For many Islanders, the experience of occupation amounted to an extreme form of house arrest, coupled with privation, especially in the last year of the war. For others, it meant exile, because those of UK extraction were, in 1942, deported to Germany.
Among the places where Jersey deportees found themselves was the small town of Bad Wurzach, where the grounds of an ancient castle became their prison. In the years since the end of hostilities and the Liberation of Jersey, bonds of friendship have been forged between this community and the places to which 618 Island residents were so abruptly transported.
Now the mayor of Bad Wurzach, Roland Bürkle, has ‘begged for forgiveness’ for the ‘reign of terror’ suffered by internees.
Herr Bürkle’s gesture may well be appreciated by the survivors of deportation and their families. That said, most today would be inclined to say that what happened more than 65 years ago cannot be held to be the responsibility of the present inhabitants of a German town which, in many respects, was as much a victim of forces beyond its control as occupied Jersey. It was Hitler who decreed that there should be deportations, not the citizens he tyrannised.
As the Bailiff, Michael Birt, a guest at this week’s ceremony to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Bad Wurzach’s liberation by French troops, remarked in his address at the official reception, Jersey internees have for many years spoken of the many acts of kindness they experienced when they were prisoners. The vast majority of Bad Wurzach’s people regarded their unasked-for charges as human beings first and enemies only in a very theoretical sense.
Herr Bürkle might have said what needed to be said, but if he fears that there is residual bitterness about the role that his town and its people played in the war, his fears will be largely unfounded. Far more important in these days, when Germany is a democratic ally and not a totalitarian adversary, and when Jersey is a civic twin rather than the only part of Britain captured by the Third Reich, the spirit of friendship makes the notion that there is any debt of contrition to be settled, hopefully, beside the point.
