Lager Borkum

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Coordinates: 49°42′54″N 2°11′10″W﻿ / ﻿49.715°N 2.18611°W﻿ / 49.715; -2.18611

Map of Alderney and its camp-sites
Alderney's parliament want no official monument to the occupation, so only old bunkers such as this one remain

Lager Borkum was a Nazi concentration camp on Alderney, in the Channel Islands, named after the East Frisian Island of Borkum.

The Germans built four concentration camps on the island, subcamps of the Neuengamme concentration camp (in Hamburg, Germany). Each subcamp was named after one of the Frisian Islands: Lager Norderney at Saye, Lager Borkum at Platte Saline, Lager Sylt near the old telegraph tower at La Foulère and Lager Helgoland, in the northwest corner of the island. Over 700 people died in the Alderney concentration camps (out of a total inmate population of about 6,000). These were the only Nazi concentration camps on British soil.

It was organised by the Schutzstaffel - SS-Baubrigade I–which was first under supervision of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp; and after mid-February 1943 ran under the Neuengamme camp in northern Germany.[1] It was used by the Nazi Organisation Todt, a forced labour programme, to build bunkers, gun emplacements, air-raid shelters, and concrete fortifications.

Lager Borkum was near the centre of Alderney and was the smallest of the four camps. The Borkum and Helgoland camps were "volunteer" (Hilfswillige) labour camps[2] and the labourers in those camps were treated harshly but marginally better than the inmates at the Sylt and Norderney camps. 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 and was a death camp.[3] Norderney camp housed European (usually Eastern but including Spaniard) and Russian enforced labourers. Lager Borkum was used for German technicians and volunteers from different countries of Europe. Lager Helgoland was filled with Russian Organisation Todt workers. (For further information on Alderney concentration camps, see Appendix F: Concentration Camps: Endlösung – The Final Solution;[4] Alderney, a Nazi concentration camp on an island Anglo-Norman;[5] for further information on Nazi treatment of Jews and other people, see The Holocaust,

War crime trials[change | change source]

After World War II, a court-martial case was prepared against ex-SS Hauptsturmführer Max List (the former commandant of Lagers Norderney and Sylt), citing atrocities on Alderney.[6] However, he did not stand trial, and is believed to have lived near Hamburg until his death in the 1980s.[7]

Related pages[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. Staff (1967-02-23), Verzeichnis der Konzentrationslager und ihrer Außenkommandos gemäß § 42 Abs. 2 BEG, Bundesministerium der Justiz,, retrieved 2008-09-26, "6a Alderney, Einsatzort der I. SS-Baubrigade Sachsenhausen, ab Mitte Februar 1943 Neuengamme" (German)
  4. Christine O'Keefe, Appendix F: Concentration Camps: Endlösung – The Final Solution,, retrieved 2009-06-06
  5. Matisson Consultants, Aurigny ; un camp de concentration nazi sur une île anglo-normande (English: Alderney, a Nazi concentration camp on an island Anglo-Norman),, retrieved 2009-06-06 (French)

Other websites[change | change source]