The idea behind the archive is that it will be an organic site that can be added to by members of the public. Its expected that this blog format will be used initially. This allows tagging of stories, with the most popular tagged items or words appearing in the searchable tag cloud to the right. This allows easy searching of related articles.

The addition of information will be a bit sporadic in the early phases as the site is soon to be overhauled visually (we know its not the prettiest girl on the block at present!) and so for now the archive will be supported under the In Toni’s Footsteps: The Channel Islands Occupation Remembered name but will eventually be moved into its more suitable location on new domain www.occupationarchive.co.uk. The first addition to the site is a story not actually about the Occupation as such but events following the Liberation of Alderney. Tonight there will also be added a transcript of the first of 24 interviews that were conducted with both islanders and serving German soldiers as part of the making of In Toni’s Footsteps: The Channel Islands Occupation Remembered

We are keen for people to start submitting new content and are planning on targeting local media and websites for contributions towards making this site the largest and most concise gathering of Occupation related information on the web, one that can serve as an archive of the time and a resource for generations of scholars to come. Site visitors can also comment on any of the stories that are featured, disagree, discuss or add an alternative viewpoint. The site is designed to be a community one where all visitors have a voice.

If you are interested in knowing when new content is added to the site, please sign up to our RSS feed which will notify you of any changes made to the site so you can always be the first to read and comment.

If you have a story, piece of information, picture or anything else to offer please contact us. All contributions will be credited to the author and sources referenced as required. We want this to be an accurate museum to that turbulent time and so thank you in advance for any support you can offer.

Thanks

Carl
Project Leader- Occupation Archive

This story is contributed by Sylvia@Intrigue, courtesy of her flickr.com page

“You can not go anywhere in Alderney without constant stark reminders of the German Occupation. Unlike Guernsey, where an uneasy sort-of truce seemed to be in place where the inhabitants and the occupiers lived together, Alderney was virtually abandoned to the Germans.

Over the five years of its occupation, the island was turned into a fortress and housed three labour camps and Lager Sylt, believed to be the first SS Concentration camp. Concrete bunkers, air-raid shelters, gun-emplacements huge sea walls and the four camps were built using forced labour, mainly prisoners from eastern Europe. Mass graves were discovered but the survivors from the camp said that many more had died, mainly owing to malnutrition and exhaustion, and their corpses were thrown into the sea.

Alderney is the only Channel Island that does not celebrate Liberation Day. The Island had been turned into a concrete wasteland. The housing and farms were left to rot or worse destroyed. All usable wood had been stripped for use as fuel. Massive bunkers and concrete roads dominated the landscape. Some 37,000 mines had been laid on the island and an estimated 65,000 yards of barbed wire needed to be cleared.

The residents of Alderney were finally able to return in December, commemorated as a public holiday known as “the Homecoming,” following a clean-up operation by the British troops and the German prisoners of war, including the restoration of 300 houses. But much had been completely destroyed and land markers had been lost. There was no concept of returning to your old home; returning residents were handed a key and an address. Each person was assigned a set of cutlery and two pillows and other basic issue furniture.

Usable furniture was piled up, with people grabbing what they could get as quickly as possible with no reference to the original owners. Merika Clunn remembers the “Battle of the Butes” on the Alderney Government site although she was only four:

“People tried to get stuff to rehouse, so if they saw anything they thought was theirs, they went and sat on it and when the whistle was blown, they took it,” she said.

“My brother shut me in a cupboard and when the whistle went, someone came along and carried it off with me in it. The doors flew open and the person carrying it had a real shock when he saw me. It was like a real battle — you could take things home and if someone recognised furniture in your house that was theirs before the war, they would end up taking it back.”

We were told that the older residents are to this day edgy about having guests as a family heirloom may still be recognised and claimed by the original owner.”