The morning of 9th May each year in Jersey is given over to happy celebration, re-enactments, speeches and song. But later on Liberation Day a quieter and poignant ceremony takes place.
At Westmount we remember the slave and forced workers who lost their lives during the German Occupation. The slave workers, chiefly Russians, were treated appallingly and inhumanely. The death rate was high. On the other hand the forced workers, though deprived of their liberty, were at least paid and treated like fellow humans.
Today the three biggest local bigwigs were in attendance – the Bailiff, Lieutenant-Governor and First Minister. They laid the first wreaths. They were followed by representatives from Poland, France, Belgium, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Algeria and (yes) Germany. Many more followed on from worthy organisations and individuals, including one remembering the 21 islanders who never returned from Nazi concentration camps.
It’s a strange fact that, the longer since the actual events, the more determined it seems the Island becomes to remember them.
Before the ceremony
Back On The Rock 
Forgive me if you have already done this, Roy, but wouldn’t this make the perfect background for a book…? Perhaps a three-way friendship: slave worker, forced worker and occupying soldier. You can thank me in the acknowledgements!!
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Well maybe for someone else Susan. Probably the last thing the world needs is another Occupation book 🙂
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That’s interesting about the growing need to remember, Roy. I wonder if it is aligned in any way to the fact that there are naturally, fewer and fewer people around who were present for the horrors of the war and that perhaps, people are commemorating them as much as the events themselves?
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Or maybe it’s as simple as a wish to assert our identity on what is effectively our national day RH? Certainly in the immediate years after the war the big guns were dumped over the cliffs and the whole business forgotten. Now it’s a big subject taught in schools and possibly the subject of overkill – I don’t know.
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I can’t believe it’s been a year, Roy. I remember your post from last year on this special day. I love that you bring recognition to such an important event.
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Hi Jill – yes it’s a day for everybody. Some just enjoy the day off but it gives many others the chance to look back in their own way.
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Roy, thanks for this post which serves as a thought-provoker. Jersey certainly has a long and troubled history, just like so many other places. What best to do about such history will long be a subject of debate.
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Hello Jean. Well yes, we had a truly awful five years. But, that apart, Jersey has had a peaceful history. Compare Ireland’s troubled existence – inter-tribe warfare for thousands of years, successive invasions, periodic bloody warfare with the English and then the more modern Troubles. I think Jersey has been pretty fortunate and blessed on the whole.
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Interested to see you use the word ‘we!’
Those five years seem to have been awful beyond imagining.
Great that it is in the past and hopefully Ireland’s woes are in the past as well.
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Well yes, I suppose I identify closely with that period though clearly it was before my time. But even then Jean, the Germans visited some desperate atrocities throughout Europe. Not least of these was in nearby France, Oradour-sur-Glane for example was unspeakable. By comparison the Jersey people were treated well enough.
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I was really teasing you, but on a serious note, it’s more than understandable that you would feel strong connection to Jersey and her history and indeed to the history of Europe as a whole.
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I didn’t know about this history Roy so thanks for sharing it.
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Hello Andrea. Yes indeed I didn’t have a clue either until I got here in 1977 🙂 It was a interesting period of history though obviously those caught up in it could never appreciate the ‘interest’.
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That’s interesting about the increasing need to remember – it seems to be happening more and more, with our government recognising at last some of the sacrifices of those in both the world wars. It’s good that this liberation day is celebrated in this way on Jersey Roy – thanks for sharing.
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Yes Jenny, it’s a good trend. Occasionally it might seem like overkill but it does no one any harm and people can ignore remembrance occasions if they wish. But the tears in the old people’s eyes as they wave their Union flags and sing ‘Beautiful Jersey’ are very real.
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Thank you for sharing this day with us, Roy. It is amazing how time seems to make these events bigger. I guess it just makes us realise how lucky we are 😀
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Indeed Dianne, so many of live a blessed life compared with other parts of the world and yet I’ve never heard so many malcontents that wish for more of this, better that etc. Don’t get me started 🙂
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Jersey has such a storied and at times turbulent history. I didn’t even really know Jersey existed until I started following your blog, Roy, so these history lessons of yours are very educational.
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Thanks Janna. When I got my accountancy qualification and was offered a job here I had to look it up in the atlas. It’s hardly surprising that few Americans know about us. But yes it’s got a rich history all of its own here on the edge of Europe, a bit like Ireland in that respect.
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Hi Roy,
This is so interesting. I do think it’s important to remember and mark these days. My Native American grandmother used to say, “Our stories tell us who we are.” The more time that passes, the further away the events are, the harder we must try to remember them. In the US we celebrate Memorial Day with a long weekend. for many, it has become a beach holiday, or an excuse to shop at the Memorial Day sales, but I will be lighting a candle for my uncle, and all the other soldiers who have served their country, so many of whom paid the ultimate price for it.
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Hi Naomi. Yes, I read your Memorial Day is this Monday 26th May. I’m aware that Americans generally have plenty of respect for those that serve in the armed forces, and rightly so. Thankfully there seems to be a general wish not to gloss over the events of the past that have shaped our present. The younger ones aren’t much bothered but they, in their turn, will come to see things differently.
The Native Americans have their own stories and legends don’t they? But that’s your area of expertise 🙂
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