The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule, 1940-1945 - Madeline Bunting
The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule, 1940-1945 - Madeline Bunting
Non-Fiction
Pages: 400
The Occupation of the Channel Islands has become something of a footnote in Britain's history of World War II, a fact that might seem somewhat surprising. You would think the invasion and occupation of sovereign British soil by the forces of Nazi Germany for the duration of the war would merit rather more attention. And yet it seems as though all parties, the islanders, the British government and the German occupying forces, would rather forget it ever happened. Right from the moment of Liberation the process of forgetting began - there were no trials of Germans after the Liberation, and no memorials for the dead, no recognition of heroic acts. And there's a reason for that.
The Occupation of the Channel Islands upsets the mythic history of Britain's war, the belief that the British were different from the rest of the Continent, that when Churchill said we would fight on the beaches and in the streets, he and the rest of the population meant every word. The problem with the Channel Islands is that they didn't fight, not on the beaches, not in the streets, not in the fields or the landing grounds.
The islanders settled down to a peaceful occupation remarkably quickly, and the island governments reached an accommodation with the Germans that saw the occupiers working through the governmental structure already in place, with the pre-war official remaining in office and passing laws, regulations, announcements and orders on behalf of the Germans. Many then and after considered it dangerously close to, if not outright, collaboration. And the process of forgetting began very quickly - whilst the government issued many calls for resistance across Europe, whilst the King and Churchill mentioned other occupied areas of the Empire in messages and speeches, the BBC broadcast messages and programmes devoted to exiles and occupied areas, a tacit conspiracy of silence settled over any mention of the Channel Islands. No-one wanted to acknowledge that Hitler had already penetrated Britain's Island Fortress.
As a result of this desire to forget, histories of the Channel Islands occupation have been few and far between. Many islanders have been reluctant to talk, and tracking down the predominantly Russian slave labourers from the SS camp on Alderney was well-nigh impossible until the break-up of the Soviet Union. So this is one of the rare books on the Occupation that focuses on the men, women and children who actually lived through the war under German rule (I use the term German, not Nazi, as Madeline Bunting points out that very few of the Germans were actually Nazi party members and there was no Gestapo on the islands), as opposed to a primarily military account of bunkers, fortifications, mine fields and attempted raids. It's an excellent read, ranging from legal accommodations and personal fraternisations to small acts of rebellion and sabotage, those islanders deported to concentration camps, the slave labour camps, the experiences of the small number of resident Jews, the hardships and deprivations and, still, the pleasures and opportunities of wartime. Whilst it may be damning with faint praise, given the aforementioned scarcity of books on this topic, if I had to recommend one book on the Occupation, it would be this one.