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Ghosts of Alderney: Hitler's Island Slaves
Ghosts of Alderney follows the research of internationally renowned artist Piers Secunda, who recently spent five years recording stories of slave labourers sent to Alderney. When Hitler’s forces invaded the small Channel island in 1941, nobody knew just how brutal the occupation of this piece of UK Crown land would become. Secunda has worked for years to commemorate the slaves who endured random and unprovoked shootings, beatings and starvation.
People from all over Nazi Europe were shipped to the Channel Islands to build Hitler's “fortress” against an Allied attack. It was in Alderney however, where the treatment was harshest. Intelligence reports after the liberation reveal that bodies dumped in mass graves were compared to victims of the Belsen concentration camp.
On this, the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Ghosts of Alderney serves as a testament to the bravery of these people.
Through the work of the filmmakers and the research team, new evidence has come to light in this documentary, which uncovers further atrocities committed on the Nazi occupied island. These crimes include firing squads, mass graves, indiscriminate executions, and more shockingly, competitions from the officers rewarding even further brutality.
Ghosts of Alderney also promises to expose how, following the Second World War, the UK government concealed the real reasons why it failed to prosecute any German officers for war crimes.
“Of course there was a cover up,” said Professor Anthony Glees, a security and intelligence expert, who explores the reasons why the perpetrators of Alderney seemingly escaped justice.
Madeleine Bunting, historian and author, adds: “This was the biggest mass murder on British soil. Yet so many questions remain.”
A recent UK Government inquiry found that more than 1,100 people died on Alderney but acknowledged there are many more missing.
Ghosts of Alderney seeks to go beyond the numbers, to bring the names and faces of those who suffered back to life. Piers Secunda adds; “The academic research deals with lists of names and adding up numbers to create a total figure of number of people who came to Alderney. But people aren't numbers. They're human beings. They have lives, they have histories, backgrounds."
Ghosts of Alderney: Hitler's Island Slaves will be released in the UK later this year
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