Jersey: Dan Snow says Liberation Day visit was 'profound'

BBC News

23-05-2025

Historian Dan Snow has said it was a "profound" experience to meet people who "either remember or have a cultural memory of occupation" on his Liberation Day visit to Jersey.He was on the island for the 80th anniversary of Liberation Day to record an episode of his History Hit podcast, produced in conjunction with Visit Jersey.Snow visited all of the occupation sites on the island, including the Jersey War Tunnels.He told BBC Radio Jersey people on the island were "marking their own liberation and there were very serious consequences for members of the community in Jersey".
'Sobering'
He said he had visited a number of commemorative events, but Liberation Day had a special atmosphere due to having been under Nazi occupation during the Second World War.Mr Snow said it was sobering to talk to one woman about the impact on her family of being taken from the island and interred in a concentration camp in Germany.He said all of the Second World War fortifications he visited were "extraordinary" and said his visit to La Hougue Bie "absolutely blew my mind".The historian and TV presenter said he did not think he had ever seen such a combination of different periods of history in one place, including a Stone Age passage tomb, a medieval hall and a World War Two (WW2) bunker.
He also praised the "tremendous job" done on restoring the St Catherine's bunker.He said he and his team had received a warm welcome during their visit and the Visit Jersey team had "rolled out the red carpet" and provided "access all areas" to occupation sites.Mr Snow said they were able to look at identity papers and accounts of people who sheltered escaped enslaved labourers who were forced to build fortifications. He said he would love to return to the Channel Islands in future to look at shipwrecks off the islands or to revisit a quarry full of WW2 materials in Alderney.