The Unique Occupation

Abstract

These diary entries made by Izette Croad on 6 January 1941 and on 8 June 1942, respectively show that, even at the time, the occupation of the Channel Islands was perceived as being unusual in comparison with the experience of the rest of Europe. Although they were governed by orders issued by the head of the military government in Paris, German accounts also perceive a difference in attitude and instructions received from their superiors for application in the Islands, and Mr R.H. Johns, the Controlling Committee’s Labour Officer, recalled during a post-war meeting at the Royal Court House in Guernsey on Monday, 14 May 1945, that ‘he had once been told that the German authorities had been instructed to treat the Guernsey people as being equal to the Germans from the point of view of culture and that they should, therefore, be treated with respect.’¹ In support of this, Count von Schmettow, when appointed to command the Channel Islands, was reported to have been told by Count Brockdorf, his superior officer, ‘remember that it is English territory you are going to, not defeated France’.² These remarks seem to be in accord with Hitler’s own regard for the British, as he wrote in Mein Kampf: ‘For a long time… there will only be two powers in Europe with which it may be possible for Germany to conclude an alliance. These powers are Great Britain and Italy.’

There seems little doubt that we get preferential treatment, I have been told that the French call us “the Nazi pets!”

All wireless sets have to be given up on Saturday. I feel just about desperate, while we all hope for a miracle. Rumour has it that Schmettow … has gone to Paris to intercede on our behalf … No wonder the French call us “Les Cheries d’Hitler” … Dash it, we are not a defeated people, if the French are, and we have no need to carry on an underground war, our war is only too much above ground I should think after Cologne. And why the Germans bother about us, I don’t know, except perhaps because they like being here because it is the only place in Europe in which they feel safe.