The Channel Islands At War (40 page)

Deaths in Allied POW camps
on Islands unknown

Americans Graves removed 11

Fr
ench Escaper Francois Scornet
Executed 17.3.41

Other French cscapers captured on the Island were returned to France and some subsequently died.

Deaths of civilians

The number of deaths as a result of bad medical conditions, prolonged malnutrition, and mental breakdown cannot be calculated. Death rates rose during the Occupation for such groups as diabetics and the elderly.

Air raid casualties
Raid 28.6.40 44

Other raids
are
said to have killed 93 people, but it is not clear how many of these were Islanders, Todt workers or Germans.

Air raid casualties among evacuees unknown
Deaths of deportees 45

It is impossible to distinguish natural causes from deaths directly resulting from deportation conditions.

Suicides

At the start of the occupation 3

Louis Symes, Cherche Midi, December 1940 1

Major John Skelton, September 1942 1

Suicides at Beaumont and Grouville in September 1942 and February 1943 in Jersey 3

There were said to be suicides also in Guernsey as a result of deportation.

It is impossible to calculate how many other suicides were brought about by occupation like that of Clifford Holloway who killed himself soon after liberation having lost his son and his wife.

Accidents of war unknown

Nanette Carre
, aged 4, killed by mine in October 1944.

Boy killed by collapsed shelter looking for fuel, February 1945.

Two fishermen killed by mines, June 1943 4

Murders unknown

Man killed by drunken German, New Year's Day 1942, aged 42.

Mr Je
han killed by looting soldiers, 25.8.44.

A number of people were said to have been killed for their Red Cross food parcels. 2

Shot by Germans unknown

Woman on beach, October 1944 (only mentioned by von Aufsess).

Douglas Le Marchand, 11.10.44. 2

Drowned trying to escape unknown

Known cases in Jersey: Dennis Audrain, 2.5.42.

Ronald and Madelaine Bisson, Andrd Gorval, Roy Lucienncs, 12.11.44.

Bernard and John Larbarlastier, 28.11.44. 7

Deaths in European camps and prisons, or before returning to the islands

The final figure is not known, but stands at 20. Apart from Symes suicide, and the death of Jack Soyer fighting with the Resistance (29.7.44) after escaping the present list is:

Maurice Gould, Louisa Gould, Peter Painter and his son Peter, John Nicolle, Ogier, Gillingham, Machon,
Miller, Tierney, Cohu, Houille
becq, Ingrouille, Marsh, Paisnel, Ashcroft, Queree, Le Villio.

Deaths of Todt workers, Sylt Camp inmates, and prisoners of the Germans

The total of identified graves was 509. Of these 387 were on
Alderney
. 433 contained named persons
. It is clear this is an under-e
stimate: Other burials Buried where they were working, e.g. St Ouen's Bay Buried at sea, e.g. thrown from Fort Clonque on Alderney Buried at site of accidents, e.g. 9 behind a rock-fall at St Lawrence, Jersey

Within the official burial grounds there are circumstances to suggest there were more bodies than graves identified:

Named Todt workers known to be buried there cannot be identified Some were buried unofficially, e.g. at Westmount Strangers

Cemetery in 1941

Shot by Germans unknown

Franzeph Losch, Fort George, 16.6.43

Wilhe
lm or Willy Ebert, summer 1943, St Anne

2 men hiding in cave on
Alderney
(Pantcheff, p. 16)

Execution was by shooting, hanging, strangling with wire, and beating to death. Pantcheff, pp.14, 69, 71, and Stcckoll, pp.31, 34, 78,80 and 94 give examples of deaths.

Killed in Allied air raids on harbours and air fields unknown

Drowned unknown

Bodies were recovered from the sea, e.g. 14.10.42 on Jersey said to be an escaper.

Minotaure,
sunk 7.7.44 c.200

Four Frenchmen drowned, and buried at Westmount, 11.2.42

Accidents unknown

4 French Algerians died eating hemlock, and 2 as a result of a gas explosion on Jersey.

17 killed by an explosion, and 5 by rock falls in building tunnels-buried in cemeteries.

Illness unknown

There were said to be 39 deaths in the typhus outbreak on Guernsey.

List said most of the 50 prisoners who died in the first few months of 1943 at Sylt were tubercular or ill in some other way.

It is impossible to know how many deaths were due to exposure, hard work, and starvation, the main causes of Todt deaths.

Leaving the Islands unknown

Transport conditions were deliberately made bad:

About 8-10 died on
Xaver Dorsch
transport, January 1943 from Braye to Cherbourg. 8 died on trains in a transport of June 1943 to Neuengamme. 2 killed at Sollstedt in transit, summer 1944.

Killed trying to escape unknown

Escape was only possible in transports leaving the Islands to cross
Europe to other camps.

Kortemark at least 35

Near
Toul 17

The known graves clearly only provide a basis for any final count of Todt dead. There are too many unknowns, e.g.
Xaver Dorsch
went aground with loss of life outside Braye Harbour. There
are
no details of executions in punishment lagers on the two main islands. It is unclear if bodies disposed of in the sea were dead already, or actual killings, and it is clear dead workers were sometimes left where they fell. The random figures given above add about a hundred to probable deaths plus two hundred on the
Minotaure
making c.300. Added to the 509 graves this brings the total appreciably closer to the rough total of a thousand mentioned in May 1945.