Isobel Lloyd, a third-year student in the UNE’s School of Humanities, recently returned from the archaeological trip of a lifetime.

Carrying the stories of her family’s history in Nazi Germany, Ms Lloyd spent nine days with a team of European archaeologists exploring the history of a WWII German forced-labour camp on Jersey Island called Lager Wick.

“The excavation on Jersey provided insight into what my great-grandparents would have suffered under the Nazi regime,” Ms Lloyd said. 

“My great-grandfather was detained and forced to work in terrible conditions and for long hours, and lived in what would have been cramped and cold huts.

“What we found at Lager Wick suggests the interns had slightly better conditions than those in the mainland camps. They had food, were at least warm – we found coal briquettes – and were paid something.”

Much of Lager Wick was destroyed at the end of the war, evidenced by the layers of ash that surround the site. 

However, Ms Lloyd said the researchers still made some remarkable discoveries.

“What we suspect is a lead eagle, similar to that which we found in 2014, was discovered, which most likely confirms that the forced-labour camp was connected to the Nazi regime,” she said. 

“A badly burnt iron padlock also symbolises the prison conditions of the camps.”

Although short, the trip was certainly worthwhile for Ms Lloyd, as she was able to spend time with experienced archaeologists working on a project the world knows little about.

“The three researchers on the team were incredibly helpful in guiding me in the right direction, not just in the excavation but also in considering a future in archaeology,” she said.