Alan Wood & Mary Seaton Wood - Islands in Danger

Islands in Danger was first published in 1955 and claims to be the first full treatment of the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands in World War II. These events have an interest beyond their uniqueness. They give an indication of what might have happened had the British Isles themselves been occupied by Germany. Unfortunately this is not a tale of systematic resistance, but rather one of official connivence, a general "keep on keeping on" attitude and rare (but incredibly brave) resistance by individuals. In addition there was brutal violence by the Nazis against forced labourers, the deportation of Jews and violent retribution against those British subjects who dared to oppose them.

The Channel Islands, Jersey, Guerseny, Sark and Alderney were unusual in their location, a few miles from  France, their semi-independent government and the vestiges of feudal relations. But they were, nonetheless, part of Britain. Photographs (not reproduced in this book) of British policeman with their characteristic uniforms, and Nazi soldiers are available. The collaboration between the two one of the great stains on this era of history.

The British authorities on the islands essentially carried on doing what they needed to do. Their cooperation with the Nazis was pretty much complete. The Bailiff of Guernsey, Major Sherwill, made this clear at the start of the occupation when he made a long address, that included the phrase:

May this occupation be a model to the world - on the one hand tolerance on the part of the military authority and courtesy and corectness on the part of the occupying forces, and on the other, dignity and courtesy and exemplary behaviour on the part of the civilian population; conformity - the strictest conformity - with orders and regulations issued by the German Commandant and the civil authorities.

Now Sherwill, it is true, did eventually get imprisoned by the Nazis for his role in protecting British commandos who had landed, but failed to escape. This was, it should be said, brave. But Sherwill and others set a tone for the relations with the Nazis, which saw British policemen enforcing and assisting in a Nazi occupation. For some the consequences were appalling. Was there an alternative? The authors of this volume suggest not. But the problem is not whether Sherwill et al might have led a revolutionary movement against fascism, but the extent to which they greased the wheels for the Nazis. They made it easy.

The problem with this volume is that it fails to properly interrogate this. There is far too much about "Dad's Army" still shenanigans, humourous annecdoates about how the Nazis were made to remove their shoes when entering various peoples homes, and funny stories about hiding wirelesses. There is far too little about what else happened.

Hundreds of forced labourers worked and died on the Channel Islands. Their treatment is discussed at length, and there are some heartbreaking anecdotes of how individual islanders tried to help them. But the question of the Islands' part in the Holocaust is examined less well. We know, for instance, that Alderney had a transit camp for French Jews to be transported to Auschwitz. Three Jewish residents of the Channel Islands died in the Holocaust. Hundreds of other residents were imprisoned and deported. As many as 1,134 people may have died there. What do the authors say about the Jews. Rightly they are critical of the authorities:

Some actions by the authorities were harder to defend. Anti-Semitic edicts, emanating from the German command in France, were registered by the Royal Courts both in Jersey and Guernsey. It was felt that the number ofJews was so small—less than ten in each island—that it was not worth asking for trouble by making an issue of the matter. In Guernsey there was one dissentient vote.

Then they describe some of the Nazi attacks on Jews on the Channel Islands:

Coutanche successfully resisted a proposal for making Jews wear yellow stars on their backs. In the end some Jews were deported to the Continent.*

Here the asterixed footnote reads: "We were surprised to be unable to obtain any reliable information as to their ultimate fate, even from present members of the Jewish communities."

This is an extraordinary inadequate comment. I wonder what the authors imagined happened to the Jews deported to the Continent? Tragically this is the only reference to what took place.

In recent years there have been serious attempts to understand what took place on the Channel Islands, both in terms of the collaboration, the resistance and the role of the Islands in the death of hundreds of people as part of the Nazi Holocaust. Sadly this book, even allowing for limited historical data available at the time, fails to do justice to these questions. Instead the authors opt for a more entertaining tale of plucky Brits trying to outwit the nasty Germans. 

In his book Empire of Destruction, the historian Alex J. Kay asks why the experience of the occupation was different in the West of Europe, to that of the East. The answer, is in part, due to the Nazis' project of colonisation, and their belief that the Eastern population were "sub human". The tragedy of this book is that ten years after the Holocaust the authors of this account did not even consider to ask such questions.

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