German Forces

Anton Yezhel, forced labourer.

annefrankguide.net (website credit)

Anton Yezhel, recorded as a prisoner in "Lager Sylt" , a forced labour camp on Alderney, Channel Islands. This camp's occupants were mainly Jewish or Soviet PoWs. The island contained two other labour camps and one concentration camp, all satellites of the Neuengamme concentration camp, near Hamburg, Germany. The workers were used to carry out numerous "public works", principally the construction of fortifications on Jersey, Guernsey and little Alderney itself, which retains many reminders of having been one of the most heavily fortified and militarized strategically useless islands in military history. Camp administration was the responsibility of the SS. Planning and supervision of the works was the work of the Todt Organisation, which thus became one of the major elements of German presence on the Channel Islands. While Alderney itself had been evacuated of its inhabitants before the Germans arrived, the appearance of prisoners from the camps in Jersey, Guernsey and Sark shocked the locals. They were clearly the victims of very harsh treatment, featuring casual beatings, meager rations, and long hours of backbreaking labour. Resistance to the Germans, in the sense of armed resistance, was not a practical option for the islanders, but acts of civil resistance were nonetheless quite common. One of these was to sneak food to forced labourers on site. Some brave individuals concealed escaping Jewish or Soviet prisoners in their houses and properties. It was all they could do. It was the practice to transfer "surplus" prisoners back to Germany during the period of the camps' operation, and most were removed to Germany in 1944. Most seem to have been eliminated by the routine "working to death" method used in some of Germany's "non-death" concentration camps. A small number - on the Channel Islands, or in the course of transports to Germany escaped, some living to tell the tale. Most of the camps' remains were destroyed by the Germans prior to the arrival of the British in 1945, many of the fortifications remain as reminders of the Alderney prisoners' labours and suffering. Best regards, JR.