Roy McLoughin - Living with the Enemy-The Story of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands 1940-1945, with eye-witness accounts from both sides. Foreword by Jack Higgins

he Channel Islands hold a unique place in British history, not leastbecause during the Second World War they were the only part of theBritish Isles to be occupied by the Nazis. For five long years the Swastikaflew here in place of the Union Jack and all the worst excesses of Nazi rulewere present in some form or other.

The iron fist in the velvet glove policy did not last long. The SecretField Police employed Gestapo operatives on secondment and manyIslanders soon experienced the horror of the early morning knock on thedoor leading to brutal interrogation in a manner familiar elsewhere inoccupied Europe.

Only those who experienced the Occupation know the anguish of it andit has always been particularly distressing to those who lived through itwhen outsiders complain that there was no resistance movement in theIslands. Logic alone makes it clear that such action was simply not possiblein so small an area and yet many thousands of Channel Islanders receivedprison sentences of one kind or another for contravening the law of thejackboot. To be a Jew was a crime under the anti-Semitic laws and evenkeeping a radio to listen to the BBC news broadcasts meant a stiff prisonsentence.

Many Islanders went further, assisting Russian slave workers and otherson the run, eventually being sentenced to terms in French prisons orconcentration camps such as Ravensbruck and Belsen. In some cases theydied there.

As in all occupied countries a small number of people collaborated withthe enemy. That fact is meaningless when considered in the context of theunfailing loyalty of the vast majority of Channel Islanders who stubbornlypersisted in the face of armed might and brute force in fighting their ownwar of non co-operation. They never lost faith in their belief that one dayliberation would come.

Living with the Enemy is a stunning account of how a small populationwith a belief in themselves, their own integrity and loyalty to the Crownwere able to stand up to a country which at the time controlled the whole ofEurope but most importantly played their own part in the eventualdestruction of the Third Reich.

About Jack Higgins
Master thriller writer and international bestseller Jack Higgins has writtenmany political and war novels totalling nearly seventy titles. Many havebeen translated into 60 languages and 13 of these have been transformedfrom page to screen in the form of films or series. Arguably the mostsuccessful is The Eagle has Landed which has sold well over 50 millioncopies to date. Jack Higgins has lived in Jersey for over 24 years and inwhich time has taken a special interest in the German Occupation of theChannel Islands. He is also the Patron of The Jersey Film Society.

he year 1940 is simply a date in the history books for most people ofthe generation born since the war. For them it stands for a list ofhistorical events - the evacuation from Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain andthe blitz on London. But for others living at the time 1940 marked thebeginning of a new chapter in their lives. There are men and women in theChannel Islands whose memories will always go back to the NaziOccupation in all its phases, from the invasion under the blue skies ofmidsummer to the dramatic last days five years later as Hitlers armycollapsed in the ruins of Germany.

Islanders who were then children or teenagers will never forget the sightof German soldiers marching in the streets of St. Helier and St. Peter Port,accompanied by the blaring brass of military bands. A few Sarkees stillspeak of troops in uniform kit strolling along the Avenue or patrolling theSark cliffs.

It all happened long ago and now seems as insubstantial as a dream.With the passing years more and more people disappear from the ranks ofthe living and their memories of the German Occupation go with them.Yet it seems that an account of the years 1940 to 1945 should contain thepersonal experiences of individuals in the Islands while relating them tothe wider perspective of Europe at war. Victories and defeats as greatarmies pursue each other across the Continent and in Africa provide a matrixfor the main events of the time but a closer view of what the conflict did tolife in the Channel Islands shows what is now history in human terms. Therealities of daily life under an alien military power, with all its rules andregulations, brings into focus both Islanders and Germans in this ill-assortedwartime community.