Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Secrets of Nazi concentration camps in Britain revealed for the first time

Secrets of Nazi concentration camps in Britain revealed for the first time

Official documents revealing the horrors of the only Nazi concentration camps in the UK, on the island of Alderney, can be seen for the first time

Official documents revealing the horrors of the only Nazi concentration camps to have existed on British soil can be seen in public for the first time.

Thousands of French Jews, Russian prisoners of war and German political prisoners were interned on the tiny Channel island of Alderney between 1942 and 1945.

The secret Pantcheff report, compiled 75 years ago, is supposed to be locked up in British archives until 2045 but a copy was given to Russia from where it has now emerged.

It reveals that Britain investigated the atrocities after the war - but later refused to bring any prosecutions fearing an international embarrassment.

The post-war Government also appears to have failed to help other countries seeking to do so.

German soldiers arriving in Southampton from the Channel Island of Alderney in 1945


Lord Pickles, the UK’s special envoy for post-Holocaust issues, said that people deserved to know why Britain failed to prosecute a single Nazi for war crimes committed there.

The Tory former cabinet minister said: “What happened does not reflect well on the British government at the time, and we are eager to ensure the full facts are understood by the nation.

“That is why I am saying we must release all documents related to the Holocaust that are currently classified by next January.”

The grim details of the dossier detailing systematic violence and murder on the island were first revealed by ITV earlier this month, with more details released by the Sunday Times.

Thousands of French Jews, Russian prisoners of war and German political prisoners were interned on Alderney


The classified report written by British intelligence officer Major Theodore Pantcheff, then 24, shows what he found after a series of interviews on Alderney at the end of the war.

The young officer, fluent in French and German, spoke with more than 3,000 witnesses, including former prisoners of war, German soldiers and civilians.

They described Jews and Russians being beaten or murdered for pleasure, prisoners eating rotting food, rubbish and snails, and, in one case, the suggestion of cannibalism.

Pantcheff also included an account of the torture of a Russian teenager who was made to sit on a hot stove for 30 minutes.

The Channel Islands were occupied on June 15, 1940


He concluded: “It has been established, I think, that crimes of a systematically brutal and callous nature were committed - on British soil - in the last three years.”

The Channel Islands were occupied on June 15, 1940, after Winston Churchill decided they were of little strategic importance and could be left undefended.

The Nazis had defeated the Allies in France just days before, forcing the French to surrender and the British off the continent.

Nazis outside a bank in Alderney


Churchill avoided mentioning the islands in his broadcasts, believing the thought of Nazis walking past red postboxes and English roadsigns could damage morale.

Four months later, Hitler announced his plan to create an “impregnable fortress” on the islands at the heart of his Atlantic Wall to prevent an allied invasion of Europe.

Alderney, whose residents had already been relocated, was to become one of the most heavily fortified sections and Nazi military engineers arrived shortly after.

Former Tory minister Lord Pickles


They oversaw the construction of four labour camps, starting in 1941, as well as other satellite prisons for slave labourers.

In 1943, the SS arrived, turning two of them into concentration camps.

It is thought that more than 6,000 people of 27 nationalities were taken to the island.

Many arrived in cramped conditions on boats with less than one square metre deck space per man and no sanitary facilities on board.

Some died during transit to or from the island, or while docked in the harbour for days waiting to get out.

Josef Kaiser, a German naval officer, recalled 14 dead bodies being removed after a ship waited in harbour for five days with one body “eaten by rats or Russians”.

Prisoners lived in wooden barracks, many damp, flooded and structurally unsound, encircled by barbed wire fences.

They spent most of their time outside doing at least 12 hours of heavy labour a day, with a short break at midday, for seven days a week.

They had no special equipment and wore the same clothes year-round, with the exception of wooden clogs.

The inmates lived on starvation diets, with “half a litre of coffee, without milk or sugar” for breakfast, “half a litre of thin cabbage soup” for lunch, and “a similar portion of soup and a 1 kilo loaf among 5-6 men” for dinner.

Unsurprisingly, many of the men were soon broken, scavenging for food among scraps left by dogs and dead animals buried under manure.

Ernest Vincent Clark, a British farmer who remained on the island, described a regular parade of sick prisoners brutally assaulted by camp guards, including being kicked in the kidneys.

Senior Nazi officials were also responsible for horrific crimes with Karl Theiss, a commander, requiring his office walls to be repainted four times to remove bloodstains.

Scharführer Hoeglow, the head of the SS troops, is listed as giving a 4 days’ leave, extra food and drink to SS guards for every five dead prisoners.

One Nazi medical orderly, Scharführer Krellmann, gave elderly and incapacitated prisoners lethal injections which killed them within five minutes.

On other occasions, individual prisoners said to have been thrown into the sea for not working hard enough.

Pantcheff concluded that at least 372 inmates were killed but the true figure is likely to be much higher, with contemporary historians estimating a death toll between 700 and 950.

A number of witnesses referred to burial pits with up to 10 bodies in each, and the graves left open until they were full.

The British officer’s report contained a long list of named Nazi officials, crimes they were accused of, and details of underlying evidence.

It also provided evidence of the camp’s leadership structure and its role within the wider Nazi war machine, reporting to Heinrich Himmler, the main architect of the Holocaust.

Yet Britain did not bring prosecutions and prevented others from doing by failing to disclose evidence.

As a result, only a handful of Germans were ever punished for their crimes on Alderney, mostly by a French military tribunal.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
Intel Reports Revenue Beats but Sees 81% Rise in Losses
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
Tulsi Gabbard Unveils Evidence Alleging Political Manipulation of Intelligence During Trump Administration
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Trump Announces Coca-Cola to Shift to Cane Sugar in U.S. Production
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
Moonshot AI Unveils Kimi K2: A New Open-Source AI Model
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
×