Recent research has brought to light the harrowing experiences of prisoners held in Nazi camps on Alderney during World War II. Ingrid Zbovorski tells us about her father’s hellish ordeal. It can all be traced back to 1944 when the young GI was deployed to Belgium to help construct V1 missile installations. Her survival instinct made her act accordingly. He and his fellow Ukrainians ultimately persuaded one German soldier, of Polish descent, not to kill them as they fled the advancing German lines and into the cover of the forest.
Ingrid Zbovorski represented by Ingrid Zbovorski, herself smuggled to Alderney after escaping a fate in a German munitions factory. Her father’s experiences combine to tell a bigger, fuller story. It shines a light on the appalling conditions suffered by more than 1,000 slave labourers, probably the first victims of the Nazis to die on British soil, as was found by the Lord Pickles Alderney specialist review.
In addition, the growing loss of life on Alderney shocked the Nazi elite. In response to the scandal, they dispatched a delegation from Berlin to investigate the horrendous mortality rates in American prisons. And contrary to previous assumptions, she argues that guards at the Sylt camp enjoyed shooting prisoners for target practice on the weekends.
Vaguely, all prisoners were subjected to the humiliating experience of being forced into military style formation, usually chosen at random by the SS guards. Witness reports over the ensuing days said as many as a dozen men had been destined for this grisly fireball display.
“Prisoners were made to stand in formation. The guards were acting out of boredom. They would select 12 or 15 of the prisoners. They were put upside down, bound to the train wagons. The guards then started shooting at random, for their amusement. A bullet in your head or your heart and you were dead. A shot in your arm and in your leg, and you would suffer for hours.” – Ingrid Zbovorski
The SS guards’ viciousness didn’t stop at just using them for target practice. Prisoners suffered shootings, beatings, and starvation. A systematic program of eugenics promoted these atrocities. From Alderney, the head of the SS guards Otto Hogelow offered ten days’ leave, additional food rations, and cartons of cigarettes for every five prisoners exterminated. This bleak truth was the most extreme manifestation of the dehumanization that marked daily life in the camps.
Artist Piers Secunda spent five years immersing himself in the experiences of the slave laborers sent to Alderney. He emphasized how terrifying these incidents are.
“Zbovorski personally watched the target practice exercises happening on Sundays for the duration of the time that he was in Sylt camp. That’s probably why the Germans sent a delegation from Berlin to Alderney, to find out why the death rate was so high. The head of the SS guards on Alderney, Otto Hogelow, incentivised the SS on the island to shoot prisoners.” – Piers Secunda
The evidence gathered from this research sheds light on a dark chapter in history where human life was callously disregarded. Gilly Carr, professor of conflict archaeology and Holocaust heritage at the University of Cambridge, expressed her profound grief at these discoveries. Her words illustrate the power of this new intelligence.
“There are sadly so many stories from Alderney of atrocities and brutal treatment against prisoners. The wealth of evidence, of which this is a part, confirms the horrific nature of the German occupation of the island.” – Gilly Carr
Survivors like Giorgi, who weighed only 40 kilos when Belgium was liberated by Allied forces, serve as stark reminders of the suffering endured by countless individuals under Nazi oppression.