Civilian life under the German occupation of the Channel Islands
During that time, the Channel Islanders had to live under and obey the laws of Nazi Germany and work with their occupiers in order to survive and reduce the impact of occupation.
[1]: 193 Overall, and considering that at times there were two German soldiers and one Organisation Todt (OT) worker for every five civilians in the very small land area in the islands, there was minimal contact and socialising.
[12]: 2 In Guernsey, the States of Deliberation had voted on 21 June 1940 to hand responsibility for running island affairs to a Controlling Committee, under the presidency of HM Attorney General Ambrose Sherwill.
[13] Since the legislatures met in public session, the creation of smaller executive bodies that could meet behind closed doors enabled freer discussion of matters such as how far to comply with German orders.
[13] The governments of the islands enacted emergency legislation to manage the crisis and, when the occupiers arrived, had to come to arrangements to reduce the impact of the occupation on the civilians under their care.
Amongst the notable events was feeding and hiding a few OT workers, at the cost of a number of civilians being imprisoned and the death of Louisa Gould in Ravensbrück concentration camp.
[12]: 26 The local German command seems to have tried to keep the civilian population as happy as possible, letting them govern themselves, paying them for work done and not enacting too many draconian orders sent over from France.
Open air band concerts were promoted, and one of the 1942 deportees, Irishman Denis Cleary, was returned to the island with glowing reports of centrally-heated huts, soldiers carrying the luggage of the internees and abundant food.
[20]: 66 Soldiers quickly discovered that the islanders did not consider themselves British but were loyal to the King and Queen, simply looking forward to the day when the Germans would depart.
The islands were promoted as a tourist destination for German soldiers with guide book 'Die Kanalinseln: Jersey - Guernsey - Sark' by Hans Auerbach which was printed in 1942 in Paris.
The island authorities were allowed to continue managing the civilian population, courts, and services, with limited interference, subject to all new laws requiring German knowledge (and therefore consent).
Co-operation had benefits, such as getting permission to obtain wood for civilian use, keeping rations at a higher level, being allowed to use German shipping to import food and clothing from France.
[28] Like many occupied countries, the islands were required to pay the costs of the German troops that were stationed there, including wages, rent, food, drinks, transport and the salaries of those they employed.
[12]: 72 Most of the skilled workers in the German building businesses under the collective Organisation Todt (OT) were volunteers, paid for their work and fed better than the drafted forced labourers from many nations, who were treated like slaves.
[12]: 73–74 Everyone had to put up with ID cards and a list of rules, such as not singing patriotic songs and cycling on the right, restrictions such as curfews and on fishing,[7]: 229 rationing, requisition of houses (2,750 in Guernsey).
The deportations of 2,190 UK-born men, women, children and babies to Germany, the main group in September 1942, triggered a few suicides in Guernsey, Sark and Jersey, as well as the first public show of patriotism, resulting in arrests and imprisonment.
[citation needed] On Sark, apart from two raids by British commandos, Operation Basalt and Hardtack 7, an Avro Lancaster bomber crash landing on the island [37] and some of their citizens being included in the deportations, wartime occupation was largely peaceful and the soldiers very well behaved.
[7]: 101 Late in 1941 Hitler took the decision to fortify the islands and in the winter of 1941 and spring tens of thousands of soldiers and 15,000 construction workers arrived, all requiring accommodation.
[44]: 41 Despite the reduction in the civilian population following the departure of evacuees up to June 1940, the increasing number of German soldiers and from 1942 OT workers made demands on limited resources.
[42]: 57 Rationed calories halved in the winter of 1944/5 making food an obsession, with the poor in the towns having to spend hours queuing for a few cabbage leaves and potato peelings, fainting with hunger, even after the life saving Red Cross parcels started to arrive.
The Germans had a very favourable exchange rate, so while shops had goods, including clothes, boots, cigarettes, tea and coffee, they bought everything up in massive quantities and posted them back to Germany, many for resale at a profit.
[7]: 196 Shops quickly ran out of supplies, the buyers were German soldiers wanting to send parcels of luxuries home as well as locals, who had some money, buying up goods whilst they were available.
German reaction was initially mild with warnings, then radios were confiscated from areas where the signs appeared, then men were required to stand guard duty in rotation all night for weeks to avoid a recurrence.
In Alderney, the Lager Sylt commandant, Karl Tietz was brought before a court-martial in April 1943 and sentenced to 18 months penal servitude for the crime of selling on the black market, cigarettes and watches and valuables he had bought from Dutch OT workers.
The message recorded by Ambrose Sherwill was broadcast and caused controversy as it mentioned the exemplary conduct of the German soldiers and how the population was being well looked after.
[60] One of the French artillery pieces brought to the island and installed in Batterie Strassburg at Jerbourg Point in 1942 may have been sabotaged in France, as the breach exploded on the 22 cm gun when it was fired, killing several German marines.
[62] Eric Pleasants, a British seaman, met up with Dennis Leister, an Englishman of German extraction who had gone to Jersey as part of the Peace Pledge Union party.
They opened brothels for soldiers and OT workers, staffed mainly by French prostitutes, who were able to earn a good income, under German medical supervision.
[11]: 274 In August 1944, the German Foreign Ministry made an offer to Britain, through the Swiss Red Cross, that would see the release and evacuation of all Channel Island civilians except for men of military age.
[46]: 155 In November the Germans instigated a message, after getting agreement with the Bailiff of Jersey, to send to Britain details of the current level of food stocks available to the civilians.
