Legacies of Occupation: Heritage, Memory and Archaeology in the Channel Islands

311 Pages·2014·5.716 MB·English

by  Gilly Carr (auth.)

Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology
Gilly Carr
Legacies of
Occupation
Heritage, Memory and Archaeology in
the Channel Islands
Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology
Volume 40
Series editor
Charles E. Orser, Jr., Albany, USA
For furthervolumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/5734
Gilly Carr
Legacies of Occupation
Heritage, Memory and Archaeology
in the Channel Islands
123
Gilly Carr
St.Catharine’s College
Cambridge
UK
ISSN 1574-0439
ISBN 978-3-319-03406-5 ISBN 978-3-319-03407-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-03407-2
Springer ChamHeidelberg New YorkDordrecht London
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(cid:2)SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2014
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To my grandparents, Mark and Margaret
Plummer, who were evacuated; my great-
grandparents, Inez and Herbert Plummer,
who were occupied; and to Bertram, Lily,
Robin, Harold, Edith and Eva Bartlett, and
Gus Bradshaw, who were deported to
Biberach civilian internment camp
Acknowledgments
Duringthesix yearsoffieldworkIwashelpedbynumerouspeopleineachofthe
ChannelIslandswhogaveuptheirtimetotalktomeandtovisitOccupationsites
of all description with me in all kinds of weather. Together we have gone ‘bun-
kering’onhotsunnydaysandinthebitingcoldofwinter;we’vetouredmemorials
inthepouringrain;museumcabinetshavebeenopenedupformeinthelastlight
ofdayafterthetouristshaveleft;andthecelebrationsofLiberationDayhasbeen
shared with me. Islanders have even waded through the undergrowth of former
labour camps with me and shown me the traces. They have fed me and made me
endless cups of tea; they’ve put me up and put up with me, and answered my
numerouslettersandemailsbetweenvisitsovertheentireperiodofmyfieldwork.
Alargenumberofthemhavebecomemyfriends,andforthatIamdeeplygrateful
and honoured. To all of these people, I owe a debt of gratitude. By sharing their
knowledge about the Occupation with me, they have enabled me to understand
local attitudes towards its legacies, and how these have changed over the last
70 years. They have also helped me to form new interpretations, gathered by
in-depth research, which have countered the more superficial and sometimes
damaging earlier misconceptions about Channel Islanders and the way they
treasure and guard their past.
In particular I would like to thank Michael and Josephine Ginns in Jersey for
their friendship and hospitality, for letting me stay with them on numerous
occasions, and for their constant willingness to answer my letters (Michael) and
forthelegendarygâchemeléeandslicesofcakes(Josephine).Iwouldalsoliketo
thank warmly Mark ‘Liberation’ Lamerton for diligently sending me newspaper
cuttings for the last few years (I owe you a small fortune in postage), for your
emails,forsharingyourarchivewithme,andforcheckingthefactsinmychapter
onLiberationDayinthisvolume.Mark:thankyousomuch.You’vebeenfantastic
and I am deeply grateful.
InGuernseyIwouldliketogiveaspecialmentiontoRichardHeaume,whohas
always been willing to welcome me into his museum, to let me photograph his
Occupationartefacts,togivemeacupofteaandasliceofgâche,andtobringme
up to date with the latest Occupation-related news. I also want to thank Jonathan
Bartlett,wholetmestaywithhimformostofmyGuernsey-basedfieldwork,and
who has become my husband and ‘anthropological informant’. Jon, you are an
‘unexpected outcome of research’ of the very best kind!
vii
viii Acknowledgments
I would also like to thank warmly the following people, about whom I wish
I had the space to say more: Chris Addy (formerly Jersey War Tunnels and now
National Trust for Jersey); Val Nelson, Doug Ford, Neil Mahrer, Olga Finch, Jon
Carter(JerseyHeritage)andLindaRomerilandStuartNicolleandothermembers
ofstaff(JerseyArchives);DamienHorn(ChannelIslandsMilitaryMuseum);Paul
Simmonds (formerly of Jersey War Tunnels); Eric Blakeley (Channel TV); John
Mesch (Council for the Protection of Jersey’s Heritage) and Tom Bunting. Also,
members of the Channel Islands Occupation Society (Jersey branch), including:
Bob Le Sueur, Paul Burnal, Matthew Costard, Jeremy Hamon, Tony Chalker,
TonyPike,DavidMaindonaldandColinIsherwood.Iwouldalsoliketothankthe
following Jerseymen for letting me interview them: Graeme Delanoe, Alan Allix,
Martin Walton, Tony Titterington, Peter Le Vesconte, Ian Channing and Kevin
Mayne, Gary Font, Freddie Cohen, Rod McLoughlin and Bruce Willing.
In Guernsey, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Jason Monaghan,
Matt Harvey, Josephine Dowding, Lisa Burton, Helen Glencross and Helen
Conlon (Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery); Darryl Ogier and Nathan Coyde
(Guersey Archives); Amanda Bennett, Sue Laker, Jean Vidamour, and other staff
members of the Priaulx Library; Mike O’Hara (Department of Culture and
Leisure);PeterSirett;andPeter andPaulBalshaw(LaValette MilitaryMuseum).
I would also like to thank the following members of the Channel Islands Occu-
pation Society (Guernsey branch): Ian Brehaut, Paul Le Pelley, Ken Tough, Phil
Martin, Paul Bourgaize, Michael Lanyon and Molly Bihet.
My thanks also to Michael Beaumont (Seigneur of Sark); Richard Axton
(Société Serquiaise); and Danny Wakley, Richard Dew, and Paul Armorgie in
Sark; and to Frances Jeens (Alderney Museum); and Colin Partridge and Trevor
Davenport in Alderney.
IwouldalsoliketothankthefollowingformerBailiffsofGuernseyandJersey
for granting me interviews: Sir De Vic Carey (Guernsey), Sir Geoffrey Rowland
(Guernsey) and Sir Philip Bailhache (Jersey).
My fieldwork in the Channel Islands has been made possible by funding from
the British Academy, the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
(University of Cambridge) and the Société Jersiaise Millennium History Grant.
Thefollowingpeopleverykindlyreadandcommentedondifferentchaptersof
the bookandIthankthemwarmly:Britt Baillie, Philip Stone,Sharon McDonald,
Susan Pearce, Chris Addy and Mark Lamerton, although I take full responsibility
for any mistakes. Rebecca Montague greatly eased my task by transcribing many
interviews with great promptness. Thank you.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Nick Saunders, the man
whofirstintroducedmetotheconceptofconflictarchaeologyandtrenchart,who
converted me away from a life in prehistoric archaeology, and who has been a
greatmentorandsupporterofmyworkoverthelastfewyears.Theexperienceof
writing this book has been emotionally and intellectually rewarding and literally
life changing in so many ways. Nick, if I hadn’t met you, then this book would
never have been written—a cliché, but entirely true. Thank you.
Acknowledgments ix
Some of the ideas in Chap. 3 have been reproduced from my paper ‘Shining a
light on dark tourism: German bunkers in the British Channel Islands’, which
appeared in 2010 in Public Archaeology 9(2): 65–86, published by Maney
Publishing (www.maneypublishing.com/journals/pua and www.ingentaconnect.
com/content/maney/pua). Similarly, parts of Chap. 4 have been used in ‘The
hidden heritage of forced and slave labour: examining the commitment to
remembering in the Channel Islands’, edited by Marek Jasinski (forthcoming),
Painful Heritage: The Falstad Symposia. Trondheim: The Royal Norwegian
Society of Sciences and Letters. The first part of Chap. 6 was first published by
Taylor & Francis in 2012, in ‘Examining the memorialscape of occupation and
liberation: a case study from the Channel Islands’, International Journal of
Heritage Studies 18(2): 174–193 (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/
13527258.2011.606330). I would also like to thank the Jersey Evening Post, the
Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery, Jonathan Bartlett, Brian Green, Richard
Heaume, Tony Titterington, the family of Richard Mayne, Peter Sirett and Gary
Font for granting permission for me to reproduce a number of photos in this
book, and Ian Taylor for drawing the maps so expertly.
Contents
1 Legacies of Occupation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Sites of Memory, Sites of Occupation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Transition from Legacy to Heritage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Structure and Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2 Militaria: Collecting the Debris of War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
The Birth of an Obsession: The History of Collecting
in the Channel Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Phase 1: Militaria as Pilfered Booty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Phase 2: Militaria as Souvenir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Phase 3: Militaria as Serious Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Phase 4: Collecting as an Investment/Currency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
The War-Youth Generation: Collecting as a Coping Mechanism. . . . . 48
The First and Second Post-war Generation: Objects, Stories
and Collecting as Nostalgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Objects and Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The Social Life of German Militaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Occupation Museums, Nostalgia and Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Display, Design, Poetry and Authenticity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Typology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Morality, Ethics and the Collection and Display
of German Militaria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Museums as Sites and Creations of Nostalgic Memory . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3 Bunkers: Edifices of Abomination or Heritage Sites?. . . . . . . . . . . 83
Introduction: The Atlantic Wall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Bunkers in the Channel Islands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
xi
xii Contents
The Atlantic Wall in the Channel Islands, 1941 to Present. . . . . . . . . 92
Phase 1: Erasure: 1945–1953 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Phase 2: Amnesia and Disguise: 1950s–1970s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Phase 3: Rehabilitation and Restoration: 1977 to Present. . . . . . . . 99
Phase 4: Contestation and Memorialisation: 1998 to Present. . . . . . 107
Generations of People, Biographies of Bunkers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
The Life Cycle of Bunkers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Explaining the Oddities of Bunker Restoration
in the Channel Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Restoration as a Symbol of Pride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Restoration as Intervention in Forgetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Restoration as Nostalgia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Restoration as Therapeutic Healing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Restoration as Marginalisation of Victims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Dealing with Difficult Heritage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Conclusion: Acknowledging an Uncomfortable Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
4 Labour Camps: Forgotten Sites or Sites
of Deliberate Amnesia? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
The OT in the Channel Islands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
OT Heritage in the Channel Islands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Restored Fortifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Museums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Memorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
OT Camp Sites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Why are OT Camps Still Neglected?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
OT Camps as a Dark Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Strategies for the Future of OT Camps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
The Power of Controversial Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
The Value of Excavation and Memorialisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Identifying Communities and Stakeholders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Benefits and Compromise Positions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
The Production of Narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
The Future for OT Camp Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Conclusion: Intervention, Activism and Provocative Heritage. . . . . . . 186
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
5 The Politics of Memory on Liberation Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Introduction: Commemoration and Memory in the Channel Islands. . . 193
Analysing Liberation Day, 1946 to the Present. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
The First Liberation Day, 1945. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201