‘Key point is not academic rivalry – it is remembrance’

I write in relation to Professor Gilly Carr’s recent article concerning the proposal to mark wartime burial sites on Longis Common, Alderney.

It is important to correct several misleading impressions created by the article regarding both our organisation and the current plaque proposal.

JTrails is not a ‘tour company’, but a registered UK Jewish heritage and Holocaust charity. Since 2008, we have worked with our partners, including the Committee for the Preservation of European Jewish Cemeteries and Kedoishim, on issues concerning the preservation and memorialisation of Jewish and Holocaust graves.

Our work on Alderney also initiated in 2008 and has included research, heritage interpretation, engagement with the States of Alderney, and advocacy connected with the preservation of wartime burial sites. I also have academic publications in Holocaust studies and Jewish history and heritage.

The current plaque proposal did not emerge in isolation. It follows repeated public acknowledgements and commitments, by historians, officials, local government and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance that graves exist on Longis Common and that the site required memorialisation and clearer interpretation. Despite these commitments, no permanent memorial marking has yet been delivered.

Our revised application is modest in scope. It does not require the States of Alderney to endorse a definitive interpretation of a specifically Jewish mass grave. Rather, the wording only asks for recognition that the area contains multi-national wartime burials, including Jewish victims, connected to the Nazi occupation. The wording was specifically revised to address concerns raised during the earlier application process.

Professor Carr’s article responds only to this original wording and not the current anodyne wording (which addresses her concerns).

The proposal is currently undergoing a planning process before the States of Alderney. That process already provides formal local consultation and scrutiny. It is therefore misleading to suggest that there has been no stakeholder engagement, or that further informal processes are required before the application can be fairly considered, or at a higher evidential requirement.

Professor Carr’s article also places very heavy reliance on the Alderney Review as if it has conclusively settled all historical questions. In reality, the review itself contains unresolved contradictions concerning the number of Jewish deaths on Alderney and the existence of further burials. Another review undertaken by French historians in 2024 reached diametrically opposed conclusions to that of the review, in terms of severity of conditions and resultant deaths.

The key point, however, is not academic rivalry. It is remembrance.

For the Jewish community, Holocaust burial sites are sacred places. The purpose of the plaque is not political. It is to ensure that no victims are not forgotten and that descendants and visitors have an appropriate place to pay respects and recite Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

Professor Carr herself acknowledges in her article that wartime graves exist on Longis Common and that the site is sacred to the Jewish community and that Jewish memorialisation is appropriate. In that respect, there is actually considerable common ground. We would welcome constructive cooperation from all parties to finally deliver the memorial commitments that have been discussed for years.

At a time when antisemitism in Britain has reached deeply troubling levels, Holocaust remembrance and the dignified marking of burial places should not be the cause of division, but unity.

Marcus Roberts
Founder and director of the registered UK Jewish heritage charity JTrails