Matthew was pleased to attend The Lord Pickles Alderney Expert Review held at the Imperial War Museum. The Review had been established to collate a comprehensive academic study by experts of the numbers, conditions and individuals living in Alderney during the occupation of the island from 1941 to 1945.
It further set out to put an end to long-held beliefs perpetuated by mainstream and social media that there is evidence of many thousands of deaths.
Matthew has repeatedly called for further investigations and the release of archives related to the Nazi occupation of Alderney for several years in Parliament.
In July 2021, Matthew asked the Prime Minister, “there are just 397 recorded graves on Alderney, just 6.6% of a total population of 6,000 internees … Today I ask the Prime Minister to authorise the release of all documents and information residing in the archives into those investigations, so that we know what happened to thousands of people on the island of Alderney during World War Two”.
Additional research found that war crimes investigations at the time by Captain Theodore Pantcheff were wholly serious in intent. The case was exchanged with the Soviets, as the majority of victims were Soviet citizens, whilst the British were given the Nazis who had murdered servicemen in Stalag Luft III following ‘the Great Escape’.
One major finding of this report includes the confidence about the total number of those who died in Alderney was “unlikely to have exceeded 1,134”, and the total number of labourers who came to Alderney was “7,608-7,812”. The other substantial conclusion which has now been revealed is that the Soviet Union decided not to follow up on the Alderney war criminals.
Matthew said: “People are horrified to think of a Nazi camp on British soil. The report comes after years of lobbying the Government and provides a definitive number who worked and were subsequently killed on Alderney. It was important for this inquiry to take place, as the failure to identify the statistics would have condemned those murdered to further indignation. We can now commemorate those who were cruelly murdered on British soil in the Second World War”.
