Papers prove Jersey's betrayal of its Jews By Ian Cobain and Stephen Ward THE true extent of British collaboration during the German occupation of the Channel Islands has been revealed after the discovery of a hidden cache of wartime papers. Documents stored under a staircase at the Attorney General's office on Jersey for 54 years show how enthusiastically the authorities obeyed Nazi orders to round up Jews on the island. The German military government instructed Alexander Coutanche, the island's most senior politician, to draw up a list of anyone with three or four Jewish grandparents, and to stamp their identity papers with a "J" in red ink. However, Coutanche, the Bailiff of Jersey, and Charles Duret Aubin, his Attorney General, decided to hand over anyone with one Jewish grandparent. Several people were sent to concentration camps as a result. Others committed suicide or went into hiding. The papers also reveal that senior police officers tipped off the occupying forces that Frederick Page, a farm labourer and veteran of the First World War, had been defying Nazi orders by concealing a radio receiver at his home. He was arrested and sent to a German prison in France where he starved to death. The newly discovered papers reveal a degree of collusion which will dismay many on the islands, where co-operation with the Germans is seen as having been limited and unavoidable. The documents were found last year when the Attorney General's office moved to new premises in St Helier, the island's capital. Among the first to study them was David Fraser, a senior law lecturer at the University of Sydney, who believes they show that the authorities could have done more to protect Jewish islanders. He said: "Island officials were lawyers, and argued effectively against the Germans when it suited them. They opposed measures against Freemasons, for example, and did a deal with the Germans to halt the deportation of retired British servicemen to European prison camps. They appear to have just said to themselves, 'Here's a list of names - it's my job to hand them over'." The Channel Islands were occupied from 1940 to 1945 - the only part of the United Kingdom to fall under Hitler's control. The Germans left day-to-day government to the local authorities, who had been given little guidance from Whitehall, and were anxious to protect the civilian population from the brutality suffered elsewhere in occupied Europe. The realisation, at the end of the war, that there had been some official collaboration did not prevent Coutanche being knighted by George VI or Duret Aubin being awarded the CBE. Also among the documents were a number of letters from islanders informing Coutanche of the identity of people responsible for daubing "V" for victory symbols around the island. The present Jersey authorities have decided that these letters should remain classified until 2045 as some of the informers are still alive and living on the island. Most of the Jews on the Channel Islands fled before the Germans invaded in June 1940, along with thousands who joined the British Armed Forces. In October that year, the authorities registered 12 citizens as Jewish - nine of whom were not Jewish under the Nazis' own definition. One, Victor Emanuel, killed himself before he could be deported to mainland Europe while another, Hyam Goldman, committed suicide soon after the liberation. Nathan Davidson, who had one Jewish grandparent, went insane and died in a psychiatric hospital. Two others died of old age, while a fourth died after refusing to take medication for tuberculosis. Two went into hiding and survived. One Jerseyman, John Finkelstein, told the authorities that he was Anglican but was arrested and survived two and a half years in Buchenwald and Theresienstadt camps. Ruby Still also claimed to be Christian, but was deported to the Biberach camp in Germany. She also survived. Esther Lloyd was registered as "originally Jewish, now Christian". She also survived Biberach. While in a transit camp, she wrote in her diary on May 6, 1943: "Never shall I be honest again. If I had not declared myself [as Jewish] this wouldn't have happened - it's dreadful." Four Jews were deported from Guernsey. One, Elisabet Duquemin, survived Biberach. Three others, Therese Steiner, Auguste Spitz and Marianne Grunfeld, were deported to France in 1943 and died in Auschwitz. The tortuous course facing the authorities is revealed in one of the papers that has been seen by The Telegraph, a memo from Duret Aubin about the arrest of Frederick Page after a tip-off about the banned radio. He wrote that Centenier Gordon, the police chief, was worried that the Germans would take direct control of policing in the neighbourhood if they did not disclose the seizure of the set. "I told Centenier Gordon that I was not disposed to give him an order one way or the other in a matter into which considerations of conscience entered so strongly, and that he must decide with his own conscience where his duty lay. "I added that if I did receive a formal police report from him I would have no alternative but to forward it to the Occupying Authority. Centenier Gordon subsequently informed me that he had put the matter to his colleagues at a meeting of the St Saviour police and that their unanimous opinion was that the duty of the police was to the community rather than to the individual and that he should therefore report." Michael Day, director of the Jersey Heritage Trust, which runs the island's archives, said: "There was one German soldier to every two civilians on Jersey, making it impossible to resist. But there are a lot of stages between collaborating and resisting. The issue was how best to secure the common good. At times the law officer and the bailiff were faced with the dilemma of having to 'shop' individuals to protect the population." David Feldman's mother and father escaped on the last boat out of Jersey before the German invasion, and he was born in England three months later. Their clothing shop was "Aryanised", but returned to them after the war. He said: "The island authorities were seeking to fight only some battles and the Jews were a battle they did not fight. It is almost as if they were airbrushed out of Jersey citizenship." <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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