(Memorial to SS Vega, whose cargo alleviated famine in the Channel Islands in 1944/45)
It was reported in British media today that the UK government has finally bowed to long-standing pressure to hold an inquiry into events surrounding the four World War II Nazi concentration camps on Alderney, one of five small British islands that collectively make up the Channel Islands ("'No more cover-up': Nazi concentration camp on UK soil finally to be officially investigated", The Guardian, 22 July 2023).
The inquiry is likely to raise uncomfortable questions for the British government about its policy towards the islands before, during, and after the war.
Surprisingly little is known about the Alderney concentration camps. Officially, the inquiry will therefore seek to establish the basic facts, such as how many people died there. Some believe the number runs into thousands. It is known that the camp held Russian and Ukrainian prisoners as well as Spanish Republicans, captured French resistance fighters, and jews, but precisely how many people were there, who they were, and where exactly they came from remains clouded in mystery. There are also suggestions in some quarters that there are mass graves on Alderney, but where they are located and who is buried in the pits is unknown.
Unofficially, the Alderney inquiry will almost certainly raise challenging questions for the British government, which has resisted the inquiry for nearly eighty years.
One uncomfortable question relates to British policy towards the Channel Islands immediately prior to the German invasion. On 15 June 1940, the British government demilitarised the islands and then only several days later, seemingly as an after-thought, offered to evacuate the islands' inhabitants. At that stage, however, it was too late. Only a hasty and wholly inadequate evacuation was undertaken and very few islanders were able to leave.
Equally concerning, the British government never informed Germany that the islands had been left to their fate. The Germans were therefore unaware of the withdrawal of British forces and proceeded to bomb both Jersey and Guernsey ahead of invading Guernsey on 30 June 1940. Forty-four civilian lives were lost unnecessarily, a huge casualty rate for such small communities. Why were the islanders' interests given such low priority - bordering on abandonment - by the British government?
The Alderney inquiry is also likely to reignite the unpleasant issue of collaboration. As anyone who has lived in the United Kingdom know only too well, the British people relish their squeaky-clean reputation in opposing Hitler. Not a single day passes without some TV or radio programme revisting the heroics of World War II. Without in any way wishing to diminish the British war effort, which was at least as great as that of any other country, what is often conveniently forgotten is that Britain was never occupied. In other words, the British people never confronted the same agonising dilemmas as people in occupied countries. The truth is that in all countries that were occupied by the Nazis, including the Channel Islands, there were genuine Nazi sympathisers as well as many others, who, in order to survive, had no choice but to work with the occupiers. Collaboration was and remains shameful, but inescapable nonetheless. Collaboration by British subjects in the Channel Islands - an established fact, yet taboo - shatters the illusion that the British were somehow morally superior to people of other countries in World War II. Collaboration in the Channel Islands shows that it wasn't British people who were different, rather it was the circumstances.
A third controversial question is why it took the British government so long to liberate the Channnel Islands. D-day was on 6 June 1944. Yet, the Channel Islands were not liberated until almost a year later, on 9 May 1945. The lateness of liberation is quite remarkable, given the proximity of the islands to mainland Britain. Even much larger countries much further afield, such as Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway were liberated ahead of the Channel Islands. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the islands were simply not a priority for London.
If so, the long delay in liberating the islands is especially damning, because the delay ended up having very serious consequences for the islands' populations. Cut off from supplies, the Channel Islanders experienced outright famine:
“ …civilian rations for a week had been reduced to: 2ozs butter or margarine, 7ozs flour, 3ozs sugar, 1ozs salt, 4ozs meat, 5ozs bread. Substitute foods were essential to try and bolster these ever-dwindling rations. Tea was made from carrots or nettle leaves. Coffee from parsnips. Sultanas and currants were made with dried sugar beet and salt from sea water. The average person in England at this time was consuming 3,500 calories per day, whereas people in the Channel Islands could only consume 1,137 calories. This figure dropped to as low as 900 calories…” (Source: https://www.bailiwickexpress.com/jsy/news/75-years-remembering-ss-vega/)
Why did the British government ignore the plight of its own people in the Channel Islands for so long? Why did the British government not even organise food drops?
Fortunately, others stepped in, notably Sweden. Under the banner of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Swedish ship SS Vega, laden with food, docked in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, on 27 December 1944. After unloading provisions, it proceeded to do the same in Jersey three days later. By June 1945, SS Vega had made no fewer than six visits to the Channel Islands. Without this effort, many islanders would have starved to death.
A final uncomfortable question takes us full circle back to Alderney and the Nazi concentration camps: why were no one prosecuted for the gross human rights abuses that took place in the camps? A brief inquiry undertaken by the Judge Advocate General’s office after the end of hostilities established that the human rights abuses at Alderney were “similar to Belsen”, with widespread “harsh punishments, terrible working and living conditions, and torture.” Yet, Carl Hoffman, who was the commandant of Alderney, was kept in British custody only until 1948 at which time he was allowed to return home. He was never prosecuted and lived in peace in Germany until his death in 1974. The British government only admitted the truth of Hoffman's fate in 1983 after having maintained up to that point a straight-up lie that Hoffman had been handed over to the Soviets and executed. Why was Hoffman protected and never prosecuted? Why did the British government lie about his fate?
The broder question raised by Alderney is why governments, including the British government, do not own up to their war-time sins. The reason is likely that the truth soils carefully constructed self-images of decency and self-sacrifice. Even today, so long after the events of World War II, the questions raised by Alderney sit oddly alongside the image Britain seeks to project to itself and the outside world, not least in current Brexit-induced nationalist frenzy.
But the people of the Channel Islands are all too aware of the uncomfortable questions. They know Great Britain fell well short of expectations. On the wall of Albert Pier in St. Helier in Jersey an inscription in the rock reads:
“On 30th December 1944, when this Island was facing starvation, the Swedish ship S.S. Vega berthed here with the first of six cargoes of food and medical supplies despatched from Lisbon by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Never has any ship in this port been so welcome. “
The emphasis is mine. This inscription tells you everything you need to know. SS Vega ought to have been a British ship. Britain failed the Channel Islands. The British people are no different from people in other countries after all. Perhaps it is time for Britain to finally stop gloating about World War II and face up to this fact.
The End