Latest news with #BadWurzach
BBC News
11-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
We could see Hitler Youth from this window says Jersey internee
A Jersey internee said he felt "sadness and joy" when he returned to the spot where he saw the Hitler Youth train outside his internment Newton was two years old when he was deported to the German town of Bad Wurzach with his family during the Hitler Youth was a group which introduced children to Nazi ideology and than 600 islanders lived behind barbed wires between 1942 and 1945 not knowing if they would ever return home. Some of the people who experienced those times have returned to the town and the castle where they were held to mark the 80th anniversary of their liberation. Mr Newton is the oldest surviving internee on the visit and was shown around the castle where he slept in a dormitory with many said "there was barbed wire separating us from the Hitler Youth" and "we could look through and see them training".Mr Newton added: "It's a privilege to come back here for my parents because they're the ones who took the full brunt of it because they knew what was going on and we didn't, we were just children."The group has joined friends and family to return to the interment camp as part of the visit organised by the Bad Wurzach Partnerschaft Committee and the St Helier – Bad Wurzach Partnership. Lola Garvin was eight months old when she was deported with her family and is the chairwoman of the St Helier – Bad Wurzach placed flowers on some of the graves of Jersey internees who died in the camp in Bad Garvin said "it's so spiritual" and "the Bad Wurzach people keep the graves beautifully clean, which is so important"."It meant a lot to also see my grandchildren lay roses too because they came here not knowing what to expect and I think they've understood it so we need to pass on the spirit of peace to the next generation," she added. Angela Thom was born in the internment camp in 1943 and does not remember growing up her family would talk about what happened during their time behind barbed Thorn said: "My brother and one of my sisters remembers going down into a cellar and there were slave workers on their way to another camp and they said it was horrific because you can imagine the state they were in."She added "it's nice to meet the other internees and hear their stories" as "I don't think I will be coming again because of my age and there's not many of us left".
BBC News
09-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Jersey internees return to Bad Wurzach 80 years after liberation
A group of Jersey internees have returned to an internment camp in southern Germany 80 years after their were shown around the camp, near the town of Bad Wurzach. where they were forced to live behind barbed wire from 1942 to troops rounded up those who were British born and their families before sending them to internment camps during the than 600 people ended up in Bad Wurzach and of those about 200 were children. 'Smuggle a pram' David Drage was the youngest boy to be deported with his family and taken to the internment camp at nine months old. He said: "My father managed to smuggle a pram all the way from Jersey to Bad Wurzach by talking to sailors and railway men."Mr Drage said "it got used by all the children" and his parents "were reluctant" to talk about what happened but he was "fairly inquisitive so I got most of the important stories out of them"."My own personal memory is the moment of liberation when the French tank came along and being a little child who had grown up in this quiet place I was frightened to death." Gisela Rothenhausler, who took the internees on the tour of the internment camp, said "it's always a great moment for us" when visits like this happen."The first big visit that I experienced was in 2005 and some of the internees were a bit reluctant to come here but what was great was they left as friends after seeing how much Germany had changed," Ms Rothenhausler is part of the Bad Wurzach Partnerschaft Committee which works with those in Jersey to help build bonds between the island and the German town. Local German media also covered the visit, with internees being interviewed by Patrick Müller from the Schwäbische said he wanted to speak to them "because it was interesting for the people to hear what the people who were interned at the camp feel and how that has changed over the years".He added: "I hope a lot of people will take the chance to speak to them and hear their stories."The group from Jersey will also visit the town of Biberach where about 1,000 people remained in Camp Lindele while others were taken to Bad Wurzach.
BBC News
06-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Why were Jersey families taken to Bad Wurzach in World War Two?
It was 1942 and German troops had been occupying the Channel Islands for two years and the lives of those who had stayed in the islands had already been turned upside for more than 2,000 islanders – life was just about to completely 15 September those British nationals who were not born in the Channel Islands and were between 16 and 70 years old were deported to Germany with their than 600 people from Jersey ended up in an internment camp near the town of Bad Wurzach, in southern Germany, and some of those who were held there are travelling back to the camp to mark 80 years since their liberation. The Channel Islanders had been caught up in the wider conflict of World War 1941 – Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran to protect British-controlled oil fields and Soviet supply lines. Iran had also developed close ties to Germany and Allied forces were concerned about German intelligence operations in the country as then deported German nationals who were living in Iran and German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler responded by ordering the non-local Britons in the islands to be taken off the islands and interred. Channel Islanders were taken to Camp Lindele - a civilian internment camp near Biberach – where about 1,000 people were then sent to Bad Wurzach where they were interned in the town's 18th Century who were kept there remember staying in dorms "with 30 mothers and children with a stove in the middle and we lived there 24 hours a day". 'Bad memories' Roy Newton was two years old when he was sent to Bad Wurzach and is making the journey back to the German said: "I hope the next generation comes and remembers what we went through."Mr Newton said "I have a few bad memories even though I was very young" but the visit back to the site is important "so I learn more about what my parents went through".The camp was liberated in April 1945 by French troops. 'Fate in the hands of others' Jersey historian Ian Ronayne is joining the internees on the journey back to Bad Wurzach and has studied this period of the island's said many islanders "wrote down their experience" and "they were uncertain as to their fate" while they were Ronayne said: "The Red Cross were involved in their imprisonment and were able to at least monitor the condition there and support to an extent."That meant "they weren't treated as common criminals or connected to the concentration camp system" but "they were incarcerated and their fate was in the hands of others". The St Helier – Bad Wurzach Partnership organises events to ensure the stories of those from Jersey are not group also works with partners in Germany like the Bad Wurzach Partnerschaft Committee to continue relationships between Jersey and the work to educate future generations on what life was like for those in the internment camps through projects like art exhibitions which share stories from those who were also organises regular trips for those who were interned at the camps to return to where they were deported and held to remember and reconcile with those in those trip marking the 80th anniversary of the camp's liberation will also involve work to ensure the relationship endures so the memories and stories live on for future generations.
