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June 1940 : Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands |
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In
Summer of 1939 a colleague from the Jersey CI Woolworth
contributed a piece to the Company magazine inviting people to visit.
In the Autumn, not to be outdone, a Guernsey colleague wrote a similar invitation. Neither expected quite so many German visitors the next year! |
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In May and June 1940 the German Army swept across France en-route for Paris. Once they broke through they were unstoppable. |  |
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| With
France under German control it could only be a matter of time before the
Channel Islands, which had shown allegiance to the British crown since
Norman times, fell to the Germans.
Hitler viewed Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm as a jewel in his European empire. With their British red pillar and 'phone boxes, their oh-so English policemen and quaint way of life, they would be a prize indeed. Besides the huge propaganda value of pictures of the "English" and the Germans working together, he was convinced that Churchill would decide to fight to get the islands back, and would fail. So it was that in June 1940 the Germans launched a marine attack on the Channel Islands, which were virtually undefended. |
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| Seeing what was coming, the islanders had made plans. Many children were sent to "safety" on the British mainland, and around 24,000 adults chose to move to the mainland. But many others decided to stay in their homeland and face the consequences. | ||||
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sight of a British policeman and a German soldier walking side by side
became a regular feature, and one that has inspired a lot of speculation
since the war about what it would have been like if the Germans had
invaded the mainland.
In the early days of the occupation, the German troops were under strict orders to behave with decorum - treating the islanders with respect and showing that islanders and their new masters could get along. |
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One
of the first places where this policy showed was in the Woolworth store
in King Street, St. Helier, Jersey.
Some of the soldiers thought of Woolworths as a German company, having shopped in one of the stores in the Third Reich. Hearing that Woolworths had sweets and chocolates on sale (which they had not been able to get during their march through France), they came to shop. Store colleagues and customers were surprised that the German soldiers said "Good morning", joined on the back of the queue, waited their turn and paid for their purchases with shillings and pennies. |
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| In
Guernsey it was much the same story. Occupying forces marching
around when on duty, but (all things considered) trying to be civil when visiting the Woolies in St Peter
Port, according to our records.
One of the first orders from the Germans was that local people hand in their guns and hunting rifles. According to Guernsey folklore several Guernsey men, hearing the news, marched straight to Woolworths and bought cowboy guns for sixpence and handed these in. The Germans took the impertinence in good heart and took no action about it. |
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From the beginning of the occupation until liberation five years later, the Channel Island stores could not communicate with the mainland, and received no shipments of goods from the UK. Company records show the stores as "closed - under enemy occupation" from 1st July 1940 until July 1945(Guernsey) and August 1945 (Jersey), but we have snippets of information to show that the stores traded independently during some of this time. | |||
| For example the envelope above, which originally contained a supplier's invoice to the store, was posted in April 1941. It bears the stamps used during the occupation, without any reference to the British monarchy. Throughout the war no letters were sent overseas, and local people were only allowed rare, short, censored Red Cross messages - which sometimes took over a year to be delivered - on compassionate grounds. | ||||
| The
islands suffered terribly during the occupation. The Germans were
civil for the cameras and propaganda, but they were an unwelcome force
of occupation. They did not enslave the islanders in the same way as the
forced labourers they brought to build the Underground Hospital, the
only concentration camp on British soil (in Alderney), or the elaborate
fortifications made of thousand of tonnes of cement. But local
people were forced to work for the Germans, their freedom was removed,
and people (particularly Jews) disappeared - transported to a terrible
fate in Germany or Austria.
As the tide turned in the war and the Allies swept across France, captors and captives alike in the Channel Islands had very little food and came close to starvation. Local people showed immense courage and restraint in very difficult circumstances. |
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| When liberation came in 1945, the F. W. Woolworth team set about reinstating and modernising the Channel Island stores. Work on the Jersey branch (illustrated above) was complete in time for Christmas. New stocks were secured from the mainland and life began, ever so slowly, to return to normal. But the islands will never forget their brush with the Third Reich. | ||||
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World War II Gallery Home Page Xmas
1939: UK and USA a world apart Fire
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