them free produce, farmers in St Clements, shopkeepers who did things like repair their clothes, people in the General Hospital, and even the Jersey Bowling Club who sent them playing cards and skittles.

  There were 3oo French Jews mainly confined in Norderney Camp, their presence on Alderney recalled by a carved Star of David, and the named graves of eight of them later given a permanent memorial. Monsieur Albert Eblagon was one of these Jews who survived who described to Solomon Steekoll his introduction to Alderney at three o'clock in the morning when, 'in darkness we were forced to run two kilometres to Camp Norderney, while the German guards stabbed into our backs with bayonets while also kicking us all the time.' How many Jews died is a matter of dispute, but there can be no doubt that many did in transit from the Island when their usefulness as workers had been exhausted.

  Tragically it was the British who would be responsible for the deaths of some at least of these departing Todt workers. On 3 July 1944, the Minotaure set out from St Helier with several hundred Todt prisoners on board. On 4 July the Minotaure was attacked by British light craft. The bows of the Minotaure were nearly blown off, and the ship drifted towards St Malo. It is estimated that half, perhaps 200 or more drowned, including French Jews.

  Military Intelligence documents name three Dutch firms contracted to Todt employing Dutch harbour workers and at liberation there were still 38 on Guernsey, and 36 on Jersey. Attempts by Solomon Steekoll to obtain a list of Dutch Todt workers who died in the Channel Islands failed although he was able to establish that among prisoners killed in the break out at Toul in 1944 from the death train were two Dutchmen, C. Van den Oever, and G. Wulder. Among those seeking to escape from the Islands there were Dutch names, including Kosta who failed, and Quist who succeeded in the autumn of 1944.

  In France the Germans found Republican Spaniards in refugee camps who had fled Franco's regime. Some arrived in December 1941, and early in 1942 over three hundred were brought to the Channel Islands. Many of them were withdrawn in August 1943 to be replaced with Italians, but at liberation there were still 35 on Guernsey, and 56 on Jersey. They were quartered first by the airport in the open air with only pieces of corrugated iron for cover and then constructed their own camp on Grouville Marsh. One of the Spaniards was Francisco Font who was sent to Alderney and found himself in Norderney in October 1943. He worked at Brave Harbour as a bricklayer 12 hours a day watching with horror the treatment of French Jews and Russians in the camp. He was moved to Jersey in June 1944, but after the loss of the Minotaure, transports had stopped, and he remained there to the end of the war. Later he married Kathleen Fox and returned to live on Jersey.

  The Russian prisoners including Poles, Ukrainians, Baltic peoples, and other Slavs were treated worst of all. A thousand arrived in Alderney in July 1942 and were followed by another 1,800 a month later. They made up the majority of prisoners on the main Islands, and there were still about 300 there at liberation. So badly were Russians treated, that Islanders made numerous efforts to help them, and on Alderney the German Commandant even had to issue an order forbidding Wehrmacht troops from giving food to Russian prisoners. Similar warnings were given to the Islanders in November 1942 and April 1943, and they were warned of a penalty of six weeks in prison, or a fine of £3,000. The Germans issued warnings about helping escaped Russian prisoners, and the fate of Mrs Louisa Gould dying in Ravensbruck was a reminder of what might happen for committing this offence. In August 1944 the Germans had to admit there were still 13 Russians hiding on Jersey, and the efforts of those like Robert and Connie Vaynor to conceal them have already been described. Their rations were supposed to consist of half a litre (1 pint) of coffee substitute for breakfast, half a litre of cabbage soup for lunch, another half litre in the evening, and a kilo (two pounds) of bread varied very occasionally with a little butter, sausage, or vegetables. Even this diet by no means always reached the prisoners. In Alderney, there were cases of diverted supplies. Two quartermasters in the Wehrmacht were charged in June 1944, and one committed suicide while two Todt officials were also tried for the same offence. Prisoners would go to any lengths for food. When two Russians were shot, the police reported that they had been living in a cave on straw beds with mussels to eat. Death rates were considerable. On Jersey, for instance, between August 1942 and March 1943, 59 Russians died and their women and children no doubt suffered even more, although little is known about them. Ronald Mauger saw a prisoner killed at the underground tunnels for asking for another bowl of soup, and Edward Blampied caught sight of a slave hanging by his heels. On Alderney of course there were hardly any witnesses, but there is evidence about brutality from four sources: statements given to Major Pantcheff in 1945, survivors' accounts, reports given to MI9 by escapers, and List's trial record.

  Pantcheff cites the death of a Pole, Antony Onuchowsky which was described by a friend from the same village. He had swollen feet. 'One day, after work when our squad was marching back to camp, he could not keep up, and fell behind. I saw the Truppfuhrer remain with him and get to work with his truncheon. Later we lost sight of him ... The next morning after reveille when I went to the latrine Onuchowsky lay there on the other side of the barbed wire at the side of the camp.' He died on 28 September 1942. William Wernegau and Robert Prokop, who were inmates had given accounts of what they saw. Lieutenants Klebeck and Braun were active. So too were Corporal Rebs, a French army deserter, Corporal Wesc, a Czech, said to have shot a German political prisoner, Rudi Busch, and Private Rometsch, a Croat, said to have killed Josef Lammel. One of the German prisoners, a member of the Gestapo sentenced for some offence, called Franz Eschke, was said to have been hanged in the kitchen. Wernegau referred to shooting and strangulation as the main methods of killing. According to an escaper's evidence, a German political prisoner was shot dead in Oliver Street, and another was killed by an Alsatian
dog.

  During his trial for negligence, List said he had considered the transfer of sick prisoners from Sylt unnecessary because he 'could deal with the matter on the spot'. This chilling reference raises the issue of how far Sylt was a small scale death camp; it was certainly the annex to other death camps like Neuengamme. Total extinction was a possibility before evacuation was decided upon instead. Some inmates have argued a death tunnel was made at Norderney for the purpose of killing prisoners, and statements were made about this in 1945 by Jean Joseph Bloch and Henri Uzan. Both of them claimed that Heinrich Evers held a rehearsal and, 'forced us into the tunnel which had an entrance, an exit and air vents. These were all sealed. At the entrance there was a concrete structure with a machine gun. Evers told us that we were being put into the tunnel for our own safety because the Allies had mounted a seaborne invasion of Alderney.' They were kept in this tunnel for a quarter of an hour and many became ill from asphyxia and vertigo.

  The answer to the questions: how many Todt workers died, and how many Sylt prisoners died, are difficult to provide. Robin Cox made a study of 29 Island graveyards, and reached a total of 509 for all camp burials on the Islands. Of these 433 have been identified by name, and 76 are uncertain. 387 of them were on Alderney clearly showing a higher death rate there. Unfortunately, this total is not the whole story. There is evidence from survivors about individuals whose graves cannot be traced. Two Russian survivors testified to a number of names: Gorbatch, Pashko, Bojko, as being untraceable. Nor is there any trace of those like Rudi Busch and Josef Lammel shot at Sylt. There is also evidence that Alderney victims were buried elsewhere - the solitary Chinese killed by Evers ended up in Le Foulon, and Italians were buried at St Brelades in Jersey until Italy changed sides in the war.

  Todt certificates were signed by sick bay staff who might be orderlies without medical knowledge, and copies of these were sent to the bauleiter, Cherbourg headquarters, and the Kommandantur. Burial was arranged by the firm of Kniffler. Mayne noticed the arrival on Jersey of coffins for this purpose, but on Alderney, besides ordinary coffins, there was found in May 1945 a coffin with a bottom trap which could be reused. Although this was found at Longy, it was the same as a ship's coffin for quick disposal at sea. The whole purpose of such burials was to conceal the evidence. Both Font and Prokop insisted bodies were thrown into the sea at Fort Clonque, a high point half a mile from Sylt. Misciewicz claimed prisoners who had died were thrown into the harbour, and speaks of a box being used over and over again. Eblagon and Prokop also said that this happened, and Font heard it happened from another Spanish prisoner. Occasionally bodies were washed up from the sea, as one was in October 1942, claimed to be that of a Russian escaper from Elizabeth Castle, but later changed to a Frenchman.

  Sylt SS death certificates were no more than routine documents, made up in advance. They were supposed to be signed by the camp medical officer, but as there was none at Sylt this task was performed by a military doctor. On one occasion when the Luftwaffe doctor Kohler was called in to sign, he refused to do so because there had been no post-mortem. These certificates concealed the fact that most deaths in Sylt were due to overwork and starvation. They also concealed which prisoners had been beaten to death, strangled or shot, and for all their apparent detail were often wrong.

  When the British stepped ashore in Alderney, a week after liberation, the few Islanders there claimed there had been atrocities, and George Pope referred to a thousand deaths. This figure actually entered official documents at one point as a telegram from the British Embassy in Moscow to the Foreign Office (22 May 1945) refers to British authorities who 'are investigating suggestions of Germans killing one thousand Russians and Jews on Alderney during occupation'. In fact Pope was unable to prove his case. The landing forces had already come across Longy cemetery, with its marked graves, and two other graves containing 83 and 48 bodies respectively, over one of which they erected the first memorial. An investigation was carried out by Major Sidney Cotton, Captain G.C. Kent, and Major F.F. Haddock. They visited the camps, and Kent did a careful study of the graves on 7 June 1945. Their report has vanished.

  The number of graves, and the certificates, provide some check on wild assertions, but they are incomplete, perhaps not accidentally. In the case of Sylt, there is every reason to suppose that up to a third of the thousand or so prisoners died on the Island or in transit away from it. List and Klebeck speaking in 1943 saw it .is a camp whose inmates should be worked to death. Within a few months of their arrival, 200 were unfit to work, and in June 1943, arrangements were made to transport them to Neuengamme. By the

  time they left (a month later), 50 had died. Other transports left the Island

  from time to time, and the master of the Gerfriede which used to move

  Alderney prisoners was instructed to make conditions unpleasant by Braun, the commandant. 280 prisoners were confined in a hold measuring 969 square feet. Some died on the voyage across. If horror stories of deliberately walling up prisoners are unproven, there was no doubt deaths due to hazardous work in building the fortifications. Workers were killed by RAF raids, and although no precise figures are given in the raid of January 1942, Ronald Mauger saw ambulances at work throughout the night, and believed there was 'heavy loss of life'.

  Deaths from these various causes add 300 to the figure of just over 500 graves. It is difficult to be more precise, but the 'official' figure is too low.

  For the Todt workers a grisly footnote was added in 1959. The British and German governments agreed in August that when the German dead, with the exception of those in Fort George, were removed to a mausoleum built at Mont-de-Huisnes, Todt workers, too, would go and be counted as German war dead. The French association of former camp inmates objected, but was ignored. The eight identifiable Jewish graves were excluded, three removed for private burial, and five being reburied at St Ouen north of Paris. The mausoleum at Mont-de-Huisnes was dedicated in September 1963 and next to those whose government brought them to the Channel Isles, lie those who perished there as a result of German policy.

  16

  The Deportation of the Islanders

  On 7 February 1943 an order from the Germans arrived in Sark for the deportation of between 30 and 40 people. This was the second deportation from the small Island, but the first had involved no more than 11 people. Served with an order telling them to report at the Gaumont Cinema in St Peter Port with 'warm clothes, solid boots, some provisions, meal-dishes, drinking bowl, and if possible a blanket', people had only a few days to prepare for a journey into the heart of Nazi Europe. The first Sark contingent contained Sibyl Hathaway's American-born husband, relatives of Island officials like the Carres, the vicar, Gilbert Phillips (removed, said Hathaway, because a pro-German person on the Island heard him criticizing Hitler too freely), Mrs Pittard (who had just returned from prison in Guernsey), Miss Duckett and Miss Page (who had managed the Dixcart Hotel where with Mrs Pittard's information the commandos had ended up), a number of elderly and single people who lived in the centre of the Island where the new strongpoint was sited, and the schoolmistress Miss Howard.

  Five days later the first party left Sark. The vicar held prayers in the hall, and they set out with blankets and haversacks, 'all trying to bear up, bursting with grief inside'. It was blowing a blizzard on the day they arrived at Creux harbour where 'Before we said goodbye to our friends they agreed that as they left the little harbour they would burst into song, and Norah said the tunnel echoed with "Pack Up Your Troubles" and "There'll always be an England".' (Julia Tremayne) Two weeks later, the remainder of the Sark contingent left.

  Between 26 September 1942 and 25 February 1943 about 2,200 Channel Islanders were deported to half-a-dozen camps in France, Germany and Austria. This was four per cent of the population, and came to form half the interned British population in Germany. As a result of negotiations, 337 of them were repatriated because of age or illness before the end of the war. By the time the camps were freed in April
1945, 46 Islanders had died far from home, many of them elderly people for whom such disruption clearly proved the most serious additional burden. Some Islanders broke down mentally, and had to be left behind. Deportation began as a result of Hitler's personal anger over an unrelated matter; became an issue involving the Führer's authority when by accident it was not carried out when ordered; and was finally used partly as a police measure to punish Islanders for the commando raid and successful escapes. Cruickshank performed the service of revealing for the first time the origins of the Führer befel of 9 September 1942 which began deportation, and showed that deportation had been considered a year before, and that as usual the Island authorities had co-operated from the start in providing the necessary lists of people and making no protests.

  In August 1941 Britain and Russia jointly occupied Persia (Iran) and deposed the pro-German Shah. There had been fears of a Nazi putsch, and some 500 Germans in the country were interned. Hitler's wish was that for every German interned ten 'British born' Channel Islanders - an ill-defined term throughout - should be interned in retaliation, and as there were approximately 6,000 'British' residents on the Islands, this seemed a neat solution. On 16 September 1941, Coutanche was told to provide the first of a number of lists of various groups of British residents and the lists were completed by 3 November. Carey on Guernsey had his lists ready seven days later. On 12 September, Hitler discussed the coming deportations saying he wanted the Islanders taken to the Pripet Marshes in Poland, and their property given to 'native-born' Islanders.