Latest news with #NaziOccupation
The Sun
29-05-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Britain's ‘Nazi Islands' haunted by scandal of ‘Jerrybags' who bedded Hitler's henchmen & saw ‘traitor' babies shunned
Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player... THEY were witnesses to Nazi rule on British soil - and they had to choose whether to collaborate, resist, or walk the line between them. In June 1940 Nazi Germany took control of the Channel Islands in an occupation that would last 1,774 days. 20 20 20 As the Swaztika hung over the islands, strict rules were brought in for Jewish residents, with many deported to concentration camps in Europe to their deaths. Other islanders had their homes commandeered to house German officers, and informers and young women who chose to strike up relationships with the occupying soldiers were ostracised by their friends and neighbours. Now a new Channel 4 documentary has used diaries and memoirs from the wartime occupation to bring to life the stories of those who lived under Nazi rule - including some heroes of the resistance. Historian Dr Louise Willmot says: 'Some people did collaborate, and some people did resist. I'm very glad I never had to make that choice. 'There was also Hitler's own obsession with the Channel Islands, for him it was a propaganda prize.' On 15 June 1940, Churchill ordered the withdrawal of all military troops from the Channel Islands, leaving 94,000 islanders behind. Residents were given the choice to evacuate - but 69,000 chose to stay in their homes on the islands, undefended by the British military. Hitler's propaganda began straight away. Winifred Harvey, a 51-year-old middle class Guernsey housewife wrote in her diaries: 'The story goes that, at a concert in Jersey, the Kommandant addressed the crowd and asked who could speak German. "Three or four people put up their hands. Then he asked those who could not speak German to put up their hands. "Hundreds did - and immediately a photograph was taken and was published in a German paper as the Jersey people 'heiling' Hitler.' This is one of the safest Channel Islands 20 20 Historian Dr Willmot explains: 'Hitler insisted that the Channel Islands be turned into an impregnable fortress and not taken back. "He wanted to turn St Peter Port into some kind of U-boat base, the rest of the islands he wanted to use as a holiday resort. It is Hitler's obsession that it will become permanently part of German territory." But he wasn't counting on the bravery of some of the islanders - including local journalist Frank Falla, who launched an underground newspaper to debunk the German propaganda, and artist and anti-fascist Claude Cahun, who risked her life to try to encourage mutiny amongst the German troops. Claude lived with her 'step-sister' Suzanne Malherbe, who changed her name to Marcel Moore. But the pair were in fact lovers. Claude had a Jewish father and in 1937 the had pair escaped tensions in pre-war Paris and bought a house in Jersey. When the Germans arrived, they believed it was their duty to make a stand. They scribbled anti-Nazi slogans on cigarette packets, strewn where Germans would find them. Then in 1942 they began distributing leaflets, typed in German, under the pseudonym 'The Nameless Soldier' – seemingly a rebel Nazi stirring dissent. The leaflets were rolled up like 'paper bullets' and left inside shops and cafes, pushed through the windows of army vehicles, slipped into the pockets of soldiers' uniforms and stuffed into postboxes. These paper bullets were small, but the impact was significant. In Claude's diaries she wrote: 'I write the news bulletins in English, manifestos and slogans in French. I want to give the Germans the illusion that there are several typewriters. 20 20 20 "I make every effort to vary the strikes and format to make it look like several typists. My imaginary creation becomes an organised group and not just a solitary writer." As Cahun and Moore grew bolder, their messages instructed troops not to fight, and called Hitler a vampire, with slogans like: "Idiot that you may die, so the Fuhrer may live a little longer!" Claude wrote: 'I have to do whatever I can - by speaking or writing. When I try to induce German soldiers to lay down their arms, I'm true to my principles. "I am against war and against repression by our enemies. Perhaps Jersey is almost the only place where that luxury can be indulged.' They smuggled leaflets into labour camps to boost morale and helped escaped slave workers. Historian Dr Louise Willmot says they knew they were risking their lives to do so: "By choosing to do this work, they were saying, 'I am prepared to die in order to do this work, which is so important.' 'And it worked for a long time. The Germans did think that there must be a number of people involved and some of them must be German soldiers. "They were able to do it for almost three years before they were caught.' 'Jerrybags' scandal 20 20 20 20 It is staggering how cheek to jowl the islanders and the Germans lived - on average, there was one German soldier for every three islanders. And the occupation continued, not everyone on the islands was hostile to the enemy. Local Methodist Minister Douglas Ord wrote in his diaries: 'I saw a young Luftwaffe man walking out with a local girl, their arms intertwined behind their backs, her head on his shoulder. "Uniform fascinates a type of female, no matter what's inside it. I can't think that any woman who goes with the occupying forces has much self-respect." Journalist Frank Falla wrote: 'Because I work at night… I see the girls being driven home by their German boyfriends. Britain does not deserve these traitors even if she has given birth to them.' Even German officer Hans Max von Aufsess wrote: 'There is a good understanding between the German soldiers and English girls. "As long as it occurs in sufficient secrecy, the girls give in to temptation. English women are straightforward, uncomplicated and easy when it comes to love.' As long as it occurs in sufficient secrecy, the girls give in to temptation. English women are straightforward, uncomplicated and easy when it comes to love German officer Hans Max von Aufsess Douglas Ord later added to his journal: 'An unpleasant report is going round that a wretched woman has been holding cocktail parties for German officers and local girls. "There's another ugly rumour that before Christmas some 500 local girls will have had children to Germans.' Dr Louise Willmott explains: 'It did happen. You can argue that it's a natural thing in an occupation that lasts for five years, in which enmities break down and relationships are made." She continues: 'During the war, there was condemnation of the so-called 'Jerrybags', the women who had relationships with German soldiers. But really, they're a small minority.' The issue of young women residents left with babies after having relationships with German soldiers was brought to life in the film The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society, starring Lily James. Guernsey resident Dolly Edwards fell for German signaller Willi Joanknecht and theirs was the UK's first Anglo-German wedding after the war, in 1947 — but they were banned from returning to the island. Their marriage lasted more than 50 years, and they had five children. 'Traitor babies' 20 20 20 20 20 Hitler wanted to build an Atlantic Wall - a huge fortification down the French coast of almost 1700 miles long - so they also had to bring in 16,000 labourers to the Channel Islands. Many of these were prisoners of war, starving and emaciated, causing great conflict amongst the islanders, who felt desperately sorry for them, but were also rationed and fighting for survival themselves. Next Hitler ordered the deportation of anyone not born on the islands, then radios were banned to stop Islanders from listening to BBC news. But on 23 June 1943 the Islanders were given an opportunity to show their own resistance to the Germans. More than 400 sailors were killed when HMS Charybdis was sunk by German E-boats off the Channel Islands. The islanders were to give them a burial - and more than 5,000 people turned out to pay their respects, draping the coffins in union flags. Frank Falla wrote: 'The people of the island decide that this is their chance to show their loyalty to Britain. 5,000 of us make our way to the funeral. The Germans are completely taken by surprise. 'They're almost lost in this great mass of passive demonstrators. There can be no doubt where our true sympathies lie.' The people of the island decide that this is their chance to show their loyalty to Britain. 5,000 of us make our way to the funeral. The Germans are completely taken by surprise... There can be no doubt where our true sympathies lie Frank Falla But soon Frank's underground news service was uncovered by the Germans, and he and four others were convicted of spreading BBC news and deported to a prison in Germany. And in July 1944, Claude and Marcel's house was raided, where officers found a suitcase full of leaflets, a banned radio, camera, a typewriter and a revolver. The couple were sent to prison and sentenced to death for 'inciting the troops through propaganda'. But the threat of execution was lifted when Bailif Coutanche - the head of Jersey's government - appealed on the grounds it would traumatise the islanders. The war was declared over on May 8, 1945 - and Cahun and Moore were released the same day. In July, Frank Fall returned to Guernsey determined to get justice for victims of the islands' Nazi occupation - a fight that took him 20 years. University of Cambridge historian Professor Gilly Carr says: 'After the war, people who committed acts of resistance were ignored. "They were not recognised as having been the brave people who did the right thing. Instead, the bailiffs of the Channel Islands were given knighthoods. "Never being able to identify precisely the collaborators meant that for decades afterwards, the whole thing became a bigger taboo. 'My mother, who was from Guernsey, was told, for example, that she wasn't to talk to another girl in her class because her father was reputed to have been a German soldier. "These sorts of things go on for generations. In fact, discussion of these matters is still taboo in the Channel Islands today.' Britain Under the Nazis: The Forgotten Occupation airs on May 29 at 8pm on Channel 4 and is available to watch on Channel 4OD. 20 20 20
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The lesbian artist who used 'paper bullets' to defy the Nazis on occupied Channel Islands in WWII - until she and her secret lover got caught
As someone who was not afraid to pursue her individuality against the spirit of the age, she was one of a kind. But Jewish-born surrealist writer and photographer Claude Cahun defied more than social convention. A new two-part Channel 4 documentary reveals the extent of her bravery resisting the Nazis in the occupied Channel Islands during the Second World War. Britain Under the Nazis: The Forgotten Occupation, tells how Cahun spent years penning 'paper bullets' - propaganda notes intended to sap the morale of German troops - and leaving them where they would be found by the enemy. But her brave acts of resistance - carried out with her secret lover and stepsister Marcel Moore - eventually caught up with her. She and Moore were caught by the Nazis in 1944 and sentenced to death, only to win a reprieve at the last moment. Tonight's documentary draws from diaries and letters to reveal the extent of the hardships suffered by ordinary islanders living under Nazi rule, which began on July 1, 1940. The Channel Islands were the only part of British territory to be occupied by Adolf Hitler's forces in the whole of the Second World War. Cahun, who was born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob in Nantes, France, in 1894, was living in Jersey when the Nazis invaded. Recounting the moment that German forces arrived, she wrote: 'I was standing on the lawn in front of the house watering the flowerbeds, when planes appeared. 'Flying so low that not only the crosses and other markings could be seen, but the pilots themselves. 'I think for the last three years I felt the war coming without wanting to believe it.' The Bailiff of Jersey, Alexander Coutanche, was allowed to stay on his role under German supervision. He described his mood of 'deep depression' when the new occupiers made clear the situation. With France having been overrun and British forces roundly humiliated at Dunkirk, the future looked bleak for the Channel Islanders. But Cahun was determined to fight back. Her paper bullets were and made to look as though they had been composed by rogue German soldiers. In them, she tried to incite mutiny and undermine troops' morale by disparaging Hitler's rule and highlighting Nazi atrocities. Cahun also called on the soldiers to lay down their arms. Historian Dr Louise Willmot says in tonight's programme: 'They are quite varied. 'Some are typed and they are typed really with great care. 'They range from a few lines to quite complex arguments, but they are all inciting the troops to lay down their weapons, so it is incitement to mutiny. 'She knew that is punishable by death. 'When we think about the choices people made and the dilemmas they faced, I don't think she felt that she had a choice. 'She did write that poets and artists had a duty to act, so I think she did feel it out of a sense of duty, she had to take action against the Nazis. Staggeringly brave.' The academic also highlights how Cahun and Moore were 'hiding their relationship' while living together as step-siblings. 'They were together from very early on and stayed committed to one another all their lives,' she added. 'So it is a romantic story but it is a hidden romantic story, because the times were different and they wanted to blend in in the background. 'If you had met her before the occupation or in France in her earlier life, you would see somebody who would shave her head, the wearing of masks, concealing identity, playing with gender identity. 'She says I don't think of myself as masculine or feminine. They both had already been politically very active in the surrealist anti-Fascist movement. 'By choosing to do this work, they were saying I am prepared to die in order to do this work which is so important.' Cahun's notes proved effective. The Germans were rattled and left convinced that there were several people involved, including rogue soldiers. Meanwhile, other acts of resistance were bubbling up. In June 1941, islanders responded to a radio appeal for people living under Nazi occupation to put up 'V for Victory' signs. And journalist Frank Falla was an integral part of the Guernsey Underground News Service (GUNS), which circulated BBC news around the island after radios were confiscated. In August 1942, Cahun was confronted with the sight of slave labourers who had been brought to Jersey to build a huge sea wall that was part of extensive fortifications of the islands. The artist's home was just yards away from where the emaciated prisoners were forced to work. The Nazis also deported 2,300 islanders to internment camps in France and Germany. And on Alderney, concentration camps were built to house forced labourers. Between 641 and 1,027 people - among them Jews, prisoners of war and some Romanis - are known to have to have died amidst the brutal conditions and savage treatment at the hands of SS guards. Some Jewish islanders - including nurse Therese Steiner - were deported to death camps including Auschwitz. In the summer of 1944, Cahun and Moore were arrested by the Gestapo at their home. The couple decided to fight their corner at trial. But they were handed a death sentence, as well as six years of hard labour and nine months in prison. But Bailiff Coutanche appealed for mercy and their death sentences were commuted. The Channel Islands were occupied until May 9, 1945 - two days after German forces in mainland Europe had surrendered. After their ordeal, Cahun and Moore went back to living together on Jersey. Cahun died there aged 60 in 1954. Moore took her own life in 1972 aged 79. Jersey Heritage, the trust which cares for the island's historic sites, has one of the biggest collections of Cahun's work in the world. Britain Under the Nazis: The Forgotten Occupation, begins tonight on Channel 4 at 8pm. The horror of the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands In June 1940, the Allied forces were defeated in France. The UK government decided the Channel Islands would be too costly to defend and began evacuating military personal and equipment. Prime Minister Winston Churchill was reportedly reluctant to simply abandon the oldest possession of the British crown but succumbed to the reasoning of military advisers. Thousands of residents of the channel island fled to mainland Britain to avoid the incoming Nazis. On Alderney, the most northerly of the main Chanel Islands, the vast majority of the 1,400 natives left the rock that is just three square miles in size. Many people evacuated from the larger Guernsey and Jersey but a large portion of the population opted to stay. The Nazis were unaware the Allied forces had stopped protecting the islands and over the next two weeks began reconnaissance fights over their shores. In total, 44 islanders were killed in a sequence of raids on the ports by the Luftwaffe. The Nazis soon occupied the islands, which became the only part of the British Empire conquered by the German Army. German authorities changed the time zone from GMT to CET in line with the rest of the Third Reich. German occupation also saw the island change to driving on the right hand side of the road. Residents were forced to sell their cars and houses; speak German in schools; give up weapons, boats and cameras; and had limited access to beaches. Hitler believed the occupation of the islands had value as a propaganda tool. As a result, they became heavily fortified. Hitler sent one-twelfth of the steel and concrete used in the Atlantic Wall defence network to go to the Channel Islands. The islands were some of the most densely fortified areas in Europe, with a host of Hohlgangsanlage tunnels, casemates, and coastal artillery positions. Forced labour camps were built on some of the islands, with so-called volunteer camps springing up on Guernsey and Jersey. This forced labour led to the creation of bunkers, gun emplacements, air raid shelters, and concrete fortifications. In 1942, camps on Alderney, called Sylt and Norderney, were built to hold a few hundred forced labourers. However, a year later, on March 1, 1943, they were placed under the control of the SS-Untersturmführer Maximillian List, turning them into concentration camps. He was succeeded by SS-Obersturmführer Georg Braun in March 1944. Both men were long-serving members of the Nazi party. List ordered the 'security to treat the prisoners harshly' and Braun was 'brutal to excess', according to archive information. The labourers were forced to build coastal defences as part of Hitler's 'Atlantic Wall' and it is thought 20 per cent of the camp's population died in the first four months alone. Sylt concentration camp was closed in 1944 and the SS destroyed much of it to hide their crimes. During D-Day on June 6, 1944 the British troops bypassed the heavily armoured islands. It took until May 9 1945 for the Nazis on the islands to surrender, 24 hours after VE day for most of Europe. Guernsey and Jersey were liberated by British troops and ships on this day. Sark was liberated on 10 May 1945, and the German troops in Alderney surrendered on 16 May 1945. Prisoners of war were removed from Alderney by 20 May 1945. Alderney was the last German garrison to surrender following the conclusion of the war.
Telegraph
24-05-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Nazi diary reveals love affairs on occupied Channel Islands
A Nazi diary has revealed details of soldiers' love affairs on the occupied Channel Islands. Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney were held by Nazi Germany from 1940 until after Victory in Europe Day on May 8 1945. Baron Hans Max von Aufsess, Jersey's then civil administrator, kept a diary where he noted down his day's activities, including trysts with the locals. The officer became known as Jerrybags for sleeping with the enemy. Outlining his relationships with Jersey woman, he claimed there was a 'good understanding between the German soldiers and English girls'. 'As long as it occurs in sufficient secrecy, the girls give in to temptation. The Englishwoman is astoundingly simple, effortless and swift in her lovemaking.' Comparing English and French women, he claimed: 'While the Frenchwoman involves herself totally in the game, which she likes to be conducted along intellectual lines, for the Englishwoman it is a surprisingly straightforward physical matter. 'This direct and uncomplicated fashion of making love is not to be underrated.' His memoir, The Von Aufsess Occupation Diary, was published in 1985. The islands, cut-off from mainland Britain, experienced chronic shortages of gas which shrouded the islands in darkness during the occupation. Curfews were set, radios banned, and ovens were only allowed to be used for an hour a day. But the occupiers enjoyed a lifestyle far removed from the 69,000 islanders – sunbathing on beaches, visiting black market restaurants and riding stallions. 'What a peaceful place this is,' he wrote. 'Everything runs pleasantly. The whole island is charming and romantic. Sunday morning begins riding Satan into the golden dawn. I spend the entire afternoon hunting which is wonderfully relaxing. 'I stand under the giant beech and oak trees at Rozel Manor, fully focused on the invading pigeons. I don't miss a single bird in the sky.' He also describes visiting a black market restaurant in a 'splendid location' above St Aubin's Bay. 'They still have the most wonderful things,' he wrote. 'I feel quite embarrassed to have dined there so well.' Baron von Aufsess spent two years in a British prison before returning to Germany. Now historians have found a rare photograph album of SS officers during the occupation in the Fränkische Schweiz-Museum, in Pottenstein, Bavaria. Von Aufsess's album, unveiled in the Channel 4 documentary Britain Under the Nazis: The Forgotten Occupation, shows holiday snaps rather than wartime photos. In one of the images a man, who appears to be von Aufsess, is pictured sunbathing on a beach with his arm around a brunette woman. Louise Willmot, a historian, told the programme: 'I've never seen this before. This is the Von Aufsess album. It is like a tourist guide to the island, which is the last thing you would expect. 'A copy was presented to Hitler, because Hitler had this great interest in this Channel Island prize that Germany had captured.' On June 15, 1940, Sir Winston Churchill ordered the withdrawal of military personnel from the Channel Islands, abandoning its 94,000 islanders to their fate. Some 25,000 chose to evacuate, but the remainder stayed on the islands undefended. On the evening of June 30, one month after the British evacuation at Dunkirk, German forces seized control.
BBC News
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Jersey: Dan Snow says Liberation Day visit was 'profound'
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 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 visited all of the occupation sites on the island, including the Jersey War 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 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 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 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 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.
BBC News
10-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Commando raids on Sark 'helped Channel Islands' liberation'
Intelligence gathered by Allied commando raids during World War Two in Sark helped the liberation of the Channel Islands from Nazi occupation, says a the raids, called Basalt and Hardtack, more rules and restrictions were imposed on Sarkees by the Nazi occupiers and more people were deported to Nazi Nick Le Huray said: "I think it's important we keep telling these stories just so we don't forget what these people went through, and the civil population of Sark - it had an impact on them too."A lot of them were moved from where their houses were into the centre of the island and some of them were sent to Guernsey so it had a massive impact on them." What was Operation Basalt? Operation Basalt was a commando raid that took place on Sark on the night of 3 October, commandos landed on the island by boat and were led by Major Geoffrey Appleyard - thought to be one of men that inspired Ian Fleming's James Bond - who scaled a cliff at Hog's had been a regular visitor to Sark before the war and was charged with finding out about the Nazis' defences, taking prisoners for interrogation, and discovering how islanders were being on pre-war maps and with little knowledge of the situation in the occupied island, they broke into resident Frances Pittard told them about the 300-strong garrison of Nazi soldiers and a small group staying at the Dixcart Hotel. She also gave them newspapers printed in when her actions were discovered, she served time in prison in Guernsey before being deported to an internment camp in commandos killed the sentry at the Dixcart Hotel and captured five sleeping trying to subdue the men, by tying their hands, they fought back and two of them were shot while trying to raid was among those that led to Adolf Hitler's "commando order", which called for any captured men to be executed. With the alarm raised and the approaching dawn, the commandos took their one remaining prisoner - the commander of the engineers - down the cliff to their engineer provided information about Sark's defences and also about the French coast, because his unit had been stationed there the newspapers, they learned of the deportation of civilians to internment camps in Nazi response to the raid, an extra 13,000 mines were laid in Sark. However, this proved to be disastrous for a follow-up raid in 1943, Operation Hardtack, which resulted in two commandos being killed and others wounded. What is Operation Hardtack? There were nine planned Hardtack raids by the Allies over a four-day period in the Channel Islands. The first was in Jersey on Christmas Day 1942. In 1943, eight commandos were attempting to scale Sark's steep cliffs for the second time in 48 with a rudimentary map, Sgt Andre Dignac, a Frenchman nicknamed Tarzan because of his climbing ability, led the group up the cliffs successfully under cover of then encountered a minefield, which killed a French commando, Cpl Robert Dignac was also wounded by an exploding mine and died shortly commandos attempted a retreat, escaping through the darkness, with mines detonating around others were injured, but they made it out of the minefield to their motor gunboat and back across the Sgt Dignac and Cpl Bellamy were buried in a small military section of Sark's cemetery on 30 December that year. A timeline of the Channel Islands' occupation 28 June 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed Jersey and Guernsey, unaware that the islands were undefended, killing 44 people30 June to 25 July 1940, Nazi German forces begin their occupation of Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, Alderney and finally Herm (although troops were not stationed there)6 June 1944, following the D-Day Normandy landings, food lines were cut between the Channel Islands and Nazi-occupied France27 December 1944, the Red Cross ship SS Vega begins delivering food parcels as the islands begin to starve8 May 1945, VE Day, but German forces do not yet surrender9 May 1945, Liberation Day, unconditional surrender signed by Nazi German command in the Channel Islands
