Protest, Defiance and Resistance in the Channel Islands: German Occupation, 1940-45

The Nazi occupation in World War Two is acknowledged as a defining juncture and an important identity building experience throughout contemporary Europe. Resistance is what ‘saves' European societies from an otherwise checkered record of collaboration on the part of their economic, political, cultural and religious elites. Opposition took pride of place as a legitimizing device in the postwar order and has since become an indelible part of the collective consciousness.Yet there is one exception to this trend among previously occupied territories: the British Channel Islands. Collective identity construction in the islands still relies on the notion of ‘orderly and correct relations' with the Nazis, while talk of ‘resistance' earns raised eye-brows. The general attitude to the many witnesses of conscience who existed in the islands remains ambiguous.This book conversely and expertly argues that there was in fact Nazi resistance in the Channel Islands and is the first text to fully explore the complex relationship that existed between the Nazis and the people of this region.