Issue 32.12
I had a Granddaughter-in-Law who went to the Isle of Guernsey on an educational field study abroad for part of her requirements for a university degree. While there she stayed with a single lady in her apartment. This person was a native of the island and so was a great help. Before her journey, I asked Amy to get me information about the World War 2 impact on the people. These two islands of Guernsey and Jersey have an interesting story to tell. Guernsey was the distance of only seven miles from the mainland of Europe which is France. This is within easy artillery shelling distance from France.
After the fall of France and the Low Countries in 1940, hundreds of thousands of British troops were saved from annihilation at the hands of the victorious Germans by the valiant effort known as the evacuation of Dunkirk. The British knew these two islands would be indefensible so at that time they evacuated all of the children up to the age of fourteen to be sent to English families to be taken care of for the duration of the war. That would be a long separation from 1940 to
1945. When the children finally came back to their own families, there were many painful adjustments. One girl aged fourteen, who stayed on the island, went to work at a German
Officers dining and worked with French workers and became fluent with the French language.
She tells of stealing food off the plate of the commander to help keep her alive. When her siblings returned to their home in 1945, they no longer spoke Guernsey French but now spoke English. The British declared these islands to be non defensive but the Germans occupied them regardless. These islands were the only English soil conquered and occupied by the Germans during World War 2. This occupation started soon after Dunkirk and lasted until long after the D-day invasion. During the occupation, the English people were treated much more humanely than were subjugated people from Eastern Europe. There was a strong contingent of soldiers that occupied the islands and they were mostly Austrians. The enemy soldiers and the native civilians mingled quite freely.
During the early days of the war, Hitler had delusional fantasies that Great Britain would join with them in a war against the Soviet Union, but the relentless bombing of English cities soon ruled that idea out. Besides a sizable German military contingent on the island they established a concentration camp on a small off shore islet from which virtually none lived to be freed. The island residents were allowed to keep their radios and could carryon an almost normal life until British commandoes staged a raid on the occupying military. After that the Germans gathered up all the civilian radios but some of the people built home made crystal receiving sets. A total of thirty-eight people who had these sets discovered were sent to concentration camps on the mainland. These people in concentration camps actually ate better than the ones left on the island, because food was so scarce that the remaining people were on a near starvation diet which got worse as the war progressed.
The history of these islands tells us that at the time of the wars between England and France, these people were given their choice as to whether they would be part of France or of England.
They were given tax benefits inducements that benefit these islands to this day. Liberation day anniversary is the most important holiday for these people even to this day.
Sam Wyrouck can be contacted at 801-707-2666.