by Peter King
Islanders on Alderney worked closely with prisoners on the Island, and were in daily contact with Todt workers and those from Sylt camp. When the Island was liberated in May 1945 not only was eyewitness evidence available from the four men who met the British troops, but in MI9 lists the government had names of those from Guernsey including power and sewage workers who were government employees and remained on the Guernsey payroll while they were on Alderney. One document listed 13 names.
The workers were billeted in St Anne and fed at a communal canteen in the Victoria Hotel where they received the same food as the Germans. They had access to shops and soldatenheims, and were able to buy luxuries like biscuits and sweets. Oselton and other Islanders said they were well treated by the Germans. Perhaps there was reluctance on their part to get Germans into trouble for crimes that did not directly affect them. There was every reason after 1945 for keeping quiet about working for the enemy.
'Boots for Bags': Fraternization by the Island Women
Ginger Lou ran frantically across Howard Davis Park in St Helier, her smart day frock awry, her silver fur cape slipping, and her perfectly done red hair dishevelled, as she dodged this way and that between the bushes. It was a fortnight after the Liberation of the Islands when this scene was witnessed by a local doctor. A crowd formed, and she was dragged from a shrubbery, her clothes nearly torn from her, and bits of fur left clinging to the bushes. Car lubricating oil was smeared over her before she was rolled in the dust of the park by the shouting mob. Extricating herself, she ran to the doorway of a nearby house, where she cowered until the police arrived. Later she appeared before magistrates who gave her a small sum of money and put her on the boat to Weymouth.
'One of the Jerry bags had got her deserts', some might have said in 1945 when memories were fresh. Certainly Ginger Lou had been a flagrant example of the breed. French by birth, married to a local tailor, she had taken up with a German officer in the first year of occupation, and for five years received all the perks of her squalid position. She had been given another Islander's house, and was driven wherever she pleased. She had the best clothes and make-up. She took precedence in queues at the hairdresser's and in food shops. She was not the only Jerry bag to be caught. A local writer noticed on the evening of Liberation that: 'regrettably scenes took place this evening when one or two of these women were severely handled, and possibly but for the intervention of troops would have been murdered".
Such scenes were enacted in many European countries at the time of liberation, and in some countries, like Denmark, retrospective laws made it a crime to have profited from the occupation in any way so that well-heeled collaborators could receive their punishment.
There is no doubt that such fraternization was widespread in the two main Islands even if it did not affect more than several hundred women out of many thousands. A report to MI9 in 1944 observed that, 'local women, chiefly Jersey-born, have been prostituting themselves with the Germans in the most shameless manner. There are quite a considerable number of these women all over the Islands.' A later report commented that D-Day had made no difference to these relations: informants are
amazed at the ostrich-like attitude of the local quislings, both male and female. Ever since D-Day they have continued their nefarious practices and seem quite unconcerned with the fate awaiting them. The women are especially blind and are continuing their association with the Germans to the bitter end.' The reports referred to the problems of abortions, unwanted and illegitimate children, and widespread venereal disease resulting in part from these liaisons.
Naturally reports from the Islands stressed the great bitterness about many of these women. Feeling is so strong said one report: 'that the girls will find that certain groups of people will probably round them up, shave their heads and treat them as similar French girls have been treated by French patriots'. It was stressed the local police would turn a blind eye to attacks on these women after liberation, 'because murder will be done, and public opinion in general will approve'.
Fraternizers comforted the enemy in time of war in return for privileges at a time when most people were suffering, and they brought dishonour and misery to their families. In some cases men returning were prepared to accept a new member of a family, like the baby boy born to a girl called 'Louise' taken in by her family and adopted by a childless sister, he later became a sergeant in the British Army. Advertisements sometimes appeared in local papers reading 'Wanted - someone to adopt a baby due on [such and such a date]'. In other cases, the presence of such babies no doubt caused much bitterness and fury. One girl beaten up by her father for returning to breakfast in her lover's car denounced her father for possessing a wireless, and he received six months!
The contemptuous phrase 'Jerry bag(gage)' was an evocative one. Boots the chemist attracted German attentions because they employed particularly attractive girls on their make-up and perfumery counters. In St Peter Port, the Germans were lured by the Boots girls sunbathing on a roof during their lunch-hour. In St Helier 'Boots for Bags' was chalked in the road, and Reginald Gould, the manager, sacked some of the more obvious goodtime girls. The Germans compelled him to reinstate them, and when he appealed to the Island authorities the solicitor-general advised Gould to obey the Germans. The Goulds were among those deported in 1942-3. The girls were sacked in 1945.
But before dealing with the sorry events of female fraternization, it is important to set them in the context of occupation conditions, and the position of women in society in those days. Few were traitors or informers, some were hard luck cases, others goodtime girls, and there were also genuine love affairs resulting in marriages after the war. Doctor John Lewis who was in charge of the Jersey Maternity Hospital referred to a girl called 'Louisa'. She gave birth to a boy. A year after the war, her German lover returned, her house was sold, they married at the Roman Catholic church and she left for Germany.
It would have been impossible for 30,000 Germans to descend on the Islands without causing social disruption. Abortions, divorces, illegitimacy and venereal disease statistics increased under the stress of war. Even though the German forces were far better behaved than Allied forces in Britain inevitably, wartime disrupted family life, and added to pressures on women. For five years, Island women were shut up in a drab, grey, penny-pinching atmosphere of privation and slow starvation. Mrs Cortvriend suggested many of the relationships were simply a release from intolerable boredom. Island women who had men serving in the forces had infrequent news, sometimes no news at all for five years, of their relatives. There were no leave-time homecomings, and no letters besides a standard Red Cross form. Many women had also been separated from their families by evacuation of all or some of their relatives, and in some cases a woman might be left without children or husband when in 1939 she had both. When the hotels of St Helier and St Peter Port filled with a company of healthy, strong and uninhibited young Germans, themselves condemned to the boredom of occupation life, and without even a brothel of their own until 1942, it was a temptation that a good many could not refuse. The relationships, as Norman Longmate points out, were usually due neither to German lust or Island looseness of morals, but to the war itself. Those girls who kept a low profile were forgiven, and they and their children were accepted into Island life, because, apart from the criminals and the officers' molls, it was recognized that what had happened was to some extent inevitable and natural.
It was not treachery, but the possibility of small gifts of soap and scent, or sweets and toys for the children, combined with a straightforward desire for sex, which mainly motivated Island Jerry bags. The Islands were holiday resorts, and to Germans fresh from campaigns, particularly in Russia, or from the tensions of occupation life in other countries, they were places to be enjoyed. Unlike the seedy British holidaymaker who often sat nearly fully clothed on the beach in those days the Germans were soon seen, semi-naked and bronzed, on the beaches and in the lanes, and although this affronted a more elderly woman like Mrs Trema
yne it proved to be popular with younger women. In July 1943, she wrote, 'Grand Greve Bay has been opened for bathing, but more for the troops than the civilians, lots of the Sarkees go, all those who have, have turned pro-German.' Their friendly approach to children, their gifts and money, their singsongs, their good looks, and camaraderie in wartime proved as popular as similar GI characteristics did in Britain. If Guernsey girls 'have gone crazy with the German soldiers', it was not entirely surprising.
From the first months of occupation good relations prevailed between many Island women and the Germans. Mrs Tremayne wrote in her diary she would like to stab them in the back, but even she admitted from time to time that their behaviour was correct enough. Other women attended the first dances held by the Germans, and these were reported in the censored Island press and in German forces magazines as highly successful. Islanders continued to attend, particularly at festive times of the year and the various functions for celebrating Hitler's birthday. German bands and touring theatrical groups from the Strength Through Joy movement visited the Islands to provide entertainment. Germans coming to the Islands, from an ordinary soldier like Gerhard Nebel to an officer like von Aufsess, recorded their pleasure at the relaxed and friendly atmosphere they found. Von Aufsess noticed the women would surrender readily enough 'provided this can be effected in proper privacy'.
Brave Harbour seen from Fort Albert. The Xaver Dorsch and other vessels were damaged by gales and air attack in this harbour where John Matthew's Sark party were to carry out salvage work
Todt workers in Guernsey being fed at a camp. These were among those employed on the Mirus battery at Le Frie Baton
Entrance to Sylt camp opened in August 1942 and closed in July 1944. It was run from March 1943 by the SS, and the scene of considerable numbers of deaths and of starvation and torture
The remaining foundations of Norderney camp destroyed by the Germans in July 1944. Under Karl Tietz. Adam Adler, and Heinrich Evers, this camp saw brutal killings and torture by Organization Todt
and he thought their lovemaking 'simple, effortless and swift'. Chapman saw Jersey women getting on well with the Germans, but it was equally true of Guernsey or Sark where women, "have the soldiers in their houses in the evening and the soldiers take the children for rides in their cars'.
According to Maugham there was a particular problem with billeted troops in some houses 'where the family included girls and young women, the conduct of the Germans, at times, was odious. Any attempt to restrain them by force was the immediate signal for the drawing of a revolver or a bayonet, and was almost certain to be followed by some trumped up charge.' There is no direct evidence of Maugham's rather frightening picture. When Germans were billeted in his own house all he noticed was that they 'tried to make friends with our maids'.
One MI9 report said girls 'of all classes' were involved with the Germans, but it was not until the publication of von Aufsess' diary that the extent of good relations between officers and Island girls became clear. Officers from the armed forces, the Feldpolizei and the Todt organization were able to find girlfriends. Throughout von Aufsess's diary, which covers 1944 and 1945, the worst years of the occupation, he referred to girls he knew including 'gay, pert Ella', Lucienne, who 'has a great crush on me', and Elaine who he met with her mother, and who he said was very much in love with him. At one point he referred to Heider's girlfriend who was "the sheltered only daughter of wealthy parents', and elsewhere to von Helldorf's affair with a servant girl. He described parties with French and Island girls when 'the firelight lit up our flushed and happy faces'.
Other members of the German hierarchy also had their girlfriends. It was alleged that one girl was mistress of the Feldpolizei chief, Inspector Bohde, and lived with him at Havre de Pas, and that another girl had a child by a member of the Feldpolizci. On Alderney several officers set up house with French whores. Zuske lived with a woman from Evreux called 'Marianne' and one of his staff officers with another woman called Paulette'. Sturm, the Feldpolizei chief on Alderney, lived with a woman who left the Island to bear his child and then returned to him. Other women were less lucky. An officer brought his girlfriend to the Limes Nursing Home on Jersey one evening desperately ill after a failed abortion. Her life was saved.
Von Aufsess' diary bears out the MI9 report that said the girls continued their fraternization even when liberation was on the cards. In April 1945 Heider and von Aufsess were transferred from Jersey to Guernsey, but they soon found a 'pair of saucy, common young things' for whom they gave a party only a fortnight before liberation when they were all in 'rollicking good humour', and worse the wear for drink. Heider slept with one of the girls, and the other came to von Aufsess' room and 'made such overtures to sexual intercourse as I have never before experienced'. He did not say whether or not he succumbed to this temptation.
If the majority of these cases did no actual harm, it might perhaps be argued that there is little to condemn in what happened. But there were grim consequences: abortions, illegitimate births and venereal disease affected considerable numbers of people. In September 1944, Doctor Symons on Guernsey reported medical conditions in the hospitals were so bad that they were becoming 'medical sick houses'. Drugs were in short supply, as were all essentials like catgut for sutures or surgical spirit. Overworked doctors and overburdened health facilities had to cope with the consequences of fraternization at the expense of ordinary patients.
Venereal disease was widespread on the main Islands. On Alderney in 1942 40 women among Island workers were found to be suffering because the VD epidemic on the Island had spread from French whores to the civilians, and it was necessary to ban women workers from the Island. Even then some managed to remain 'who are no better than they should be' according to a MI9 report. This report went on to discuss Jersey where 'From his hospital experience [the] informant knew of many advanced cases of disease ... It was not unusual for the General Hospital to have as many as fifteen women under treatment every week, some cases being slight but some serious.'
So widespread was VD, said another report, that it might constitute 'a further menace to our forces' when they liberated the Islands. By the middle of 1942 some 80 cases were reported in Guernsey alone, and the situation had become so serious that a joint meeting was held between von Oettingen of the Feldkommandantur and Sherwill. It was agreed to make contracting the disease a criminal offence subject to a £100 fine and imprisonment. There was even discussion about setting up an isolation unit for cases on the Island of Herm. In October an order signed by Symons and his German counterpart appeared stating that: "Sexual relations either with the German soldiers or with civilians are strictly forbidden during the next three months. In case of non-compliance with this order severe punishment by the Occupying authorities is to be expected even if no infection takes place.' Those with the illness were brutally despatched to the Russian Front, and Doctor Lewis treated an Austrian doctor, and an Italian conscript who came to him for help to save them from this fate.
There was a rise in abortions and doctors charged two guineas more for babies born to a putative German father than to an Island one. Exaggerated figures for illegitimate births in the Channel Islands circulated during the war, and even though these proved untrue the actual figures were alarming enough on Islands with a population of 66,000 and in days when bastardy and bearing a child outside wedlock were regarded overwhelmingly as immoral. Even allowing for some activity on the part of Island men, published figures show increases from 5.1 to 11 per cent on Jersey and from 5.4 to 21.8 on Guernsey in the percentage of live births recorded as illegitimate during the war years. Of 539 recorded illegitimate births a substantial number were of German origin, and this figure takes no account of births at home or in nursing homes. Nor are figures for abortions available as they were illegal.
One reason for the French women and the involvement of Island women with Germans was that it was not until 1942 that the network of brothels were set up in St Peter Port, St Helier, and S
t Anne. Their presence gave rise to much ribald amusement at the queues of waiting customers, and at the demand of the Germans for the prostitutes to receive the same food allowance as heavy workers on the Islands. There was also a dispute involving the Island doctors who the Germans were anxious to recruit for medical inspection of inmates and customers at the brothels. The overworked doctors were ordered by the Controlling Committee to inspect the brothels twice a week but in the end the Germans nominated their own doctors for this job.
The last three chapters have considered three forms of collaboration. Frank Falla, one of the most hostile writers about the war years, estimated a very small percentage of Islanders were involved. As far as working for the Germans for wages or helping them to benefit from the black market this was untrue. Exact details of informers are unknown, but it seems that they were numbered only in hundreds. Fraternizing between Island women and Germans was widespread, even though the number of illegitimate children was less than contemporary opinion believed. The difficulty in assessing collaboration is that it was never defined in law. No collaborators ever stood trial, and details of accusations made in 1945 still remain secret.
Part 4
The Dangerous and Lonely Decision: Resistance
Espionage and Undercover Information
