Working with the German occupiers of the Channel Islands

The German occupation of the Channel Islands lasted from 30 June 1940 to 9 May 1945. During that time, the Channel Islanders had to live under and obey the laws of Nazi Germany.
Prelude
The Bailiwick of Jersey comprises the Island of Jersey and many islets. The Bailiwick of Guernsey comprises the islands of Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and a few small unoccupied islands and islets.
Over 25,000 people had evacuated to Britain including most children, but Jersey still had 41,101, Guernsey 24,429 and Sark 470. Alderney had just 18. The Governments in Jersey and Guernsey were operational, the emergency services were understaffed as a number of people had gone to the UK.
The British Government had decided on 15 June to demilitarise the Islands so all military personnel, weapons and equipment had been taken to England. They did not tell the Germans and on 28 June German bombers appeared in the skies and attacked both Islands. They bombed and strafed various places including the harbours of Saint Peter Port and Saint Helier killing 44 and wounding over 70 civilians. A ship in Guernsey harbor returned ineffective fire.
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 in their Islands to maintain law and order and to do what they could for the civil population who remained in the Islands. This put them under a duty of care. When the Lieutenant Governors, who were the Kings representative in each Island departed on 21 June 1940, the powers and duties of the Lieutenant Governor of each Island vested in the Islands Bailiff, namely to protect the Islands and their population. Another duty of care.
The attitude of trying 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 seems to have been the plan of the local German command. Resistance activity by Islanders would not be tolerated, the level of punishments issued to the guilty being a deterrent to others.
The Germans were not averse to using propaganda on the Islanders, open air band concerts were promoted and one of the 1942 deportees, an Irish man, Denis Cleary was returned to the Island with glowing reports of centrally heated huts, soldiers carrying the luggage of the internees and abundant food.
Working with the Germans
Civil authorities
The Civil authorities in each Island, represented by the Bailiff's, 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 told to do this by the Secretary of State in letters dated 19 June 1940. It did not stop the Germans using such arrangements for publicity purposes, such as photographing "British" Policemen driving cars, opening doors for and saluting German Officers. Occupation film Also on occasions the Island authorities did not undertake their work in the best way possible, for instance offering a reward for the capture of anyone drawing "V" signs. Not being able to explain what they were doing and why, it would leave some inhabitants believing their governments were collaborating rather than the intention of trying to protect them.
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 in the Islands were not being mistreated and 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 middle of the Battle of Britain. The BBC did not repeat the broadcast as requested. Objections to paying for an excessive number of troops were made and some of the sums charged from 1942 onwards were never paid, however Income Tax rose from 10d to 5/- in Guernsey and 1/6 to 5/- in Jersey. Surtax and Purchase tax was introduced 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". This continued whilst 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.
Civilians
Prior to the arrival of the German forces, the largest employer had been the States of Jersey and the States of Guernsey. Under Occupation, everything changed and working age people who remained in the Islands still needed jobs to earn money to feed their families and themselves. Unemployment in Jersey at Christmas 1940 was 2,400 men. By 1943 around 4,000 Islanders were directly employed by the Germans. running out of necessary items as the war progressed. German soldiers and OT workers were billeted in 17,000 private houses in the Islands in 1942.
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, being given access to German transport facilities to export food grown to France.
In 1942 eighteen Guernsey Police Officers were tried before the German Military Court for stealing or receiving foodstuffs and wood from the German military store.
A total of around 4,000 islanders were sentenced for breaking laws during the five year occupation, just over 1% of the population per annum. People had to wait to serve prison time due to overcrowding. 570 prisoners were sent to continental prisons and camps, of which at least 31 died.
Resistance
Resistance took place in the Islands and if people were caught the penalties were severe.
Collaboration
Joining the German Army
No Islanders joined active German military units;
British Freikorps
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. Pleasants ended up in a prison in Siberia until repatriated in 1952, Leister was jailed by British Courts for three years.
Working for the Nazi regime
Eddie Chapman, an Englishman, was in prison for burglary in Jersey when the invasion occurred. Chapman and a fellow prisoner Anthony Faramus a Jersey man, offered to work for the Germans as spies. Faramus was rejected and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, he would survive the war. Chapman was accepted and under the code name Fritz became a spy. On landing in Britain he then became a British double agent under the code name ZigZag, ending the war with a medal from Hitler, a British pardon and £6,000 from MI5
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 employment as an announcer at Radio Luxembourg for the DES, the Deutsche Europasender. She read out letters written by British POWs for 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". Vardon was tried at the Old Bailey in February 1946. There she pleaded guilty to the offence of ‘doing an act likely to assist the enemy’ and was given a nine-month prison sentence.
Fraternisation
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. The Germans themselves had estimated their troops had been responsible for fathering 60 to 80 illegitimate births in the Channel Islands.
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.
People were arrested, imprisoned and subsequently died after being denounced. Louisa Gould was one. She had been sheltering an escaped OT slave worker. Denounced by two “old biddies”, elderly spinsters living next door who had sent an anonymous letter. Not prosecuted after the war, they were ostracized for the rest of their lives. that most of the allegations lacked substance and only 12 cases of collaboration were considered for prosecution, but the Director of Public Prosecutions had ruled out prosecutions on insufficient grounds. In particular, it was decided that there were no legal grounds for proceeding against those alleged to have informed to the occupying authorities against their fellow-citizens. The only trials connected to the Occupation of the Channel Islands to be conducted under the Treachery Act 1940 were against individuals from among those who had come to the Islands from Britain in 1939-1940 for agricultural work. These included conscientious objectors associated with the Peace Pledge Union and people of Irish extraction.
The Bailiffs of each Island were cleared of every accusation of being “Quislings” and Collaborators. Both were given knighthoods for patriotic service in 1945.<ref name=PKCIW/>
Germans were investigated, particularly regarding the deportations, the outcome concluding that no war crimes had been committed in Jersey, Guernsey or Sark. As regards Alderney however, a court case was recommended over the ill treatment and killing of the OT slave workers there.<ref namePTAPO/> No trial every took place in Britain or Russia, two OT overseers were however tried in France and sentenced to many years of imprisonment.<ref nameJNJ&J/>
Deaths during the occupation:<ref name=PKCIW/>
* German forces: about 550
* OT workers: over 700 (500 graves and 200 drowned when a ship was sunk)
* Allied forces: about 550 (504 from the sinking of HMS Charybdis and HMS Limbourne)
* Civilians: about 150, mainly air raids, deportees and in prisons (excludes Island deaths from malnutrition and the cold)
From the people who had left the Islands in 1939/40 and been evacuated in 1940, 10,418 Islanders served with allied forces.<ref name=JM/> A higher percentage of civilians died in the islands per head of pre war population than in the UK.
* Jersey citizens: of 5,978 who served, 516 died
* Guernsey citizens: of 4,011 who served, 252 died
* Alderney citizens: of 204 who served, 25 died
* Sark citizens: of 27 who served, 1 died
A higher percentage of serving people from the islands died per head of pre war population than in the UK.
Surviving evacuees, deportees and service people returned to a very changed and damaged Island.

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