15. The Island of Alderney Was Transformed Into a Concentration Camp
One of the smallest Channel islands, called Alderney, only had one small village of people living on it. Every single citizen unanimously agreed that they were going to evacuate and go to England. So, when the Germans arrived, they saw this completely empty island as the perfect opportunity to turn it into one large concentration camp. At first, people who resisted the Germans were sent to concentration camps in mainland Europe, but after the camp construction was complete, anyone who disobeyed the rules was sent to the Alderney, since it was close by.
No one was allowed to know what went on in Alderney, and even the Germans who worked there refused to speak about what they had seen after World War II was over. However, stories circulated quietly that prisoners were made to jump into the ocean to drown. Others were tortured and executed. When the war was over, thousands of human bones were found all over Alderney island, and divers found even more bodies in the water just off the shore.