THE Lighthouse Memorial on the New North Quay – which is the focus of the annual Jersey Holocaust Memorial Day, which takes place on Tuesday – could be updated with extra panels to further emphasise the impact of the Occupation upon Jersey’s Jewish community.
Jersey Heritage has applied to the Planning Department to seek permission to update the memorial, its centrepiece being a lighthouse that once stood at the end of St Catherine’s Breakwater before it was decommissioned in 1996.
In its application, the organisation explains: “Since 2001 the memorial has been the focus of the annual Jersey Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations on 27 January when the community comes together on the anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, to mark the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust and remember all victims of the Nazis from across Europe and of genocides that have taken place since.
“Now that nearly 30 years have passed since the memorial was first built, the HMD Advisory Panel to Jersey Heritage feels that the meaning of the memorial could be sensitively informed with the addition of wording to qualify its purpose as a place of annual commemoration.
“The panel also felt that the memorial doesn’t adequately acknowledge the impact of the German Occupation upon the Jewish community in Jersey, or indeed the plight of the forced and slave workers during those years.
“For these reasons, Jersey Heritage proposes to add four additional rows of black polished granite tablets, matching those already in place around the lighthouse, to be set into the paving that surrounds the memorial.”
The proposed words on the four floor-level panels read:
Front Panel (opposite Maritime Museum entrance): “We gather here each year on 27 January, the anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, to mark the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust; remember all victims of the Nazis from across Europe and of genocides worldwide. We hereby commit to taking a stand against racism and intolerance.”
Back Panel: “During the German Occupation, antisemitic legislation was passed to persecute our resident Jews. As a result, some were deported to civilian internment camps and concentration camps while others went into hiding with Islanders. Some became ill or took their own lives from fear and stress.”
Side Panel: “Jews were among those taken to Alderney from France as slave workers by the SS to build fortifications. After D-Day, survivors were evacuated to Jersey and held at Fort Regent before being shipped to France on SS Minotaure. Many died when it was sunk by Allied torpedoes.”
Side Panel: “Thousands of men and women were forcibly brought to Jersey by the Organisation Todt to work on concrete fortifications and tunnel complexes during WWII. They included slave and forced labourers from across Europe. Those who died were buried in the Strangers’ Cemetery at Westmount.”
Jersey Heritage’s planning application adds: “The new plaques will greatly inform the meaning and significance of the Lighthouse Memorial, allowing visitors to better understand its symbolic purpose and commemorative role, as well as providing greater insight into the collective experience of Jersey’s wartime Jewish civilian population and the plight of the Jewish and non-Jewish forced and slave workers brought to Jersey against their will by the Organisation Todt.
“Approximately 6,000 men and women of many nationalities were made to work on the concrete fortifications, excavation of tunnel complexes, construction of sea walls and extraction of minerals as part of the German Fortification Programme.
“The thoughtful nature of this proposal is intended to seamlessly complement the existing structure, hence having no adverse aspect on the immediate and wider environs.”
