Book review: Deported from Jersey

From 05 Feb 2010 to 05 Jun 2010

A new book published by Jersey Heritage, Occupied Behind Barbed Wire, takes as its subject the experience of wartime Channel Island internees, as expressed through the range of artefacts and art they produced in captivity.

From 1942 to 1945, around 2,300 Channel Islanders were forcibly deported to German civilian internment camps in France, Germany, and further afield.

Using mainly their Red Cross parcels as raw materials, they recycled the wooden parcel crates, parcel wrapping and string, cardboard parcels, cellophane packing materials and empty food tins to make items that ranged from football trophies to communion chalices, chess sets to stage sets, and brooches to trinket boxes.

Examining these often-overlooked items is the author, Dr Gillian Carr, from Guernsey, a university lecturer in archaeology at the University of Cambridge

General Info

Address Occupied Behind Barbed Wire, by Gillian Carr, is published by Jersey Heritage and may be bought from the shop at Jersey Heritage sites. Price £4.95.