Living with the Enemy-The Story of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands 1940-1945, with eye-witness accounts from both sides. Foreword by Jack Higgins

Foreword by Jack Higgins, Master thriller writer and international bestseller. The Channel Islands hold a unique place in British history, not least because during the Second World War they were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the Nazis. For five long years the Swastika flew here in place of the Union Jack and all the worst excesses of Nazi rule were present in some form or other. The iron fist in the velvet glove policy did not last long. The Secret Field Police employed Gestapo operatives on secondment and many Islanders soon experienced the horror of the early morning knock on the door leading to brutal interrogation in a manner familiar elsewhere in occupied Europe. Only those who experienced the Occupation know the anguish of it. Many thousands of Channel Islanders received prison sentences of one kind or another for contravening the law of the jackboot. To be a Jew was a crime under the anti-Semitic laws and even keeping a radio to listen to the BBC news broadcasts meant a stiff prison sentence. Many Islanders went further, assisting Russian slave workers and others on the run, eventually being sentenced to terms in French prisons or concentration camps such as Ravensbruck and Belsen. In some cases they died there. As in all occupied countries a small number of people collaborated with the enemy. That fact is meaningless when considered in the context of the unfailing loyalty of the vast majority of Channel Islanders who stubbornly persisted in the face of armed might and brute force in fighting their own war of non co-operation. They never lost faith in their belief that one day liberation would come. Living with the Enemy is a stunning account of how a small population with a belief in themselves, their own integrity and loyalty to the Crown were able to stand up to a country which at the time controlled the whole of Europe but most importantly played their own part in the eventual destruction of the Third Reich. Jack Higgins "This book shows that Islanders learned how to contend with Nazi regulations, how to survive and how to trust those Germans whose human side was often in contrast to the brutality of Hitler's regime."--Back cover