Cable project could unearth brutal truth of Alderney’s dark past
The Second World War’s brutal legacy still haunts Alderney and the proposal for a cable link to carry electricity from France to the UK via the island has been met with outrage by some. At the centre of the storm is Longis Common, a burial site for slaves who were worked to death or killed during the war years. Their number, suggest some reports, could run into tens of thousands and graves could be disturbed by the cable’s proposed path. Meanwhile, national press articles on the subject have given rise to accusations of sensationalism, propaganda and anti-Semitism, as Ann Chadwick reports
A PROPOSED cable that will transmit electricity from France to the UK via Alderney – a project known as Fab (France-Alderney-Britain) – has sparked difficult questions surrounding the island’s future. And its past.
It could make or break Alderney.
Those in favour say it offers a lifeline for an island that between 2005 and 2015 has seen a 30% fall in jobs and a similar decline in air travel. Opponents say Fab will make millions for a few shareholders while being of meagre benefit to the rest of the island.
Critics cite risks to the green belt, Alderney’s landscape and an adverse impact on tourism and property values. Supporters say its construction will be a boon to the local economy, a positive step towards tackling global warming and will provide the potential to tap into the island’s vast tidal resources.
But it is Alderney’s dark past, the result of Hitler’s orders to make the Channel Islands an ‘impregnable fortress’, that is currently causing the biggest waves, both nationally and internationally.
