We are a non-political, voluntary organisation, dedicated to the preservation and recordal of all aspects of the

German Occupation of Jersey during the Second World War.

During World War Two the Channel Islands (comprising, principally, the islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm) were the only part of the British Isles ever to fall into enemy hands,  being occupied by the German forces for five long years. The experience of the Occupation period provides a fascinating insight into the way in which things might have been had the Germans been equally successful in their invasion of mainland England. The civilian population was staunchly patriotic and determined to defy the Germans at every opportunity, but the islands’ severely restricted land area, coupled with vast numbers of enemy troops, meant that organised resistance was futile. The two Island Governments, - the States of Jersey, and the States of Guernsey - were permitted to remain. However, they had only limited power, and devoted their energies and meagre resources to diluting some of the harsher military orders and looking after the islanders’ general welfare; newspapers were censored, a curfew was imposed, and much of the coastline was put out of bounds by the creation of military zones. Later in the Occupation, severe punishments were meted out on those who listened to the BBC on clandestine radios, or who were caught engaging in other acts of patriotism, such as attempting to escape to England, hiding escaped Russian forced labourers, disseminating Allied propaganda, defacing road signs or sabotaging German equipment.

During the Occupation the Germans fortified the Islands out of all proportion to their strategic value, in order to fulfil Hitler’s personal directive that they be turned into “impregnable fortresses”. Hitler was obsessed with the idea that the Allies would try to regain the islands at any price, and issued “Construction Orders” that resulted in over 20% of the material that went into the so-called ‘Atlantic Wall’ – a line of massive defence works which stretched from the Baltic to the Spanish frontier – being committed to the Channel Islands.

Hundreds of concrete, reinforced bunkers and gun emplacements, anti-tank walls and tunnels were constructed during a two-year period up to September, 1943, but for an invasion which never came.