Issue 104

Jan / Feb 2009

Contents

news

Britain’s oldest string found off Isle of Wight

Antiquities scheme saved: time to go to sea?

Consultation on ancient human remains ended Jan 31

In the press

In Brief & Phase 2

features

Rethinking Bush Barrow
New insights into a famous burial excavated 200 years ago

THE BIG DIG: Chichester
Burials at a leper hospital document this feared medieval disease

PEACE SITE: Greenham Common
John Schofield reports on the an archaeology of protest at the former US air base

Archaeology that matters
Gilly Carr investigates the world war two relics of the Channel Islands

on the web

Recommended websites
Caroline Wickham-Jones goes underwater and two new resources for Surrey are launched

letters

your views and responses

CBA correspondent

Campaigns, comment and communications from the CBA
Lynne Walker and Mike Anthony give an annual pick of listed building cases

ISSN 1357-4442

Editor Mike Pitts

features

  ARCHAEOLOGY
  THAT
  MATTERS

Gilly Carr has been researching world war two relics in the Channel Islands – the only part of Britain to be occupied by the Nazis. She is finding patterns that she says might exist across Europe: anarchaeology of occupation.

The Channel Islands are arguably the most beautiful parts of the British Isles, with their turquoise bays and unspoiled cliff paths bursting with colourful wild flowers; they are islands that have inspired writers and painters such as Victor Hugo and Renoir alike. However, what might strike the casual visitor as being in sharp contrast to this are the ugly concrete bunkers which litter the landscape and the coasts. They are constant reminders of the German occupation which took place over 60 years ago during WWII, the most important and traumatic event in Channel Island history. One might ask why these structures have not been removed if they act as reminders of such a bitter and difficult period of starvation, shortages, oppression and restrictions? The answer gives an insight into the identity of the islanders themselves.

Many Channel Islanders understand and define themselves with reference to their history and heritage, using this to articulate their difference from the English. A fundamental part of this different history lies in their occupation by German troops: they were the only part of the British Isles to be so occupied. The occupation lies close to the heart of most islanders, as most of their families were affected by this period of history. Liberation Day is still enthusiastically celebrated every year on May 9 in Guernsey and Jersey; memorials are dotted around the islands (some erected more belatedly than others); there are a number of active and avid collectors of occupation memorabilia in the islands, and it has even been said that the Channel Islands have the densest concentration of German occupation museums in Europe. But why such an obsession, still, with the occupation years? Do the Channel Islands differ in this respect from other formerly occupied countries in Europe? And where does archaeology fit into all of this?

Occupation

Over the last two years I have been conducting fieldwork in the Channel Islands, building up a database of “occupation artefacts”: hand-made items which were constructed as a response to the conditions and experiences of occupation, and which are able to provide an insight into those experiences. While the project began as a study of occupation trench art, it soon grew to encompass items of “make do and mend”, created by four categories of people: islanders, German soldiers, “slave” or forced workers (those brought in by the Germans to build the concrete fortifications) and deportees (the 2,200 civilian islanders sent to German internment camps).

By the time data had been collected from the four largest islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark, some very clear patterns began to emerge. Many of the artefacts were telling the same story in a number of ways. For example, they spoke of resistance or defiance; they spoke of shortages of food, fuel and raw materials; and they silently but proudly proclaimed Channel Island identity and patriotism during a time when such things were appropriated or forbidden by the occupying army. And, as the database grew, so did the project, and I began to develop an interest in the changing attitudes of the population towards the “occupation landscapes”, such as the German fortifications and the military cemeteries. I observed the way that the occupation was remembered and commemorated through re-enactment, memorials and the heritage industry. And I saw how very important the German occupation was, and is today, to a large part of the population of the Channel Islands – the way it is still dropped into conversation, the way it is still “present”, still “today’s news”, as the war no longer is in the UK. After a while, all of these issues combined together to form the concept of an “archaeology of occupation”.

Although I have developed the archaeology of occupation using the case study of the Channel Islands, it is broadly applicable to any country that has experienced military occupation. What makes theChannel Islands special is that, because they are small islands, it has been possible to gain a mastery of the finite number of archives, museums and personal collections within a couple of years; a task that would have been quite impossible for, say, a country the size of France. Another advantage of an island-based case study, is that the occupation generation and their descendants, and the occupation material culture, landscape and heritage are present within a relatively small and bounded area.

In fact, most of the characteristics of occupied Europe are also to be found concentrated microcosmically together within these islands. They had concentration camps and German bunkers, they witnessed the deportation or imprisonment of Jews and other civilians, and they suffered starvation and the suppression of the population, just as in the rest of Europe. Although some aspects of the military occupations that took place in other countries did not happen in the Channel Islands because of their small size (such as the destruction and clearing of ghettos, the massacre of civilians, or the presence of an organised armed resistance network), it must be appreciated that all occupations were and are unique – and are unique in the way that they are commemorated today. Despite this, however, there are many similarities which benefit from a multifaceted archaeological approach using material culture, landscape and heritage, and it is these which together constitute an archaeology of occupation.

Material culture

Though I include within occupation material culture what Nicholas Saunders calls “trench art” (in Trench Art: Materialities &Memories of War, Berg, 2003), and make-do-and-mend items, the important criteria for these objects is that they were hand- and not anonymously machine- or factory made, and were produced in response to the circumstances of military occupation or its conditions.

The hundreds of items uncovered during research include objects as varied as a toy tankmade in Guernsey from old tomato-box wood; an engraved shell casemade by a deported Channel Islander in a German internment camp; a wooden plate complete with Guernsey crest, carved by a German soldier; a crucifix in a bottle, made as a gift by a Russian forced worker in exchange for food; and a “souvenired” German helmet, painted with patriotic symbols after the occupation. These diverse objects are emblematic of some of the themes which are apparent in the data.

One of the key themes, and one that is highly symptomatic of the occupation experience, embodies those artefacts which speak of the experience of being watched, whether by occupying soldiers or other islanders who might report or denounce one’s activities. A classic example of this artefact type is the crystal radio set, the vast majority of which were disguised as, or hidden inside, something else. Radios were banned by the Germans in June 1942, to prevent people from listening to the BBC. So islanders handed in (most of) their existing radios. They then started to manufacture crystal radios which they listened to in secret, and hid inside light switches, biscuit tins and hollowed-out books (to give just three examples).

Another example of this theme are items produced in the knowledge that they would be seen, such as products of the V-for-Victory campaign. The BBC encouraged the occupied peoples of Europe to chalk up the letter V on walls to make the occupiers feel that they were surrounded by an invisible hostile army. In addition to these graffiti, islanders produced a number of items, including badges made fromcoins showing the King’s head, with a V cut out underneath it.

The other themes are also represented by artefacts. Items which speak of the shortages of raw materials, fuel and food include a sugar beet press or potato flour grinder. Resistance or defiance was expressed, again, in the V sign campaign and in images of the King on coins, which were incorporated into trench art. And there are artefacts which speak of the power relationship between occupier and occupied, something which was seen in the appropriation of island symbols of identity by the occupiers, followed by its silent and subtle reappropriation by islanders.

Landscape

By its very definition, occupation involves landscapes which become militarily occupied. Occupation landscapes are still remembered as such and arouse strong emotions today. In the case of the Channel Islands, these include areas which were mined or fenced off with barbed wire (small parts of which are sometimes still visible to the eagle-eyed), as well as the more visible German bunkers which are scattered along the coasts today. Although these fortifications were reviled for a long time after the war, some covered in soil or (entirely unsuccessfully) dynamited, these structures have slowly been brought in from the cold. Many today on private land are used as glorified garden sheds or even house extensions, and some have been restored and turned into museums. While the occupation generation associate them with unhappy memories, they are now widely accepted as important historic monuments.

Other aspects of the occupation landscape include military and civilian cemeteries. While separate cemeteries exist in the Channel Islands for German military personnel who died during the occupation, islanders who died of starvation or other causes during this period are not segregated but are typically buried with their family members. Also included in this category are massacre pits, and while none has been found in the Channel Islands, their presence has been rumoured in Alderney since the island was liberated in 1945. Alderney also hosts the site of the only concentration camp on British soil, Lager Sylt; three other forced worker camps also existed on the island during the occupation. Sites of internment, cruelty and terror can form a key aspect of the occupation landscape and their recognition, commemoration and memorialisation has been an uphill struggle in the Channel Islands. At the time of writing, the first ever memorial plaque has been erected at the site of Sylt, 63 years after the end of the war. Other sites of camps and prisons of forced workers in the Channel Islands still remain mostly unmarked.

Heritage

How are the events of the war years remembered and commemorated today? In the Channel Islands, this is done is several ways. First, there are the annual Liberation Day celebrations in Guernsey, Jersey and Sark. These have always been hugely popular events, and on landmark anniversaries have included a cavalcade of vehicles, floats, bands and old soldiers. While there is usually a 1940s theme on these occasions, this has been less prevalent in Guernsey in recent years due to an attempt to keep the youth of the island engaged in its heritage, despite the loss of relevance of an event commemorated with bouncy castles and funfairs. In Alderney, a Homecoming Day of December 15 was instituted in 2005 for the population who were almost entirely evacuated en masse during the years of occupation.

Memorials to the occupation have traditionally been of plain concrete or granite plaques, erected to commemorate the experience of the islanders as a whole. However, in the last 15 years, they have become increasingly popular and innovative in design, mostly since the 50th anniversary of liberation in 1995. While Guernsey only has one non-plaque memorial, in the form of a sun-dial obelisk, Jersey has several and has taken the lead in commemorating the contribution of other groups such as the deported, the Jews, the political prisoners and the forced workers.

The occupation is also commemorated through re-enactment, often used as a method of transmitting memories and teaching the next generation about the occupation years. There is a group in Jersey called Insel Soldaten, which has a penchant for dressing up in German uniform and turning up at local events – causing much controversy and heated articles in the local newspaper, the Jersey Evening Post.

Private, public, amateur and professional occupation-related museums are thick on the ground in the Channel Islands, and they, too, play their part in commemorating the occupation years and ensuring that they are remembered. They are repositories of cultural memory and ensure that a certain vision of the past is transmitted, that is, one of defiant and starving islanders battling bravely against the restrictions imposed by occupying forces. The suggestion that the islands collaborated with the Germans, put forward by Madeleine Bunting (The Model Occupation, Harper Collins, 1995), caused a tremendous amount of ill-feeling and controversy. Her allegations have only recently been rectified by Hazel Knowles Smith (The Changing Face of the Channel Islands Occupation, Palgrave McMillan, 2007), who is seen as having restored the islanders’ honourable wartime record.

As a sub-discipline of conflict archaeology, occupation archaeology acknowledges the unique contribution of civilians in times of war. They experienced unequal power relations with those who occupied and oppressed them, and they attempted to undermine or equalise the power relationship by other means, often through material culture. It also acknowledges the long-term effect of occupation on the psyche of a society, and the result this can have on heritage and identity. Because occupation archaeology often deals with a period within (or on the edge of) living memory, it is not an impersonal or objective area of research. Rather, it is deeply personal and meaningful to the people involved. It is an emotional archaeology – an archaeology that matters.

Gilly Carr is university lecturer in archaeology at the Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge. She thanks all those in the Channel Islands who have helped with this research, which has been funded by the British Academy and the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, Cambridge. See G Carr, “The politics of forgetting on the island of Alderney”, Archaeological Review from Cambridge 22.2 (2007), 89-112.

Readers may also be interested in the CBA publication War Art and our other 20th century military volumes. See our Books section for more details. See also BIAB records for the Islands.

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