Channel 4 explores Nazi occupation of Channel Islands

While UK mainland was never invaded there is a story to tell…

To mark the 80th anniversary of the eventual Liberation of the islands, ‘Britain Under the Nazis: the Forgotten Occupation’ tells the story of one the most controversial periods in WW2 British history, utilising eye-witness accounts from those who lived through it.

 Emily Shields, Commissioning Editor at Channel 4:

“Drawing on incredible first-person testimony, with stories that intersect, overlap and defy each other in ‘their ‘ version of the truth, Minnow have created a mesmerising portrait of life under Enemy rule.”

In June 1940 Britain abandoned the Channel Islands to the Nazis.

69,000 islanders were left to live with the enemy, facing an impossible dilemma: to collaborate, resist, or tread a difficult line in between.  Their words, drawn from little known diaries, memoirs and letters from both the occupiers and occupied, are brought to life by actors for the first time. Leading historians Gilly Carr and Louise Willmot bring together their meticulous research, including recently unearthed documents that shed fascinating new light on this forgotten period of fascism on British soil.

 The invasion of Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney was a propaganda coup for Hitler, who began a building campaign to transform the islands into an impregnable fortress. But what started as a so-called ‘model occupation’ degenerated into a nightmare roll-out of Nazism – with persecution, antisemitic orders, informants, mass deportations, starvation, slave labour camps. There was no official investigation into the Occupation but the fallout from the division it caused remains toxic to this day.