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BBC News
10-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Remembering Channel Islanders who died at Biberach in Germany
People from Jersey have visited the graves of Channel Islanders who died in the internment camp in Biberach, in than 2,000 people were deported from Jersey and Guernsey in 1942 and services are being held to mark the 80th anniversary of their were taken to Camp Lindele, where about 1,000 people, most from Guernsey, remained while others were sent to places like Bad site of the camp has been knocked down and only a police training academy remains. Those on the visit were shown an exhibition on its history and taken to a cemetery where those who died in the camp were buried. Sylvia Diamond was held in Biberach before she was taken to Bad Wurzach as a young girl with her family when she was two years made the same walk internees were forced to make from the train station to the camp to remember what people went Diamond said "my parents had very vivid memories of the walk from the station up the hill to the camp after three days on the train" and "they had to carry me, suitcases and tugging my little sister along as well".She added: "I wanted to come and walk in their footsteps and do it in their honour and I was glad to it." Sir Mark Boleat's grandparents and his uncle were held in the said "it's been a really interesting experience" and "they've made a great effort to ensure the people here today understand what the camp was during the war".He added: "I think we do overlook Biberach and there's a feeling here that it's all about Guernsey people but there were a great many Jersey people that were in Biberach for the whole of the time they were interned."The group from Jersey has returned as guests of honour of the Bad Wurzach Partnerschaft Committee to continue relationships between the island and the town. Helga Reiser, who is from the Guernsey Friends of Biberach Group and helped co-ordinate the visit, showed the visitors to a nearby grave where Channel Islanders who died in the camp were said "I'm very pleased they came and looked around Camp Lindele" and "people from Jersey have the same history as those from Guernsey do in this camp"."Laying the roses at the grave is to honour the people who are buried here and didn't come back to Jersey or Guernsey," she added.
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.
