On direct instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi German forces deported and interned 2,300 Channel Islands civilian residents. The stated reason was retaliation for internment of German citizens in Persia by the British Government.
Prelude
The Channel Islands, comprising the Bailiwick of Jersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey, which also comprised Alderney and Sark, fell under German control on 30 June 1940.
Prior to this, the lightning Blitzkrieg resulting in the fall of France gave the British government and the island governments just enough time to evacuate those who were willing to leave the islands immediately. Approximately 25,000 left, while 66,000 remained. There were 41,101 left in Jersey, 24,429 in Guernsey and 470 in Sark, with just 18 in Alderney.
The British Government had decided on 15 June to demilitarise and abandon the Channel Islands, so all military personnel, weapons and equipment had been taken to England.
Through the second half of 1940 and into 1941, the islanders gradually settled into a "working relationship with the German occupiers". A small number of people, who had access to boats, decided to flee the islands, some dying in the attempt.
Motivation
In June 1941, Persia, now called Iran, was a neutral country with Germany as its largest trade partner. The Soviet Union was on its northern border. Britain had recently encamped in Iraq to the west, following an anti-British coup by Nazi sympathisers. On 22 June, Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Soviet territory started.
Worried about the large expat German community in Iran undertaking espionage and subversion activities, on 19 July a joint Soviet/British demand was made to Persia to expel all German citizens. It was rejected on 29 July and renewed on 16 August, this time in coordination with the Americans at a conference on 9–12 August 1941. Persia eventually agreed to the demand, but by 25 August, Anglo-Soviet forces invaded the country.
In September, the German legation and women and children from the expat community were permitted to travel to Europe, as were the other Axis legations. German men of fighting age (18-45) were rounded up, most preferring British to Soviet control. A few went into Soviet hands and were shipped to Siberia. The British then separated out Jewish Germans who could remain in Persia. The remaining men were sent to India for internment, some ended up in camps in Australia.
German reaction
Hitler was furious, albeit hypocritical, to complain of an invasion of a neutral country and the internment of German men. His immediate reaction was to find out what reprisals were possible.
The German Foreign Office response was that British people in the Channel Islands were effectively interned as they could not leave without permission. A rough estimate from Jersey indicated about 2,000 men in the Island had been born in the United Kingdom. This was short of the 8,000 that were needed if a ratio of 10:1 was to be applied. More accurate lists of men were demanded, including a list of Persian citizens. The demand for lists was expanded to include women and children. By 10 November, lists were submitted by the Island authorities:
+ 1941 Deportation lists Sex and age Jersey Guernsey Total Men 18-45 1,305 432 1,737 Men 46-60 700 359 1,039 Men over 60 728 444 1,172 Women 18+ 2,391 1,525 3,916 Children <18 402 70 472 Total 5,526 2,830 8,356
German officials tried several diplomatic routes to get the Germans in Persia released, trading them for British trapped in Sweden and threatening to intern British civilians, including those in the Channel Islands. Hitler decided to hold them in the Pripet Marshes, with a ratio of 10 British for each German interned. Britain's response was to inform the Germans that any action against civilians in the Channel Islands would be against the Hague convention. The German military (the Wehrmacht) was unhappy with the use of the Pripet Marshes, an operational area where they did not want Allied officials to visit. The Foreign Ministry worried that a proposal to confiscate property of internees could be repeated against German internees in Britain.
As final figures of Iranian Germans became known, the desired punitive ratio of 10:1 meant that 5,000 deportees had to be found. However, there were fewer than 2,000 men in the age group of 18-45. By 11 November, following the census undertaken in the Islands in August 1941, the Germans knew there were 8,166 Channel Island citizens born in the United Kingdom and had identified the men, and possibly women, who could be deported with their property confiscated and redistributed. A camp near Cologne had been prepared and shipping readied to transport 6,000.
This order to the Wehrmacht, which listed the people, was put aside when the Fuhrer's order of 20 October 1941 about fortifying the Island mentioned that a further order would give deportation instructions and no further order was received.
September 1942
A Swiss attempt to get an exchange of injured soldiers and civilians resulted in Hitler being reminded of the British civilians. Discovering that his orders had not been complied with, he reissued the order. In the Islands, everything moved very quickly. The order arrived in Jersey on 15 September, the same day a meeting was held with the Bailiff and Parish officials, and a notice appeared in the local paper. Because the island authorities refused to serve the notices, soldiers required parish officials to show them where to go, and served the deportation orders on the first batch of people that evening.
People were told that luggage was limited to what they could carry. No time was allowed to arrange personal or business affairs. Valuables were deposited in banks and pets given away or killed. By special licence, several women married their local fiancés that day, thus escaping deportation. Others attempted suicide, and some were successful.
Some bargaining took place to allow a few people to remain and others to take their places. Most church ministers were English, so a deal was agreed to allow enough of them to remain to continue their services. People who were useful to the German government for their work they were doing were also spared, as were some sick and aged.
Ships and trains
Hoping to ship out 1,200 people on 16 December, the Germans were disappointed when only 280 men women and children left Jersey on the first ship. The streets were lined with people, crying and waving. The Island gave them food to take with them. The German sailors put them into life jackets. Many ex-servicemen proudly wore their medals. As the ship sailed, patriotic songs were sung.
Two days later, several ships in Jersey were ready and 600 more people were ordered to report. One ship was rejected by the Island authorities as it had just discharged a load of coal and was filthy, so only 346 people sailed. Those who were not shipped out returned to their houses to await the next ship, some finding that their houses had been stripped bare in their absence. The crowds attending to wave goodbye were larger than before and their patriotic singing angered the Germans, who responded with violence and arrests.
Ships left Guernsey on 26 and 27 September with 825 deportees, including 9 from Sark. Guernsey borrowed two field kitchens from the Germans and cooked the “evacuees”, as the Germans referred to them, a meal. The ships departed after curfew. A third batch of 560 left Jersey on 29 September 1942. The Jersey sailing resulted in more crowds, singing and yet more violence and arrests.
Rather than put the deportees in the ubiquitous "40 hommes et 8 chevaux" French boxcars, the Germans gave them second class train carriages to travel in. It took three days to reach the destination.
On 21 January 1943 a question was asked of the Home Secretary in the House of Commons about deportations from Guernsey. No information was made public.
February 1943
A British commando raid on Sark in October 1942, Operation Basalt, motivated another batch of deportations in February 1943, with people taken from all three Islands. Of the 1,000 who were eligible under the criteria set out in orders, 201 were deported.
Included in this group were three Jews from Guernsey and five from Jersey. Despite being sent to internment camps in Biberach and Laufen, and Buchenwald concentration camp, they all survived the war.
Returns
A few weeks after the beginning of deportations, a few of those who were considered really sick were secretly returned to their island.
Camps
Dorsten Stalag VI-J is a POW camp located in Dorsten in the industrial Ruhr area. The barrage balloons around the camp gave clear indication it was in a bombing target area. The camp commandant became known as 'Rosy Joe' after using his own money to buy milk for the children. The Guernsey internees, and some from Jersey, spent six weeks in this transit camp until overcrowding in Biberach was solved. Single men were sent to Laufen, and Biberach and Wurzach received the families. Dorsten ceased to be used after 12 November 1942.
Biberach
Oflag V-B was located at Biberach an der Riß in countryside in southern Germany with a view of the Bavarian Alps. It was renamed "Ilag V-B" when it changed use to a civilian internment camp. The camp was also known by the name Lager Lindele.
The first two batches of people from Jersey arrived in what was formerly a Hitler Youth summer camp, but now consisted of 23 barrack huts surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers. Each hut contained 84 people in rooms intended for 18. The men were kept separated from the women and children. There were two hospital huts, storerooms, canteen, cookhouse, washing facilities and shower block, police and prison camp. A school was set up in the hut that contained German officers. Sanitary conditions were improved in late 1942 after complaints were made. The camp was crowded, though not as much as in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where similar huts held 500 each.
In October/November 1942, single men were sent to Laufen, and a number of families were shipped to Wurzach, releasing space for families from Dorsten. 1,011 internees remained; 429 men, 437 women and 145 children, all but 20 Channel Islanders. The number of internees would rise with the February deportation intake, then later some Jews, and finally a group of 200 Arabs. A number of these late arrivals died as a consequence of being poorly treated previously.
Guernsey nurse Gladys Skillett, who was five months pregnant at the time of her deportation to Biberach, became the first Channel Islander to give birth while in captivity in Germany. Mothers were not amused to have birth certificates stamped with a swastika.
Wurzach-Allgau
Now called Bad Wurzach, ‘Ilag V-C’ was a branch camp of Ilag V-B. It was about 30 miles south of Biberach and had also previously been an Officers camp. In October 1942, 618 Channel Islanders were transferred there from Biberach. More arrived in November from Dorsten. They were accommodated in the Schloss, a 17th-century mansion that had been a Catholic training college. They were made to scrub the filthy buildings clean within a week. It contained a hospital, theatre, storerooms, cellars and accommodation for men and women in different communal rooms housing up to 30 with bunk beds. Some families with very small children had a private room. A school for the 130 children was set up but they had no qualified teacher.
The Red Cross representatives who visited the camp from time to time were not happy with the accommodation, even though the Germans provided coal for fires when a visit was due. There was overcrowding, damp, rats, mice and fleas, but apart from an improvement in sanitation, few changes were made.
In late 1944, 72 Dutch Jews arrived from Bergen-Belsen, most appeared to have English grandparents. The deportees now learned first hand about conditions elsewhere.
Laufen