Maybe that was the plan.

So interesting to learn that Nazis occupied one (or more?) of the British Channel Islands. Looking at a map, it was astoundingly close to London.

The article doesn’t expound much on the island’s connection to the Great Escape. Apparently, after the war, the British were so focused on holding those responsible for executing 50 of the recaptured Great Escapees, that they gave the Soviets authority to investigate war crimes at the Nazi camps on Alderney because the majority of the prisoners housed there were Soviet. The Soviets received all of the existing files on the Alderney occupation and then did not follow up with any investigation.

I’ve spent a good chunk of my morning reading all about Alderney’s occupation, the Great Escape, and the various types of Nazi camps: forced labor camps, concentration camps, death camps, transit camps, and POW camps. I’m still unclear of the distinction between the first two categories, although several articles make a point to say that among the forced labor camps in Alderney, one was a concentration camp. Can anyone further enlighten me?

I love DU for the breadth of topics posted beyond the political news. I learn so much here. Thank you for posting this, Sl8! I

I missed this particular excerpt and apparently the review itself, but I went through so many rabbit holes in my online travels in a quest to learn more that it wasn’t a wasted effort because I did expand my knowledge of this and WWII in general.

Now I’m off to finish what I started by reading the review…

They're closer to the coast of France than Britain (a left-over from when Normandy and England were ruled by the same king). In fact, when D-Day liberated the nearby coast of Normandy, the Channel Islands were just bypassed - they weren't strategically useful, and rather than use personnel to take them, they were just isolated, and only liberated after "Victory in Europe Day" in May 1945.