Nazi Prisons in Britain: Political Prisoners during the German Occupation of Jersey and Guernsey, 1940–1945 (Modern Conflict Archaeology)

Nazi Prisons in Britain is a groundbreaking book – a systematic study of Jersey and Guernsey prisons during the German occupation of the Channel Islands based on the experiences of the prisoners. It brings to light for the first time the surviving sources – memoirs, diaries, official archival material, poetry, graffiti, autograph books, letters and material culture are all included. This dazzling array of evidence reveals the reality of life behind bars in Nazi prisons on British territory. Gilly Carr’s powerful book shines a light into political prisoner consciousness and solidarity, and shows how they resisted the regime with the limited tools at their disposal. It gives a fascinating insight into how the experience varied according to age, sex, class, and seriousness of offense. The text is enlivened by the words of notorious wartime criminals, including Eddie Chapman – Agent Zigzag – and the traitor Eric Pleasants, who later joined the SS. Also featured are the letters of the ‘Jersey 21’, who later died in concentration camps, those of surrealist artists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, condemned to death for their resistance activities, and the lost prison diaries of Frank Falla, Guernsey's best known resister. With firsthand sources and archeological research, this study explores life inside Nazi prisons during the occupation of the Channel Islands.Through most of the Second World War, Nazis occupied the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, two British Crown dependencies in the English Channel. With extensive research, archeologist Gilly Carr has uncovered the enduring legacies of this occupation. In Nazi Prisons in Britain, she shines a light on the lives of citizen resisters who became political prisoners on their own soil. Carr explores political prisoner consciousness and solidarity through the letters of the “Jersey 21” and the diaries of Frank Falla, Guernsey's best-known resister. Drawing on memoirs, poetry, graffiti, official archives, and material culture—as well as the words of war criminals, traitors, surrealist artists, and many others—she reveals what life was like inside these brutal Nazi prisons. What was it like to be a prisoner of the Nazis in Britain during the Second World War? The first systematic study of the sources relating to prisons in Jersey and Guernsey during the German occupation. Vivid insight into the experience of the prisoners which is revealed through memoirs, diaries, letters, poetry, graffiti and autograph books.