Texts relating to the German Occupation of the Channel Islands
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Jersey and the First World War
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Jersey Heritage Trust main website
Texts relevant to the German Occupation of the Channel Islands
The Jersey Heritage Trust has been appointed by the Bailiff of Jersey as coordinator of the Holocaust Memorial Day events on 27 January each year.
As part of our programme to record the suffering of people in the Island during the German Occupation the Jersey Heritage Trust has converted the German command bunker at La Hougue Bie into a memorial to forced workers transported to the Channel Islands 1940-45.
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'Night and Fog' by Peter Hassall
The autobiography of a 15 year old Jerseyman who with two friends attempted to escape from the Island during the German Occupation. Dennis Audrain died in the escape attempt. Peter Hassall and Maurice Gould were transported by the Nazis to prisons and concentration camps on mainland Europe. Maurice Gould died through mistreatment in a German prison.
Published on this website for the first time by kind permission of the Hassall family.
PDF file file size 800KB
The Ultimate Sacrifice by Paul Sanders
The story of 20 Jersey men and women who died in prisons and concentration camps during the German Occupation of the Channel Islands
Published by the Jersey Heritage Trust
PDF file file size 375KB
The Jews in the Channel Islands during the German Occupation by Frederick Cohen
Published by the Jersey Heritage Trust in association with the Wiener Library and Institute of Contemporary History
Paper 1 - Chronicle of the implementation of the anti-Jewish Orders in Jersey, Guernsey and Sark. Detailing how the measures affected the lives of residents of the Islands who were 'deemed to be Jews'.
Paper 2 - Over 16,000 foreign workers were transported to the Channel Islands to work on the massive German fortification programme. Amongst these were 1,000 Jewish forced workers. This paper details their fate.
PDF file file size 1,250KB
Gordon Prigent's testimony
Jerseyman, Gordon Prigent was transported as a Forced Worker to Alderney. In this transcript of his interview given to the Imperial War Museum he details his experiences
Published on this website for the first time
PDF file file size 53KB
Reuven Freidman's testimony
Reuven Freidman, born in Lille was rounded up by the Germans and transported as a Slave Worker to the Jewish section of Norderney Camp in Alderney. In this translation of his testimony deposited at Yad Vashem he details his experiences.
Published on this website for the first time.
PDF file file size 40KB
Vasily Marempolsky's testimony
Now a Professor of Literature in the Ukraine. As a boy of 15 Marempolsky was transported by the Nazis to Jersey as a Slave Worker and worked on the construction of the German Underground Hospital. Marempolsky died in Russia in 1990
Previously published only in Ukrainian
PDF file file size 113KB
Francisco Font's testimony
Francisco Font was a Spanish Republican. He was pressed into Forced labour by the Nazis. After the war he remained in Jersey. In this interview with Solomon Steckoll recorded circa 1979 Font details his experiences as a forced worker in the Channel Islands. The tape of this interview was generously provided by Gary Font, Francisco's son. This transcription is a rough draft and will be proofed shortly.
Published for the first time
PDF file file size 100KB
Albert Gustave Bedane 1893-1980 'Righteous Among the Nations'
In January 2000 Albert Gustave Bedane was
recognised as 'Righteous Among the Nations', Israel's highest Holocaust
honour. At great risk to his own life Albert Bedane hid a woman of
Jewish origin at his home in Jersey from 1943 until the final months of
the Occupation.
Born in France in 1893, Albert Bedane and his parents moved to Jersey
the following year. He served in the Hampshire Regiment during the First
World War and when he left the army in 1920 he joined the medical staff of
the Royal Jersey Militia. In the 1920s he settled down into civilian life,
married and in 1925 his daughter, Valerie, was born. He had his own clinic
in Roseville Street, St Helier where he worked as a Chartered Masseur - a
physiotherapist.
As the German army was approaching the islands Mrs Bedane and her
daughter were evacuated to England but Albert remained behind in Roseville
Street.
It was while he was living alone in his home in Roseville Street that
he began sheltering people hiding from the German authorities - escaped
prisoners, French PoWs, Russian slave workers, and a Jewish woman, Mrs
Mary Richardson. He was able to feed them by taking food rather than money
from his farmer patients. When he was later asked why he risked his life
to help so many people his answer was quite simple . . . I thought that if
I was going to be killed I would rather be killed for a sheep than a lamb
. .
Mrs Mary Erica Richardson was married to an English sea captain and
lived in Dicq Road, St Helier. She did not register when the first
anti-Jewish Order of October 1940 came into effect although in February
1941 along with every islander over the age of 14 she had to register in
order to get an identity card. She tried to hide her real identity by
saying that she was born in British Guiana and that her maiden name had
been Algernon In reality she was born in Holland and was named Erica
Olvenich. In late June 1943 she was interviewed by the Feldkommandantur in
College House at Victoria College. She was told that she would be sent to
a very nice, special camp where she would be well looked after and she
allowed to return home to collect her clothing and valuables. While she
was there she managed to escape from her guards and made her way to
Roseville Street where Albert Bedane hid her in a secret cellar in his
clinic. She lived here in hiding for the next few months until she was
moved into a room on the upper floor. Whenever the clinic was searched Mrs
Richardson hid in the secret cellar. In the final weeks of the Occupation
she came out of hiding to look after her husband who was by then an
invalid.
An unassuming man, Albert Bedane's heroism went unmarked for a long
time. In 1965 he was presented with a gold watch by the Russian government
in recognition of his efforts in saving Russian forced workers. Bedane
died in Jersey in 1980