The Channel Islands At War (16 page)

Well-off Islanders who fraternized with Germans inviting them to their houses, dining with them, lending them books, riding and playing sport with them, were assured of favourable treatment. Von Aufsess wrote as late as September 1944 that 'there are still many rich people' in Jersey. Mrs Hathaway admitted to entertaining Germans from all three Islands. Von Aufsess often visited Miss White at Samarez Manor who lost only two valuable items during the occupation. Another of his friends was Mrs Riley of Rozel Manor where in April 1945 they ate cakes of pre
-war quality, while Mrs
Tremayne
was writing the same week, i don't think there are any potatoes or bread, it is slow starvation'. Was it callousness or indifference to people in another class that allowed Mrs Riley to entertain a German in this way?

The gathering of wood was illegal and people were prosecuted for doing so. One afternoon von Aufsess came across a mother and daughter gathering kindling. He helped them carry it home, a fire was made, and soon 'we were all sitting round the glowing hearth ... like friends'. They shared the contents of Red Cross parcels, and although fraternization had now been banned by von H
ü
ffme
ier, Mrs Fielding and her dau
ghter, were allowed by von Aufse
ss to visit him at Linden Court 'making a discreet entrance through the back door'. This happened in February 1945. On several occasions Mrs Tremayne indulged in outbursts in her diary about the friendliness of people towards the Germans which made her 'positively sick'. On Guernsey. Mrs Cortvriend described the atmosphere of denunciation and betrayal as 'revolting' referring particularly to anonymous letters about people breaking regulations by listening to the wireless, or obtaining more food. 'When the existence of traitors among us became commonly known [she wrote] we learnt to tread warily, to look over our shoulders when passing on the news, not only from fear that the Germans might overhear us. We began to avoid certain people and to be cautious of our remarks before any of whose trustworthiness we were in doubt, and this feeling was to many of us one of the most repellent experiences we had ever known.'

No one had done more to denounce collaboration and encourage resistance in Europe than Churchill, and after the war he paid tribute frequently to European resistance. In spite of all attempts to stop it there had been resistance and sabotage on a small scale in the Islands unaided by those in positions where help would have been invaluable, or by organizations specifically set up by Churchill to help such resistance, but this small band of British resistance heroes and heroines was left unacknowledged. It would surely have been natural for him to visit the only part of the British Isles to suffer occupation.

The Guernsey Liberation Council, an unofficial body, wanted to ask Churchill to visit the Channel Islands, but the governor turned down their request in March 1946 saying someone equally distinguished had already been asked. In November 1947, Churchill again refused to visit the Islands and made no promise about any future visit. As Prime Minister in di
rect contact with Sir Stewart Menzie
s of MI6 receiving details from their European agents, MI9 agents, SOE operatives and MI5 vetting of escapers from the Islands, Churchill must have known a good deal about the ruling class who in many cases had run occupation government and were fully restored to their former power. A war office summary o
f information provided by escape
rs up to October 1944 pointed out that there was widespread discontent among ordinary citizens with the conduct of state officials and many wanted the Islands to be incorporated in England after the war as an ordinary county. Such demands were still being made in the summer of 1945 to the British military government. The report said that many officials were accused of passiv
ity, inefficiency, overwillingne
ss to co-operate with the Germans, and profiting from the black market. Even though, as the report said, ordinary citizens could not know all the circumstances surrounding Island government activities, evidence of such activities may have influenced Churchill's decision not to visit the Island.

Part 3

Collaboration

The Forces of Law and Order: The Black Market

Although no specific attempts were made by British Intelligence to find out what was going on in the Channel Islands, reports filte
red through in other ways from escape
rs or people on the Continent in contact with the Islands able to convey information to SOE or MI9 operatives. Among such reports was one on Jersey in 1944 dealing with collaboration among ordinary people which seemed to be on a widespread scale.

The report referred to dealing in the black market which 'is due to the meagre rations issued and is practically universal from the highest to the lowest. Jurats, Deputies etc.
are
not above it and are some of the worst offenders. Farmers are making large sums of money by holding up supplies and then selling them at very enhanced prices to those who can afford to pay. Those who have any stocks of unobtainable commodities are selling what they have at exorbitant prices.' The report highlighted, secondly, the work of informers described as 'quislings' assisting 'the Gestapo' by 'informing on their fellow citizens. Among their activities is informing about people who have kept wireless receiving sets. It is understood they are paid by the Germans for each person they hand over.' The report said Irish and Italian hotel workers were particularly prone to informing. Finally the report gave details of fraternization by local women who had been 'prostituting themselves with the Germans in the most shameless manner', some of whom had become informers.

Collaboration by ordinary people is much more understandable than by those in authority. Had they passed over opportunities to help the Germans they were the most likely to suffer retaliation from the German law and order forces. It is important to remember that law courts, police, and prisons were subordinated to the German will, and alongside them appeared some of the apparatus of the police state inaccurately referred to as "the Gestapo' in contemporary accounts although that particular force was not permanently on the Islands. To Islanders all German police are the same, so that when some arrived on Sark after the commando raid in October 1942 Mrs Tremayne commented that, 'the Gestapo are still here, questioning everyone about the landing of the British'. Some understanding of the forces of law and order, and the laws themselves is

necessary before looking in more detail at civilian collaboration with German rule.

There can be no doubt that the legal position of the Island courts and police as far as their conduct is concerned is unassailable. Given the decision by the Island governors representing the King to co-operate, and the home office request to Crown civil servants to continue at their posts, the Royal Courts had to continue functioning, and apply the law under the terms of the German occupation as well as dealing with ordinary crime as before.

Similarly the police as Crown servants continued to function as before and this inevitably involved them in house searches, acting on information received, and carrying out laws punishing people for a wide range of 'resistance' and other activities under the ever widening network of German regulations. Although there were cases
in which the police appeared ove
rzealous in enforcing German regulations, and other occasions when they profited from their privileged position, the force seems by and large to have acted fairly. In a few cases they secretly opposed the Germans, and two policemen, Inspector Albert Lamy on Guernsey, and Sergeant T.G. Cross on Jersey were among the few-Islanders given occupation honours after the war.

The reaction of the police to their new role was noticed by Edward Chapman, when the order came for police and prison warders to show the same respect for German ranks as they did for English ones. 'They were for the most part, ex-soldiers of the 1914-18 war, and bitterly resented this humiliation. At the beginning all of them took their medals off their tunics, but later, as an act of resistance, they replaced them. I remember a fine old chap called Bill Carrier, an ex-professional footballer who ... barely concealed his contempt for the Germans. When they came on a visit he would dourly touch his cap to their commander and only just obey their orders. But as soon as the Nazi had turned his back he would wink at us, and give the V-sign.'

The courts were organized differently on the two main Islands with
Alderney
and Sark being subordinated to Guernsey Royal Court in the matter of appeals. In Guernsey there were the Full Royal Court which dealt with civil and criminal cases, and the Ordinary Court for civil matters which heard appeals from the Magistrates' Court concerning minor criminal matters. In Jersey the Royal Court, called 'the Superior Number', dealt with civil and criminal matters, and acted as a court of appeal from the Inferior Number. For criminal matters there was an Assize Court and for petty cases, a Police Court. In St Helier the Royal Court House was in Royal Square, and in St Peter Port it was situated in Manor Street.

The Germans created their own network of courts for offences they deemed triable by them. In any police state, particularly one under military rule, the destination of cases and form of trial were determined in the end by the arbitrary decision of the commandant. In some cases before the commandant's Court defence lawyers were permitted; in others they were excluded. The commandant's Court consisted of a

military judge assisted by two officers, a prosecuting counsel, and an interpreter. When Germans and civilians were involved in a case this was tried in the commandant's Court. Additionally each of the services had its own court for purely military offences, and crimes by members of the Organization Todt whose officials and workers were tried in the particular military court belonging to the branch of the services they were working for at the time of the offence. Consequently Todt officials and workers received severe sentences.

Occupation meant a rapid rise in prison population. The Island penal system was antiquated and small, and even before the occupation long-term prisoners were dispatched to Winchester Prison. According to Ramsey at least 4,000 custodial sentences were passed during the occupation, and this produced an impossible burden for the existing system. Edward Chapman was imprisoned until October 1941 in the old jail in Patriotic Street, St Helier, which only had accommodation for 60 prisoners. As the severity of the occupation increased so did the prison population, and by January 1945 von Aufsess was commenting that 'fines and gaol sentences continue to rise at a fantastic rate'.
To meet the problem in St Helie
r the Chelsea Hotel was taken over and its hundred rooms converted into a holding prison by cutting slits in bedroom doors, and fastening barbed-wire over the windows.

In Guernsey the jail was in St James Street, and a similar holding prison was created at Birnham Court in Queens Road. As early as September 1942, the prison was so full that people had to wait to serve their sentences until there was a vacant cell. Two Sark lads who stole hens from the postmistress were sent to Guernsey, but could not be imprisoned due to shortage of accommodation. Inevitably, as shortages affected the Islands both food and heating were in small supply. In Alderney both military and civilian prisoners were confined at the Court House prison in New Street, and in cases involving less than three months, summary justice was carried out by the military court. Prisoners were housed three to a cell and on average two-thirds of the inmates were German military; the rest were civilians or Todt workers engaged on the fortifications.

Confusion was created for ordinary people by the number of different police forces. Apart from SS guards in Sylt Camp on Alderney Himmler's police forces do not seem to have reached the Islands unless a few of them were called in for special occasions such as the commando raid on Sark. In October 1940 Feldgendarmerie 131 for military policing, and Feldpolizei 312 for civilian policing arrived on the Islands, and after a temporary withdrawal were fully established on orders from St Germain in June 1941 and warned not to show "unnecessary mildness'. The Feldpolizei offices were at
Silvertide
, Havre de Pas, in St Helicr, the Albion Hotel, Queen's Road, St Peter Port, and the Jubilee Old People's Home in St Anne on Alderney.

There were three other police forces on the Islands: units of military intelligence whose main job was to report on the loyalty of the garrison, and who were commanded towards the end by Major Gebbhardt; an a
uxiliary police, the Hilfspolize
i, called in during 1944 to help e
nforce food regulations and Hafe
npolizei, or customs police in the harbour areas.

The Wehrmacht could make arrests itself when it caught anyone in a criminal act. or behaving suspiciously, and even civilian staff on the Kommandantur who were not in uniform received military training, and carried pistols.

For hundreds, if not thousands, of Islanders occupation brought experience like that of Frank Stroobant nearly caught dealing in black market cigarettes. A friend offered him cigarettes which he bought and then sold off to his friends. One afternoon an unknown Guernseyman came in and asked for some for one of the Todt workers. Stroobant sold him two packets, and before long a Todt worker and a Feldpolizei turned up and carted Stroobant and his assistant, Harry Ferguson, off to the police station where they were separated, interrogated, and imprisoned in overcrowded cells. He found himself spending two nights on a straw mattress with two blankets. During the day he was paraded before various possible dealers and asked to pick out who sold him the cigarettes, and then in front of three men who were asked if he had ever bought anything from them. His premises were closely searched. Then without comment he was released.