(c) Marcus Roberts 2014.

1940

On 2 July a small force of Germans occupy Alderney.

1940

June, the British demilitarise Alderney and the Alderney islanders are mostly evacuated before invasion with only a small number remaining.

1941 -

In October and December, Hitler calls for the construction of the Atlantic Wall and for Alderney to be made into an impregnable fortress.

1942

From the end of this year, a special relief organisation for Russian workers operates on the island, ran by White Russians and a Madam Krylatova. They attempt to recruit Russians to join special German units for Russians. The desire to recruit Russians may account for slight ameliorations in conditions for Russians.

1942

In June/July the first Russians men and boys arrive in Alderney. Some were ostensible 'volunteers, other were violently press-ganged in Russia, some were POWs. Some are sent to Helgoland and Norderney Camps.

1942

From early in this year a small camp, or komando, operates at Newtown, when Jewish forced labour and German political prisoners worked in the docks and in making the Lower Road.

1942

The Alderney concentration camps are constructed from January 1942. There were four main camps and two other smaller camps or komandos.

1942 - 1943

A report sent to Guernsey, that a Russian had died of 'under-nourishment' at Helgoland Camp at the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943, leads to the Wehrmacht inspecting both Heligoland and Norderney camps and led to some sick prisoners being sent for genuine medical treatment. In December 1942, 68 Russian patients are sent for medical treatment in Cherbourg. The medical commission sent in May or June 1943 to Alderney to investigate complaints about inhumane treatment of Russian prisoners finds that of the 16,000 men brought to the island only 800 were left and these were ordered to be brought back to France and a large transport of Russian prisoners are sent for medical treatment in Cherbourg, or reassignment to lighter duties, as the result of this medical commission.

1942 - 1943

Fortifications on Alderney are carried out, under the supervision of Organisation Todt and fortress engineers, using slave labour. As many as 16,000 prisoners pass through Alderney.

1942 - 1944

Between June 1943 and June 1944, SS Hauptsturmfüher Maximilian List and Lagerfuhrer Puhr, order two special mass reprisal shootings of many political prisoners and Jews, after Allied raids on German towns. At least 50 - 100 prisoners are murdered in total.

1943

In November, some French Jewish prisoners are sent from Alderney to Lager Tibor at Dannes. It is estimated that c. 1,000 Jews are deported to Alderney and that c. 900 were French.

1943

On 10 July a group of 700 Jews are sent from Drancy camp to the Cherbourg area to work on the Atlantic wall and about half of these are sent on to Alderney to build 'Fortress Alderney', in August.

1943

In June 1943 SS Hauptstrumfuhrer Maximilian List becomes Commandant of Sylt Concentration Camp in Alderney. List is an architect by training and has a special chalet constructed at the camp as his residence.

1943

From 1 March, Lager Sylt (originally an OT camp for both Jewish and Russian prisoners) is placed under control of the SS Baubrigade and becomes a sub-camp of Neuengamme and the concentration camp prisoners arrived in the middle of 1943. This is the most westerly concentration camp in Europe and the only one on British territory.

1943

In January 1943, 300 Russians are embarked to be transported to Cherbourg by the s/s 'Xaver Dosch', but severe storms kept the ship in port with the Russians kept in terrible conditions for three days packed below decks and 8-10 Russians die while in the hold. The Russians continued to be held without food or water for a total of 14 day and there was a great storm from 13-14 January and the ship was wrecked in the port killing many of the Russians locked in the holds. The remainder were then taken off to France in the 'Francke'.

1944

On 4 September 1944 a fresh attempt was made to transport the Jews from the original transport of 6-7 May, to Neuengamme, but their train was stopped and liberated at Diksmuide in Belgium by the Resistance.

1944

On 26/27 June, immediately after liberation of Cherbourg, the last deportees leave Alderney and were sent to Guernsey Jersey and thence to St Malo. Many deportees were killed in bombing raids or drowned.

1944

In June 1944, other Jews, Moroccans and Frenchmen are deported after D Day, some being sent to Lager Tibor, at Dannes, in the Pas de Calais.

1944

A major transportation of c. 800 Jews from Norderney leaves Alderney on 6-7 May, towards Neuengamme concentration camp. Some escaped en route, the remaining 500 are eventually diverted to Lager Tibor, at Dannes, and to Lager Braunek in Boulogne, due to bombing.

1944

In March Helgoland camp is disbanded and prisoners are transferred to Norderney.

1944

The Russians are largely withdrawn from Alderney by February 1944, but 900 multi-national political prisoners left and some 650 Jews.

1944

When most of the fortification work on Alderney is completed most slave labourers are deported to work on the Atlantic wall in France, and other locations, or sent to concentration camps, including Auschwitz.

1945

The German garrison on Alderney, surrenders the island to the British on 16 May 1945.

1949

The camp leaders of the Jewish section of Lager Norderney, Adler and Evers, are both tried and convicted, in France, in September 1949, on a charge of subjecting Jews to 'superhuman work' and 'systematic ill-treatment' and sentenced to ten and seven years in prison. List, while slated to be tried for war crimes, is never tried, and dies at his home in Germany in the 1980s.