On 14/1/08 10:02, in article ,
"Eddy" wrote:

Sacha wrote:
If you feel you'd like to Eddy, do email me and tell me about your family
and which island they were in - not Alderney, I hope! Remove the 'weeds'
from my address for email.

Thanks, Sacha. That's really kind. The truth is that the whole episode
is riven with pain. My parents went to an extraordinary length to
forget what the internment did to my grandparents & uncle but their
effort at suppression ultimately failed, and tragically. At the same
time, my father who amazingly survived five years flying in Bomber
Command, suffered horrific flashbacks & memories until he died. It's
all awful. I have looked into it all in depth only recently and a
little while ago saw that for my own happiness I needed to put it
largely aside, though never entirely of course.

You could say that this attitude is part of the problem why the young
don't care or know about what happened. Even we, the children, of those
who were directly involved, find it too painful to constantly remember!

Best Wishes,
Eddy.


It sounds truly appalling and I am so sorry to hear that your family
suffered such tragedy. Mine, by comparison, came through it unscathed but
with strong memories of what it was to live under enemy rule and to be cut
off from the mainland in every sense of that phrase. My grandfather, who
was Rector of one of the parishes had one of the illegal wireless sets, so
they got some English news from time to time but of course, lived in fear
always, of being discovered. Unlike many who became very frugal with food,
my mother became a major 'over caterer' and swears it's because of their
near starvation during the Occupation. None of my family was, thank
heaven, interned but one of my mother's friends was the only British
survivor of Belsen and his sister died in Auschwitz. They were sent there
for harbouring a young Russian prisoner of war who had escaped. All this
ended only 60 or so years ago and it slips so quickly from public knowledge
and its dreadful implications are forgotten.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Sacha wrote:
It sounds truly appalling and I am so sorry to hear that your family
suffered such tragedy. Mine, by comparison, came through it unscathed but
with strong memories of what it was to live under enemy rule and to be cut
off from the mainland in every sense of that phrase. My grandfather, who
was Rector of one of the parishes had one of the illegal wireless sets, so
they got some English news from time to time but of course, lived in fear
always, of being discovered. Unlike many who became very frugal with food,
my mother became a major 'over caterer' and swears it's because of their
near starvation during the Occupation. None of my family was, thank
heaven, interned but one of my mother's friends was the only British
survivor of Belsen and his sister died in Auschwitz. They were sent there
for harbouring a young Russian prisoner of war who had escaped. All this
ended only 60 or so years ago and it slips so quickly from public knowledge
and its dreadful implications are forgotten.

Sacha,

Very good to hear all this from you. Thanks.

I've read a couple of books in the last year about the occupation of the
Channel Islands. Some are much better than others. I have sensed a
need amongst Channel Islanders today to put a good face on it all. So
it's all very difficult to piece together. There are photographs for
example of begging letters from Jewish shopkeepers to the island
authorities who have requested them (as a result of Nazi pressure) to
shut up shop, there are photographs of soldiers holding a decapitated
animals (including cats!) up for the camera prior to cooking them, there
are sketches and photos too of the bleak camps the POWs were kept in
Germany. And, as you say, there are accounts of the hidden radio-sets
amongst the folk in Jersey and various attempts at sabotage and
outwitting the Nazis. And today there are exchange schemes between the
islands and the towns in Germany where the camps were, mostly for the
benefit of school-age youngsters I note. Both sides today are being
very jolly about it, being very proud of the positive gains they are
making as a result of "the reconciliation and healing process". And I
have sensed the last thing they want are people (like me) emerging out
of the woodwork all these years later to tell them of the catastrophic
effect it all had on unforgotten people's lives. My grandparents were
both 58 years old when they were transported off to the POW camp in
Germany to be incarcerated behind barbed wire for three years. I gather
that the young ones, the teenagers, who went with the adults managed it
all fairly well. Young people are so much more adaptable. I have
corresponded with a couple of old chaps who are still alive today and I
have got the impression they remember it all with a touch of relish. It
was all rather exciting for them, as boys. I expect that their parents
shielded them from concerns that they might never be released, that the
Nazis might not be beaten, that RAF bombers might accidentally bomb them
one night, and so forth. I find myself about to say, "It must have been
hell!" but because of what I discovered happened to my grandparents and
uncle once they were returned to the UK after their camp was liberated I
KNOW it was hell for them. People's lives wrecked forever after. They
weren't soldiers, they didn't lose limbs, but psychologically they were
wrecked.

Anyway . . .

Eddy.

On 14/1/08 20:51, in article ,
"Eddy" wrote:

Sacha wrote:
It sounds truly appalling and I am so sorry to hear that your family
suffered such tragedy. Mine, by comparison, came through it unscathed but
with strong memories of what it was to live under enemy rule and to be cut
off from the mainland in every sense of that phrase. My grandfather, who
was Rector of one of the parishes had one of the illegal wireless sets, so
they got some English news from time to time but of course, lived in fear
always, of being discovered. Unlike many who became very frugal with food,
my mother became a major 'over caterer' and swears it's because of their
near starvation during the Occupation. None of my family was, thank
heaven, interned but one of my mother's friends was the only British
survivor of Belsen and his sister died in Auschwitz. They were sent there
for harbouring a young Russian prisoner of war who had escaped. All this
ended only 60 or so years ago and it slips so quickly from public knowledge
and its dreadful implications are forgotten.

Sacha,

Very good to hear all this from you. Thanks.

I've read a couple of books in the last year about the occupation of the
Channel Islands. Some are much better than others. I have sensed a
need amongst Channel Islanders today to put a good face on it all. So
it's all very difficult to piece together.

There aren't that many around who remember it clearly. My mother is nearly
90 so hers is first-hand experience but she's in a dwindling minority. Most
who remember it now, remember it either as children themselves or from what
their parents told them. As in all history, the memories will become
diluted, distorted, faded over time.
If you haven't read it, I do recommend A Doctor's Occupation (De Gruchy's in
Jersey sell it as does the Société Jersiaise, I think or I'd be happy to
lend you a copy) I think it's valuable in that it gives a first-hand
accurate account by a professional who had to deal with the Germans, the
local authorities and the people of the island. His descriptions are vivid
and never sentimental. I imagine you know of the books on this site?
http://www.jerseyheritagetrust.org/edu/resources/
snip

When we celebrated 50 years of Liberation, I was my parish's committee
secretary and one of the things we did was to organise talks by people who
had experienced the Occupation and experienced it in different forms. Miss
Le Huquet, who was a young teacher at the parish school in the war, vowed
never to leave the parish boundaries during the Occupation and she never
did. Why that was her choice I don't know but it seemed as if she felt that
if the Germans were going to restrict her she'd impose tougher restrictions
on herself and survive them. She lived beyond 90 years of age. But 50 years
on she still spoke of "those Germans" as if she was uttering a swear word.
Some who talked to us were, as you describe, teenagers at the time or even
younger and to them deportation and internment was a great adventure. Some
were interned in beautiful places with plentiful food and only as adults
became aware that they'd survived rather better than islanders, though not,
of course, from choice!
One of the little ironies of the futility of war came my way in a story told
by my grandfather. Although of Jersey blood, he was born in Co. Durham and
had a slight Geordie accent all his life. One night, during the Occupation,
his blackout wasn't secure and a German soldier knocked on the door to tell
him to fix it. They exchanged a few polite words and before the soldier
moved off he asked my grandfather how he came to have a Geordie accent.
Grandpa explained and asked the soldier how he, a German, recognised it.
The soldier said that before the war he'd been a waiter working in a
restaurant in Newcastle on Tyne.....
And now perhaps after this, we'd better stop, do you think? The email offer
remains open!
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'