Sky documentary on Alderney occupation screens next week

Hitler’s British Island was shot in the island earlier this year and focuses on how it became heavily fortified as part of the Nazi dictator’s Atlantic wall.

‘Using declassified wartime sources and long-buried government files, this new UK commission for Sky History reveals how, after the war, the horrors carried out on this tiny island became the subject of top-level political intrigue and horse-trading between the Allied powers,’ said the channel in its announcement.

‘The series also includes heart-breaking testimonies from the families of those who suffered and provide startling revelations into the scale of the brutality inflicted upon prisoners – many of them Jews – by the SS.’

It will look into the two concentration camps that were built in the island.

The Pickles review was welcomed by the States of Alderney’s president William Tate when it was released in May and produced figures for the number of people it found had been killed in the island during the Occupation.

He commented that it was a relief since some of the much higher numbers put forward by others had been proven wrong.

But not everyone believed the report gave the full picture, including island businessman Michael James who runs the X account Alderney Truthseeker. He said the 11-strong Pickles panel ‘reeks of pre-determined bias’ after it was announced.

‘Why oh why are we still being very economical with the truth?’ he said after learning that the new documentary will complement the review.

‘The past president of the States of Alderney adopted the truth in 1990 – that 4,000 Ukrainians had died on Alderney as did the head of the Alderney Society Brian Bonnard and his extraordinary wife,’ he said, citing an Alderney Society report by Mr Bonnard published in 1991.

The documentary has received a cautious welcome from Dr Marcus Roberts of jTrails, the National Anglo-Jewish Heritage Trail.

‘I congratulate the makers of the Sky documentary on completing this project which set out to be an incisive, independent, review of the Alderney World War II history,’ he said.

‘With the caveat that I have not been able to preview the film, the statement that the film is now made, “in conjunction with the Lord Pickles-led government review”, might give rise to the public perception that the film may now simply be a “victory lap” for the flawed Pickles review and not have achieved its original objectives.’

He said the review ‘inaccurately caricatured views it rejected’ and did not offer a right of reply and he hoped the documentary would not repeat its mistake in its assessment of his claims that there was that there was photographic evidence of mass graves at Fort Albert, although these needed to be physically investigated since they might be construction pits.

The programme will be shown at 9pm on Tuesday.