Living with the enemy in the German-occupied Channel Islands

While Great Britain had occupied distant overseas territories in the past, there was little to no advice on how citizens were expected to behave under occupation. The British Treason Act 1800, as amended, gave the consequences of treason. The British Treachery Act 1940 was only passed as a law in the UK on 23 May 1940. The only Jersey law on treason dated from 17 June 1495.[5]

The island governments, headed by their bailiffs, Victor Carey in Guernsey and Alexander Coutanche in Jersey, had been ordered by the British Government to remain on their islands to maintain law and order and to do what they could for the civilians.[6]^:42 This put them under a duty of care. When the lieutenant governors, who were the king's representatives on each island, departed on 21 June 1940, their powers and duties were vested in the bailiffs, namely to protect the islands and their population, taking on the duties of the lieutenant governors added a further duty of care.[7]^:2

In Jersey the Defence (Jersey) Regulations had been passed in 1939 in accordance with powers granted under the Emergency Powers (Jersey Defence) Order in Council of 1939 (although it later transpired that the Privy Council revoked that Order in 1941, unknown to the States of Jersey, thereby putting in doubt the legal basis of measures taken in accordance with the law as it was believed to have been).

The traditional consensus-based governments of the bailiwicks were unsuited to swift executive action, and therefore in the face of imminent occupation, smaller instruments of government were adopted.

In Guernsey, the States of Deliberation 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. Sherwill was selected rather than the bailiff, Sir Victor Carey, as he was a younger and more robust person.[8]^:45 The committee was given almost all the executive power of the States, and had a quorum of three persons under the president (who could nominate additional members). Membership of the Controlling Committee was initially eight members.[9] Sherwill was imprisoned by the Germans as a result of his attempts to shelter the British servicemen in the fallout from Operation Ambassador in 1940. He was released but banned from office in January 1941.[9] Jurat John Leale replaced him as president of the Controlling Committee.[10]

The States of Jersey passed the Defence (Transfer of Powers) (Jersey) Regulation 1940 on 27 June 1940 to amalgamate the various executive committees into eight departments each under the presidency of a States member. The presidents along with the Crown Officers made up the Superior Council under the presidency of the bailiff.[9]

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.[9]

German soldiers would without fail obey orders from their superiors.[12]^:64 The discipline imposed over the German soldiers was generally very good, although as troops were rotated and poorer quality Ostlegionen soldiers serving in the German army began to arrive, there was a fall. Most men realised that they had a safe and secure billet and would not risk a transfer to the eastern front.[12]^: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.[12]^:66 Most soldiers kept their distance from the islanders although some fraternisation took place[12]^:147 and a few soldiers returned after the war to marry their sweethearts. Some soldiers were granted leave to return to Germany and visit their families although as the war progressed, the stories they brought back of bombed cities reduced morale.

Off duty the soldiers were entertained in many ways: locally produced newspapers, they could go to the cinema or one of the churches, there was live entertainment and sport was encouraged. Soldatenheime were established, being similar to a British NAAFI or American PX, officers established clubs. Freudenhaus or brothels were established in Guernsey and Jersey, importing women to work in them. Hobbies, including photography,[12]^:140–47 and of course there were the beaches.

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) and any German originating laws would require the civil authorities to register them in the same manner as local laws.[14]^:55

The civil authorities of each island, represented by the bailiffs, the elected members of the island parliaments, civil servants and emergency services, had of necessity to work in a professional manner with the occupiers for the benefit of the civil population. They had been ordered to do this by the Secretary of State in letters dated 19 June 1940.[15]^:82 It did not stop the Germans from using such arrangements for publicity purposes, such as photographing "British" policemen driving cars, opening doors for and saluting German officers.[16]

On 8 August 1940, less than two months into the occupation, Ambrose Sherwill, President of the Controlling Committee of Guernsey, broadcast on German radio that, while the Channel Islanders remained the "intensely loyal subjects" of the British Sovereign, the behaviour of the German soldiers on Guernsey was "exemplary" and he was grateful for their "correct and kindly attitude." He affirmed that the leaders of the Guernsey government were being treated with courtesy by the German military. Life, he said, was going on just as it did before the occupation. Sherwill's objective was to ease the minds of relatives in Britain about the fate of the islanders. German authorities made propaganda usage of his broadcast. The British government was furious, but Sherwill's speech seems to have been greeted with approval by most of the islander population.[17]

Sherwill's broadcast illustrated the difficulty for the islander government and citizens to co-operate—but stop short of collaborating—with their occupiers and to retain as much independence as possible from German rule. The issue of islander collaboration with the Germans remained quiescent for many years, but was ignited in the 1990s with the release of wartime archives and the subsequent publication of a book titled The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands under German Rule, 1940–1945 by Madeleine Bunting. Language such as the title of one chapter, "Resistance? What Resistance?" incited islander ire.[18] The issue of collaboration was further inflamed by the fictional television programme Island at War (2004) which featured a romance between a German soldier and an islander girl and portrayed favourably the German military commander of the occupation.

Bunting's point was that the Channel Islanders "did not fight on the beaches, in the fields or in the streets. They did not commit suicide, and they did not kill any Germans. Instead they settled down, with few overt signs of resistance, to a hard, dull but relatively peaceful five years of occupation, in which more than half the population was working for the Germans."[19]

On occasion, the island authorities did not undertake their work in the best way possible, for instance offering a reward of £25 for the capture of anyone drawing "V" signs, in today's value, £1,000.[20]^:32 Not being able to explain what they were doing and why, it would leave some inhabitants believing their governments were collaborating with the enemy rather than trying to protect them.[6]^:49

From the start, the islands won the right to keep their civil governments, courts and laws, the only concession being that Germans would have to approve all new laws passed. All German orders affecting the population would have to be registered with the civil authorities, breaches of which would normally be tried in civilian courts rather than German military ones.[6]^:54 To lose this right would result in direct German rule, with the SS and Gestapo moving into the islands. The Germans threatened to do this on various occasions. Under this agreement, unacceptable laws created by the Germans, such as rules regarding Jews, were also registered as laws in the islands.[6]^:59–60[14]^:55–56

Each island could use their committees, a "Controlling Committee" in Guernsey[15]^:84 and an "Executive Bodies" in Jersey, and enacted emergency powers to enable the running of the governments. What was achieved, could be described as subtle passive resistance. 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. A number of cases of police officers turning blind eyes to activities has been recorded, as well as getting Germans arrested for crimes.[21]

Orders of the Commandant of the German Forces in Occupation of the Island of Jersey, 2 July 1940

Mistakes were made. On 1 August 1940, a message was recorded by Ambrose Sherwill to the people in the United Kingdom and especially the children of islanders who had evacuated. With all normal communications shut down, he wanted to let these people know that those left behind were not being mistreated and that the Germans were behaving like gentlemen. Accepted as such by most islanders, when broadcast from Germany it was viewed differently in Britain, coming as it did in the midst of the Battle of Britain. The BBC did not repeat the broadcast as requested.[2]^:79

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.[4]^:89 Objections to paying for an excessive number of troops were raised, and some of the sums charged from 1942 onwards were never paid; however, the income tax rose from 10d to 5/- in Guernsey and from 1/6 to 5/- in Jersey. Surtax and purchase taxes was introduced[22]^:184 and civil service pay reduced, but even so, the islands ended the war with a debt of £9 million,[7]^:108 roughly the total value of every house in the islands.

It was in the interests of both the Germans and the island authorities to clamp down on black market activities. Hoarding food and selling "under the counter" were crimes often linked to thefts and were dealt with by the island police and the military police. Interrogations by the Feldgendarmerie (German Field Police) might involve beatings with "rubber hoses".[23]^:222

Money provided by the Germans, who paid for such things as vehicles they requisitioned, was used, with German help, to fund trips to France to buy thousands of tons of essential food and other materials.[24]^:126 This continued while shipping was made available, until mid 1944.

Unpalatable laws put forward by the Germans were sometimes openly argued against. Laws regarding registration of, and restrictions applied to, Jews were registered in the islands, which caused controversy after the war. The civil authorities could not win many of these battles.[6]^:231 One that Jersey won, was the refusal to allow the "evacuation" to France of patients from their mental health hospital.[11]^:261

The civil authorities were often asked to accumulate information, not knowing what it would be used for; in August 1940 a list of aliens showed 407 in Guernsey.[4]^:112 In October 1940, they produced a list of all German, Austrian and Italian people.[23]^:72 A census was held of all civilians in August 1941. In September 1941, the census was used to make a list of all British-born people. This list identified people for deportation to camps in Germany in 1942 and 1943.[25]^:xv

Prior to the arrival of the German forces, the largest employer had been the States of Jersey and the States of Guernsey. Under the occupation, everything changed, and working-age people who remained still needed jobs to feed their families and themselves. Unemployment in Jersey at Christmas 1940 was 2,400 men.[2]^:95 Many businesses closed or operated on reduced staffing levels, so many jobs vanished. The island governments tried to create suitable relief work. The island authorities introduced pay scales that were lower for single men or men whose wives and children were in England. They also cut the salaries of civil servants in half.[15]^:111–12

Civilian buses were suspended in July 1940. The drivers were still employed by the bus company, but were required to transport German soldiers instead.[4]^:90 Similar situations existed in hotels taken over by Germans.

The German occupying forces, which had a need for builders, electricians, plumbers, mechanics, cleaning staff, quarry men, secretarial staff, labourers, translators and many other trades and skills, offered twice the normal island pay.[26]^:65 All young men in the islands were required to register with the Feldkommandantur so they could be assessed and "recruited" as workers if not employed in useful work elsewhere.[27]^:45 By 1943, around 4,000 islanders were directly employed by the Germans.[7]^: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. The Germans would demand labour be provided. One job involving 180 men was to help level the airport, a clear breach of the Geneva Convention. Others, like gathering in the harvest in Alderney, were less objectionable.[7]^: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,[2]^:229 rationing, requisition of houses (2,750 in Guernsey).[4]^:273 The Germans requisitioned lorries, cars and bicycles, requiring the island government to pay for them.[22]^:167[28]^:44 and confiscation of radios and subversive books.[22]^:154 Necessary items ran out as the war progressed. German soldiers and OT workers were billeted in 17,000 private houses in 1942.[11]^:253 Children had to learn German in school.[24]^:155 Infrequent Red Cross messages between February 1941 and June 1944 were the only communication the islanders had with their evacuated children, relatives and friends.[22]^:195–99

The position of churches and chapels was not easy and while German ministers held military services in borrowed churches, where a German flag was placed over the altar, civilian services were open to all worshippers and many services took place attended by islanders, Germans and OT workers including Russians, praying, singing and taking communion together.[29]^:82–98 Services were sometimes attended by the Feldgendarmerie to ensure sermons complied with the rules.

The deportations of 2190 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.[1]^:44–57 Despite this, the treatment by Germans of the "evacuees" was better than those experienced in other European countries, the Germans provided field kitchens to cook food for the evacuees at the Guernsey harbour, they were put onboard clean ships, transporting them in second class train carriages rather than in horse boxes and giving them rations for the journey.

The 100,000 mines were a risk[11]^:225 that a few people found were fatal. However, lack of essential medicines, like insulin, caused more deaths amongst civilians.

Survival became increasingly hard with reduced rations and lack of fuel. Death rates rose as the occupation progressed.[7]^:116–17 Those with money could supplement their diet with black market produce. Islanders were saved from starvation with the arrival of the SS Vega, bringing Red Cross parcels during the winter of 1944–1945.

During the occupation, no civilian was deported for work in factories in Germany as occurred in most occupied countries. Local people working for the OT were paid and did so voluntarily, they were only employed in the islands. The OT set a pay rate of 60 per cent over normal civilian workers wages for Channel Island workers.[30]^:150 German behaviour towards civilians was generally much better than in any other occupied zone.

Banks, whose main assets were inaccessible at their headquarters in London, had to freeze the bank accounts of their customers. The island governments had to stand guarantor to the banks to get them to make advances to people.[15]^:112

Most businesses continued to operate when possible and stocks lasted. They were not allowed to discriminate between local and German customers. 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. Shops did not hold stocks back for locals until later in the war.[22]^:82 Business hours were reduced, shop workers who had worked nine-hour days, 15 on Saturdays, were reduced to 20 hours a week.[31]^:28

A few businesses decided to work for the Germans. The Guernsey firm Timmer Limited, horticultural suppliers, took over increasing quantities of requisitioned land and greenhouses to grow food exclusively for Germans, and were given access to German transport facilities to export food to France.[4]^:417

Hoarding food and goods became an industry as rationing became stricter and shortages grew worse. Farmers would keep back crops and not register animals born. Goods could always be traded. Both hoarding and bartering were illegal. There were 100 prosecutions in Guernsey in 1944, up from 40 in 1942.[7]^:67

Black marketeering was large scale and profitable. A French doctor was found with a ton each of potatoes and salted beef, and a Jersey youth had £800 in his bank account when caught, a house could be bought for £250 and he was only 16 years old. Some black marketeers were Germans, including officers, and black market restaurants operated.[7]^:67–68 People were caught breaking and entering and stealing goods to sell on the black market. One case in Guernsey of a Frenchman involved 20,000 cigarettes and 40 kg (88 lb) of tobacco.[23]^:219 Even civilian prisoners could supplement their worse than normal rations by paying heavily for black market foods to be brought to them.[29]^:106 Importing restricted goods from France for the black market was not considered a problem by the civilian police as it supplemented local supplies.

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.[35]^:147

No islanders joined active German military units.[39]

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 took to burglary of houses left unoccupied by families that had evacuated. In 1942, they were sentenced by the German military court for a number of offences and sent to Dijon to serve their sentences. They returned to Jersey on their release in February 1943, but were deported as undesirables to Kreuzberg in Germany.[39] They both joined the British Free Corps (Britisches Freikorps) a unit of the Waffen SS, which comprised at its peak just 27 men.[40] Pleasants ended up at large in Soviet-occupied Berlin until he was caught in 1946 and sent to a prison in Siberia. He was repatriated in 1952. Leister was jailed by British courts for three years.

Eddie Chapman, an Englishman, was in prison for burglary in Jersey when the invasion occurred. Chapman and fellow prisoner Anthony Faramus a Jerseyman, offered to work for the Germans as spies. They were arrested by the Germans and sent to Fort de Romainville France. Faramus was rejected and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp; he would survive the war. Chapman was accepted by the Abwehr and, under the code name Fritz, trained as a spy. On landing in Britain, he turned himself in to the authorities and became a British double agent under the code name ZigZag,[41]^:120 ending the war with an Iron Cross from Hitler, a British pardon and £6,000 from MI5.[42]

Pearl Vardon, a Jersey-born teacher, spoke German and worked for an Organisation Todt company as an interpreter. After entering into a relationship with a Wehrmacht officer, Oberleutnant Siegfried Schwatlo, when he was posted to Germany in 1944, she decided to go with him. Vardon began working as an announcer at Radio Luxembourg for the Deutsche Europa Sender (DES). She read out letters written by British prisoners-of-war to their families back home. A German colleague later said of Vardon's attitude that she "simply hated all things English and loved all things German".[43] Vardon was tried at the Old Bailey in February 1946.[44] There she pleaded guilty to the offence of "doing an act likely to assist the enemy" and was given a nine-month prison sentence.

John Lingshaw from Jersey was deported to Oflag VII-C in Laufen in 1942. In August 1943 he volunteered and was employed to teach English to a group of 15 women working in the German propaganda service.[45] After the war he was prosecuted in the Old Bailey and sentenced to five years’ penal servitude.[46]

Some island women fraternised with the occupying forces. This was frowned upon by the majority of islanders, who gave them the derogatory nickname "Jerry-bags".[11]^:201 The extent of "horizontal collaboration" has been exaggerated.[10] Records released by the Public Records Office in 1996 suggest that as many as 900 babies of German fathers were born to Jersey women during the occupation.[47] The Germans themselves estimated their troops had been responsible for fathering 60 to 80 illegitimate births in the Channel Islands.[10]

Following liberation, the Security Service calculated a figure of 320 illegitimate births in the islands, estimating that of those 180 were due to German fathers.[11]^:201 The majority (95 per cent) of women did not have relationships with Germans.[1]^:236 The German military authorities themselves tried to prohibit sexual fraternisation in an attempt to reduce the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. 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.[24]^:181

There were very few cases of maltreatment of the island women or their children during the war, as there was always the risk of being informed on; however, some were sent postcards saying "you are number X on the list for a haircut". Local girls seen out with Germans after the curfew were arrested for breach of the curfew law.[23]^:291 After liberation, attempts to abuse the girls were defused by the police and British soldiers.[2]^:130 Some girls were helped to leave the islands as soon as possible.[48]^:69 A number of German soldiers returned and married their island sweethearts.[2]^:212

Being civil to each other was expected by both sides. Germans attended islanders' cricket matches, and cinemas were divided with separate areas allocated to Germans and civilians.[24]^:180 The German army regularly put on music concerts open to the public. Dances were held, with local ladies invited to attend. A few families became friendly with a specific soldier or OT worker. More than 20 Spanish Republican OT workers stayed and married Jersey women after the war.[11]^:200

Men and older women, as well as young girls, became friends with Germans. A complete mix were caught out after curfew with soldiers.[23]^:274

Baron von Aufsess, a very senior German commander in Jersey was out walking when he came across a woman and her daughter collecting wood, which was illegal. He recognised them and, surprisingly, carried their bundle of firewood back to their house and was invited in for a cup of tea. Thereafter the Baron became a regular visitor, with musical evenings enjoyed by all three.[6]^:124

The British commander after the liberation heard evidence from many people of collaboration. Talks of "lobster dinners" for Germans were dismissed, as were most other accusations as hearsay, second-hand accounts and "tittle tattle".[6]^:274

There were a number of cases of anonymous letters sent to the German authorities denouncing fellow islanders for crimes. The reasons for these letters may well be personal rather than acts of collaboration. A few letters were intercepted by the post office, the head of whom steamed open the envelopes and having read the contents, "lost" the letters or delayed them until the accused could be warned.[23]^:224 Other letters were not anonymous, as people were attracted by the 20–50 German Reichsmark reward offered to informers by the Germans.[1]^:254 On Sark, an islander nailed to a tree a list of everyone with an illegal radio; the local commandant was shocked by this betrayal and refused to act on the information.[49]^:161

People were arrested, imprisoned and subsequently died after being denounced. Louisa Gould was one. She had been sheltering an escaped OT slave worker. She was denounced by two "old biddies", elderly spinsters living next door who sent an anonymous letter. Though not prosecuted after the war, the old ladies were ostracised for the rest of their lives.[6]^:185 Informers were hated more than the Germans by the civilian population.[28]^:43

• Bell, William M. (2002), "Guernsey Occupied But Never Conquered", The Studio Publishing Services, ISBN 978-0952047933.
• Carre, Gilly, Sanders, Paul, Willmot, Louise, (2014), Protest, Defiance and Resistance in the Channel Islands: German Occupation, 1940–45, Bloomsbury Academic, ISBN 978-1472509208.
• Cruickshank, Charles (2004), "The German occupation of the Channel Islands", The History Press, ISBN 978-0750937498.
• Faramus, Anthony, (1990) Journey Into Darkness. Foreword by Greville Janner. Grafton. ISBN 978-0-246-13490-5.
• King, Peter (1991), “The Channel Islands War 1940–1945”, Robert Hale Limited, ISBN 978-0709045120.
• Macintyre, Ben, (2007) Agent Zigzag. Bloomsbury, ISBN 0-7475-8794-9.
• Mière, Joe (2004), "Never to Be Forgotten", Channel Island Publishing, ISBN 978-0954266981.
• Nettles, John (2012), Jewels & Jackboots, Channel Island Publishing & Jersey War Tunnels, ISBN 978-1-905095-38-4.
• Sanders, Paul (2005), “The British Channel Islands under German Occupation 1940–1945” Jersey Heritage Trust / Société Jersiaise, ISBN 0953885836.
• Tabb, Peter (2005), A peculiar occupation, Ian Allan Publishing, ISBN 0-7110-3113-4.