Jersey Resistance during the Occupation

Victoria College House, Mont Millais, St Helier

This was the Headquarters of the German Civil Affairs Department (Feldkommandantur 515), where Occupation laws were created for the civilian population, and offences against them were tried in a military court. Islanders given prison sentences in excess of three months were deported to France, with a risk of being moved from a prison to a concentration camp, whilst lighter sentences were served in Jersey’s Newgate Street Prison.

19, Pierson Road, St. Helier

Led by Leslie Huelin and Norman Le Brocq, the Jersey Communist Party (JCP) first met here at Huelin’s flat in late 1943. They soon began circulating translated BBC news sheets amongst the foreign workers and offered shelter to Russians who had escaped from their labour camps. Later the JCP contacted a German anti-Nazi soldier named Paul Mülbach, with whom they went on produce six propaganda leaflets inciting mutiny in the ranks.

No. 1, Silvertide, Havre-des-Pas, St. Helier

This building was the headquarters of the German Secret Field Police (Geheime Feldpolizei – GFP) who, whilst they were not the Gestapo, both dressed and acted like them. The head of the GFP was Hauptmann Bode, his second in command being Hauptwachtmeister Heinz Carl Wölfle, known as ‘Wolf, of the Gestapo’. Many Islanders thought to be guilty of offences were brought to Silvertide for interrogation, which was often accompanied by physical abuse. Of this experience Joe Mière wrote:

‘This time three Germans had a go at me and kept knocking me down with nearly every blow. And before I knew it, I was spitting out blood, I reached into my pocket for my handkerchief, and I wiped my lips. I could feel bits of teeth in my mouth and as I spat into my handkerchief there were bits of teeth in the saliva. My lips were cut, and I could feel that some of my front teeth were missing. I placed the handkerchief with the bits of teeth in it back into my pocket. I do not remember much after this, being in a state of shock, and found myself back at the prison…The brutal treatment and questions went on for weeks.’

Marina Hotel, Havre-des-Pas

This hotel owned and managed by John Harris, whose eldest son, Francis, was a member of a small group of youngsters who carried out thefts of German weapons and equipment, small scale sabotage and intelligence gathering.

V-Sign, Royal Square, St. Helier

During the War the letter ‘V’ was used as a symbol of Allied victory; they were encouraged to do so by BBC broadcasts. Despite it soon being forbidden, many Islanders painted roads, walls and signs with it to make the Germans feel like they were surrounded by hostility. This large ‘V’ was incorporated into the paving of the Royal Square by stonemason Joseph Le Guyader in the closing months of the Occupation and revealed at the time of the Liberation, to ‘shouts of triumphant laughter’.

Occupation Tapestry Gallery, Maritime Museum, St. Helier

The Occupation Tapestry was created to mark the 50th anniversary of the Liberation in 1995. Its 12 panels, one for each Island Parish, represent specific themes and events of the period, and include symbols of resistance such as the V-sign in the Royal Square, use of forbidden radios and escape by boat. A panel named ‘Reflection’ was commissioned in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of Liberation.

St Saviour’s Church

On the southern wall of the nave is a memorial plaque to Canon Clifford Cohu, who was the parish minister from 1940. Cohu called out the BBC news
while cycling through St Helier and passed it on to patients in the General Hospital. His source was the news sheets compiled by cemetery worker Joseph Tierney and Arthur Wakeham, who listened to a forbidden radio belonging to John Nicolle and his father. Eighteen people in total were eventually arrested in early 1943, with Cohu, Tierney, Nicolle and Arthur Dimmery being deported – none of these men survived.

Pier Road, South Hill & Mount Bingham

In September 1942 Hitler announced that all English-born residents of the Channel Islands would be deported in retaliation for the deportation to Australia of German civilians working in British-occupied Iran. Crowds gathered on Pier Road to protest as hundreds were herded onto boats; patriotic singing erupted and echoed back and forth between those on land and on board. On 29 September as many as 1,000 people were present; the demonstration became a riot and many were arrested, Maurice Hill amongst them.

Maurice recalled:

‘I was amongst many people who went up to Pier Road so that we could see across to the boat and give them a good farewell. The first deportation wasn’t quite so bad, the second was a little more boisterous and the third one, there were literally hundreds of us up there. The German occupiers didn’t like that very much because we were singing patriotic songs – ‘There Will Always Be an England’, ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ and that sort of thing. And they turned the troops out and they started moving us down Pier Road. Some went to the left, to The Esplanade…and foolishly I joined them.

The German soldiers moved us all along The Esplanade and turned us into Kensington Place, which is a much narrower street, and they had more control over us there. Half was up there, of course there were a couple of hotels there which were billets for the Germans, and they turned out more troops and they started arresting people… [A] German soldier grabbed hold of me, put a revolver in my back and said, ‘come on’, so I went.’

After three weeks in prison and some interrogation, Maurice was released. However, in February 1943 he was deported to Germany and interned in Laufen Castle until its Liberation on 4 May 1945.

Greenwood, 45 Roseville Street (now Fountain Court)

On this site stood Albert Bedane’s home and physiotherapy surgery where, at great risk to himself, he sheltered a Jewish lady named Erica Richardson for two years. Bedane also took in escaped Russian slave workers and others on the run from the Germans. In the year 2000 Bedane received posthumous recognition of his bravery in the form of Israel’s highest holocaust honour, ‘Righteous Among the Nations’; his medal and certificate are on display in the Occupation Tapestry Gallery of the Maritime Museum in St. Helier.

 9, Roseville Street

At this address lived Clement, Winifred and Vivienne Mylne who were arrested in February 1943 for possessing a forbidden radio – radios had been banned in June of the previous year – and camera. Vivienne was found guilty of distributing news sheets and valiantly refused to incriminate her friends who had done the same. She was sentenced to three years imprisonment, reduced to 10 months, to be served in France.

General Hospital, Gloucester Street, St Helier

This 18th century building functioned as the Island’s hospital during the German Occupation, when the hospital chaplain was Canon Clifford Cohu, Rector of St Saviour. Despite the ownership and use of radios having been outlawed in June 1942, Cohu spread the BBC rather openly, including to hospital patients to help raise their morale. Many Islanders still fondly remember his acts of defiance, most spectacularly the rendering of the news whilst riding down the Parade on his bicycle.

Cohu and 17 others were eventually tried for receiving and disseminating BBC news in 1943. Cohu received an 18-month sentence and was deported to a prison near Dijon in the first instance, before being moved to prisons in Frankfurt and Naumburg. Cohu was released on 30 August 1944 but was then moved to a ‘work education camp’ at Zöschen where, as was the only British prison, he was treated with merciless brutality leading to his death on 20 September. Cohu died with a small Bible tightly pressed against his breast.

Political Prisoner Memorial, Gloucester Street, St. Helier

This memorial tablet marks the location of the former Newgate Street Prison, where many Jersey people were incarcerated for acts of resistance. Such acts included defacing German signs, disobeying orders, protesting against the deportation of British-born Islanders, distributing BBC news, attempting to escape, stealing from the Occupiers, being caught out after curfew and sheltering Russian slave workers.

Those found guilty of such charges have since become known as ‘political prisoners’ – one such person was Joe Mière, who for many years campaigned for formal recognition of the Island’s ‘forgotten people’. The plaque was unveiled in 1995 by the Bailiff, Sir Philip Bailhache, who stated: ‘The prison has gone, and the people incarcerated behind its walls are a diminishing band. The site beyond these forgotten walls holds hundreds if not thousands of stories of courage and resilience, most of which will never now be told.’

Grave of Maurice Jay Gould, Allied War Cemetery, Howard Davis Park

Maurice Gould attempted to escape from Jersey to England in 1942, with friends Dennis Audrain and Peter Hassall. Sadly, Dennis drowned, whilst Maurice and Peter were arrested and later deported to France. Having passed through various prisons and camps, Maurice contracted tuberculosis and died in October 1943. Peter survived the war and petitioned for many years to have Maurice’s body returned home; he was eventually reburied here in May 1997.

Lighthouse Memorial, New North Quay, St. Helier

In 1996 this decommissioned lighthouse became a memorial to the 21 Islanders who died in Nazi prisons and camps, having been tried and deported for breaking German Occupation laws. Their names can be read on the plinth around its base, where wreaths are laid each year on 27 January to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

Fauvic Embarkation Point

It was from here that the majority of escape attempts took place in the last months of the Occupation, with escapees being offered great assistance from
those who lived in the area. At this time it has been calculated that 152 individuals attempted to escape from Jersey, often in the hope of joining the armed forces and contributing to the war effort, but also to take intelligence to the Allies. Sadly nine Islanders are known to have died during their attempts. At the end of the Occupation, around a half of all political prisoners in Jersey’s jail were imprisoned for attempting to escape or for aiding those attempting to escape.

La Fontaine, Millais, St Ouen

In late 1942 Louisa Gould and her sister Ivy Forster began sheltering a Russian slave worker named Fyodor ‘Bill’ Burriy, who had escaped from his
labour camp. They were eventually betrayed by neighbours and traces of Bill’s presence, a forbidden camera and radio were discovered. Louisa, Ivy and their brother Harold Le Druillenec and friends Dora Hacquoil and Berthe Pitolet were arrested. Louisa, Harold and Berthe were deported, whilst the others were imprisoned locally.

Berthe later escaped from prison in France, but Louisa died in the gas chamber at Ravensbrück in February 1945. Harold became the only known British man to survive the horrors of Bergen-Belsen, and later testified at the Nuremberg Trials.

La Rocquaise, St Brelade’s Bay

This was the home of Suzanne Malherbe and Lucy Schwob, who were also known by their pseudonyms Marcel Moore and Claude Cahun. They were avant-garde Surrealist artists and life partners who distributed BBC news bulletins amongst the German troops – placing them in pockets, briefcases or parked cars – purporting to be the work of ‘the solider without name’.  Read more about this here.

They were apprehended in July 1944 and sentenced to death. Alexander Coutanche, the Bailiff of Jersey, and the French Consul appealed and they were eventually released from Jersey’s.

 7, West Park Avenue

Dorothea Le Brocq hid her Jewish friend Hedwig Bercu in this terraced house for 18 months during the German Occupation. When the Island was liberated on 9 May 1945, Hedwig was finally able to come out of hiding. Dorothea’s brave action almost certainly saved Hedwig’s life and in 2016 she was posthumously awarded the honour of Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel.  Read the full story of Dorothea’s bravery here.

Bust of Lord Coutanche, States Building, Royal Square

Alexander Moncrieff Coutanche (9 May 1892 – 18 December 1973) was Bailiff of Jersey throughout the German Occupation. The withdrawal of the Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey meant that the Bailiff had also to take over his responsibilities. Coutanche, and his administration, had to tread a difficult path, and making difficult decisions, in his role as a buffer between the Occupiers and the civilian population.

Coutanche intervened in the case of Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, who were initially sentenced to death by the German Court, but this was commuted to life imprisonment after the Bailiff and his advocate appealed to the German authorities for mercy.

Coutanche has since been assessed as a ‘versatile, clever administrator who rose to the challenge of his position even under difficult circumstances’. He was knighted in 1946.

The bust of Lord Coutanche sits on a plinth beneath the window of the States Building from which he announced the impending Liberation of Jersey on 8 May 1945.