Synopses & Reviews
This independent study has already attracted controversy. It vividly portrays the Islanders' Occupation experiences and explores the most hotly disputed issues, including collaboration, resistance and starvation; the fate of missing forced workers; the question of whether Island Officials knowingly sent three Jewish women to their deaths in Auschwitz; whether the Islands' experiences were unique, or whether they would have provided the blueprint for Hitler's planned occupation of Britain, and many more. The study discusses, disputes and often refutes what are today becoming received ideas, which frequently seek to imply a "shameful" wartime past.
Synopsis
This independent study has already attracted controversy. Containing much fresh evidence, it vividly portrays the Islanders' day-to-day Occupation experiences, whilst exploring - and often refuting - what are today becoming received ideas of a mostly 'shameful' wartime past.
Synopsis
A new history of the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands which uses fresh evidence to challenge existing myths and misconceptions.
About the Author
HAZEL KNOWLES SMITH was recently awarded her PhD from the University of Southampton. She is an untraditional academic, with particular interest in the social construction of history and the historical creation of memory. Her work enjoys the strong support of the communities she writes about.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART I: THE PRELUDE
The Islands Prewar
Storm Clouds Gather
The Unique Occupation
PART II: ISLAND GOVERNMENT: JUNE 1940 TO MAY 1945
Record and Interpretation: A Question of Paradigm
Dealing with the Enemy: Labour, Commodities and Rations
PART III: THE PEOPLE'S OCCUPATION
Morale, Make Do and Mend
Entertainments and Pastimes
Relations with Britain
A Paradox: The Dual Face of the Occupier
Health, Malnutrition and Deteriorating Conditions
The Jewish Experience
Collaboration: A Fair Hearing?
Offences against the Occupier
PART IV: THE FORCED WORKERS
Men Without Hope
PART V: THE AFTERMATH
Liberation and Beyond
Memories Today
Endnotes
Bibliography