However, Sir Philip Bailhache said ‘The British Channel Islands under German Occupation 1940-1945’ was no whitewash and it would make uncomfortable reading for Islanders with a fierce pride in their home.
Launching the book at the Jersey Archive last night he said: ‘The book gives the lie to the unpleasant innuendo, and occasionally the direct unpleasant allegation in other published works, that Channel Islanders meekly accepted the Occupation while the men and women of nations elsewhere were fighting and dying for the cause of freedom.
‘Of all the Occupation myths which have been circulated in a seemingly unstoppable way in the last decade or two, this has been found by many people to be the most offensive.’ Sir Philip said not everyone could be a hero.
Jersey people were ordinary mortals and the Island had its share of cowards and opportunists.
Yet, in 1939 there was no conscription, but thousands of Islanders volunteered to fight.
‘And of those who were left behind in the Island, a large number found different means of resistance to the occupiers.
Some showed extraordinary courage in offering shelter and protection to slave workers on the run and to Jewish people,’ he said.
‘In short, Paul Sanders’ book does justice to Channel Islanders who survived a traumatic and difficult period of our history, and I do not think we can ask for more.’ Dr Sanders was commissioned by the Jersey Heritage Trust to write a new official history of the Occupation.
The book has been published jointly with the Société Jersiaise and is supported by the Jersey branch of the Royal British Legion.
A Cambridge historian and lecturer at Oxford University, Dr Sanders worked with an expert panel comprising Sir Peter Crill, Don Filleul, Michael Ginns, Bob Le Sueur, Joe Mière and Jurat Alf Vibert.
