Lager Helgoland facts for kids
Lager Helgoland was a very harsh prison camp built by the Nazis on Alderney, one of the Channel Islands. It was named after a German island called Heligoland. This camp was one of four similar camps on Alderney. These were the only Nazi camps ever built on British soil.
Nazi Camps on Alderney
The Germans built four main camps on Alderney during World War II. These camps were like smaller parts of a much larger camp called Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg, Germany. Each camp on Alderney was named after a different German island:
- Lager Norderney
- Lager Borkum
- Lager Sylt
- Lager Helgoland
About 6,000 people were held in these camps, and sadly, around 700 of them died.
Why the Camps Were Built
The camps were set up by a special Nazi group called the SS-Baubrigade I. This group first reported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. Later, from early 1943, it came under the control of the Neuengamme camp. The Nazis used these camps for a program called Organisation Todt. This program forced people to work against their will. They had to build strong concrete bunkers, places for guns, air-raid shelters, and other defenses.
Life in the Camps
Lager Helgoland was located in the northwest part of Alderney. The Borkum and Helgoland camps were sometimes called "volunteer" camps. The people in these camps were treated very badly, but slightly better than those in the Sylt and Norderney camps.
The prisoners in Lager Sylt and Lager Norderney were treated as slave labourers. They were forced to build many military buildings and defenses all over Alderney. Lager Sylt held Jewish forced labourers and was a very dangerous place where many died. Lager Norderney housed forced labourers from other parts of Europe, especially Eastern Europe and Russia. Lager Borkum was for German technicians and volunteers from different European countries. Lager Helgoland was mainly filled with Russian workers from the Organisation Todt.
Related pages
- Nazi concentration camp list
- Neuengamme concentration camp subcamp list
- The Holocaust
