Stories of defiance by residents of Jersey during the Nazi occupation of their island have emerged in records of political prisoners published 75 years after the liberation.

More than 500 islanders as young as 14 were taken into custody for offences such as daubing “V” for victory signs around the island, spreading anti-German propaganda, listening to the radio and breaking curfews. The prisoners ranged from labourers to lawyers.

Among the longer sentences was a five-year term given to Philip Ozard, 53, for unauthorised possession of a weapon. Ozard was sent to a forced labour camp in Germany and was eventually freed by American soldiers in April 1945.

Some of the stories are already well known. Louisa Gould, for example, was a shopkeeper who sheltered a Russian prisoner of war and died in Ravensbrück concentration camp.

However, very little is known about many of those who appear in the records. Two of the youngest prisoners were schoolgirls Kathleen Duckworth, 15, and 14-year-old Beryl Wickings, who were convicted of unspecified “political offences”. Both were released after a single night in custody. However, Marcel Auger, a 15-year-old boy convicted of theft, was held for three months and spent time in custody in France.

Public access to the records had been restricted for 75 years under Jersey’s freedom of information laws.

Linda Romeril, the archives and collections director at Jersey Heritage, said: “In 2020, we celebrate 75 years since the island was liberated and it is fitting that in this significant year the political prisoner’s register is one of the documents that has been opened to the public.”

The register features the names of 506 individuals, whose crimes during the period were defined as political and therefore by inference could be interpreted as crimes against the German authorities.

Romeril added: “It is always fascinating to be able to study these documents and to use them to tell the stories of individuals who lived in Jersey up to a century ago.”

Many of the individuals on the register were sentenced by the German military courts, established in Jersey during the occupation to run alongside the island’s courts and try people for what it saw as crimes committed against the occupying army.

The register includes the name of the individual and date of their entrance to the prison. It also features their offence, often listed only as “political”, their sentence, age, height, hair colour, occupation, religion and birthplace, weight on entry and discharge, the date of their discharge from the prison and any relevant remarks.

The register and other records are open for the public to view at Jersey Archive.











