Insel Sylt

Sylt is the most northerly island off Germany’s North Sea coast, accessible only by trains that run along the Hindenburgdamm causeway built in 1927 to connect with the mainland. Its landmass is 38 sq. miles in area, a little larger than the Isle of Sheppey off the Kent Coast (36 sq. miles) but with less than half the population. It has a long history as a resort, noted for its extensive sandy beaches and a bracing summer climate. Through trains run from Westerland to Stuttgart, Hamburg, Berlin and Köln. Based on the address of the postcard publisher, we can assume that this is a group of holidaymakers photographed on their arrival at Westerland on an unseasonably wet day. Resolutely cheerful, most seem determined to make the best of things. The only clue as to the date of the image is the absence of Nazi insignia or symbols on the station that might indicate the years 1927 to 1933.

During the Third Reich, Sylt marketed itself as the first German resort to be declared Judenfrei (free of all Jews). Hermann Göring had a palatial beachside holiday home on Sylt. It seems the spirit of Aryan suprematism lingered longer on the island than elsewhere. In 1951 the voters of Westerland elected a new Mayor with a dark past as a member of the Waffen SS. During the war Heinz Reinefarth rose to the rank of Gruppenführer and troops under his command were responsible for innumerable atrocities in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Reinefarth escaped retribution by offering his services to US military intelligence and returned to civilian life as a local politician and lawyer. Only last year a video emerged featuring a group of affluent young residents of Sylt chanting anti-immigrant slogans. Widespread condemnation followed but the suspicion remains that the breezy, sunny air of Sylt continues to carry the stain of right wing extremism.