Nazi camp briton finally laid to rest at home... 72 years on

He was charged with “larceny” and sentenced to three months in a French prison, before being deported to the notorious Bergen-Belsen camp just before D-Day in 1944.  Mr Le Villio survived

the ordeal but was so weakened by the horrendous conditions he endured at the camp that he died of tuberculosis a year after he returned to Britain to live with an aunt in Nottingham.  He is

understood to be one of only two Britons to survive Bergen-Belsen, but the location of his grave was only discovered last year.  After his death at the age of 21, Mr Le Villio was buried in

a “pauper’s grave” along with six others in Nottingham. After a successful appeal from family and friends, his body has finally returned home to Jersey, where a ceremony attended by more

than 100 well-wishers was held on Wednesday to honour his memory.  He was reburied yesterday close to where he grew up in St Helier.  During the service at St Saviour’s Church, Mr Le

Villio’s cousin Stan Hockley said he was “delighted” to have him home.  He added: “It’s been a long, long journey. The main problem was financial – it cost a lot of money.”  Mr Hockley

added: “I remember kicking a ball around with him in the street, happy memories.  “He was a bit of a Jack the lad, running about and doing all these things.  “He was mad on motorbikes. He

had his own Matchless motorbike and he adored it.”  On the bike drama, he said: “It was harmless fun, really.  “But he was caught, arrested by the German military police, charged with

military larceny and sentenced to three months in France.  “That was in June 1944, just before the D-Day invasions cut off Jersey from France.”  At the service, Stanley Keiller, who was a

young boy in Jersey during the occupation, said repatriation was “closure” for Mr Le Villio’s family, who finally have him home.  Mr Keiller added: “He was a teenager who was taken away from

us in those occupation years and there’s a satisfaction in having found him.  “He would have lived a short and sad life, but now he can rest in peace.”