Lager Borkum facts for kids
Lager Borkum was a special kind of prison camp, called a Nazi concentration camp. It was located on Alderney, one of the Channel Islands. This camp was named after the East Frisian Island of Borkum.
The German forces built four of these camps on Alderney. These camps were actually smaller parts, or "subcamps," of a much larger camp called Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg, Germany. Each of the four subcamps on Alderney was named after one of the Frisian Islands. These were:
- Lager Norderney at Saye
- Lager Borkum at Platte Saline
- Lager Sylt near the old telegraph tower at La Foulère
- Lager Helgoland in the northwest part of the island
More than 700 people died in the Alderney concentration camps. Around 6,000 people were held there in total. These camps were the only Nazi concentration camps ever built on British land.
The camps were managed by a group called the Schutzstaffel - SS-Baubrigade I. At first, this group was overseen by the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. But after February 1943, it came under the control of the Neuengamme camp in northern Germany. The camps were used by the Nazi group called Organisation Todt. This group forced people to work without pay, which is known as forced labor. The prisoners had to build bunkers, places for guns, air-raid shelters, and strong concrete walls for protection.
Lager Borkum was located near the center of Alderney. It was the smallest of the four camps. The Borkum and Helgoland camps held "volunteer" workers, also known as Hilfswillige. The people in these camps were treated very harshly. However, their conditions were slightly better than those in the Sylt and Norderney camps.
The prisoners in Lager Sylt and Lager Norderney were slave laborers. They were forced to build many military buildings and bases all over Alderney. Sylt camp held Jewish people who were forced to work. It was also a death camp, where many people died. Norderney camp held forced laborers from other parts of Europe, often from Eastern Europe, but also from Spain and Russia. Lager Borkum was used for German technicians and people who volunteered from different countries in Europe. Lager Helgoland was filled with Russian workers from the Organisation Todt.
More Information
- List of Nazi concentration camps
- Subcamps of Neuengamme concentration camp
- The Holocaust
- You can find more information about this time in history in the Edward F. Lyons, Jr. papers, ca. 1917-1959 at Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA.
