On Tuesday the 4th of June we went on a trip to the Societe Jeraise archive which is run off donations and memberships. The visit was an opportunity for us to see how archives function and to identify their purpose in todays society. The A2 project theme was presented to us as being the Jersey Occupation, we were introduced to it via a compliation of videos taken in the time of the occupation then we were given a talk on the brief history of the archive, how it came about, when it was created, what is photos are kept their. After we were given 40 images that are stored at the Societe and had the task of ordering them to create a narrative sequence, ours we focused on the idea of agriculture and rationing, rather then the violent side of the war photography, we wanted to highlight the importance of food within the occupation, how and where it came from. The final task was too go into town and take photos of landscapes, objects and people who had any significance with the occupation. I decided to go to antique shops to look for objects and I found postcards from that era, with writing on the back with stories of the war.
The German Occupation of Jersey began one week after the British government had demilitarized the island fearing for the safety of civilians should there be any conflict. On the 28th of June 1940, the German Air Force, not knowing of the demilitarization of the island, bombed multiple sites on the island; including civilian farming lorries which were mistaken for troop carriers, killing 10 civilians and wounding many more.
Soon-after, on July 1st 1940, General Richthofen, The Commander of the German Air Forces in Normandy, dropped an ultimatum from the air demanding the immediate surrender of the island. White flags and crosses were placed in prominent positions, as specified by the Germans, and later that day Jersey was occupied by air-borne troops under the command of Hauptmann Gussek.
Under German command, the timezone was changed to Eastern Day Time, vehicles were ordered to drive on the right side of the road, the use of radio was banned, access to news from the mainland was negligible and attempts by civilians at making their own radio sets risked imprisonment. Shortages to supplies like food and fuel also began to dwindle, and by the time of the D-Day attacks and control of France was regained, the delivery of German supplies which fueled Jersey ceased.
Shopping hour schedules also became tighter as goods became scarce. By the time almost all supplies had run out, the SS Vega Red Cross ship arrived, delivering supply parcels. These proved as ‘lifelines’ for the civilians.
Hitler ordered the conversion of Jersey into an impregnable fortress. Thousands of slave workers from countries like Russia, Spain, France, Poland, and Algeria built hundreds of bunkers, anti-tank walls, railway systems, as well as many tunnel complexes. In late 1943 the Tunnel Complex Ho8 in St. Lawrence was converted from an artillery workshop and barracks to an emergency casualty clearing station able to cope with up to 500 patients.. All of the fortifications built around the island were part of Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall”.
Nazi forces first invaded Jersey on the 1st July 1940 soon after the German forces started to bring in fortifications like anti aircraft guns and cannons. The Islands held no strategic value to the Nazis it was mainly occupied as propaganda as they could say that they had control over British land. The occupation started off with bombing attacks on the islands in late June in which 44 islands were killed. However before the islands were invaded they were de-militarized and declared an “open town” which is when a city does not defend against invaders to avoid destruction and loss of life.
During the occupation a large number of forces were deployed to defend the islands and lots of fortifications were built to defend the island which would never be used. There were also large restrictions and bans on things that were common before. Things that were banned include: radios, driving, firearms and cameras. And restrictions were placed on things like how many people could be in a crowd, singing and fishing. To fish which was a major part of the Jersey culture and the way of life for people. The only people who were allowed to fish during the occupation were ones who had a licence to do so and this was difficult to obtain so there were less fish being brought in as there were less fishermen and there were more people to feed due to the invading forces so many people were forced to start working in agriculture. And people had to tend fields and grow vegetables.
The liberation of Jersey occured on the 9th of May and the occupying German forces surrendered without any resistance and then the ally forces went to the Pomme d’or, took down the Nazi flags and raised british flags and the Jersey one.
On my trip to the archives we were displayed with a numerous amount of WW2 images. We are then assigned the task of selecting which images we thought were aesthetically pleasing and challenged to lay them out in a series to create a story. The image above is my groups final result. We chose not to focus on the guns side of the war, and to instead focus one the everyday regular aspect of the individuals lives. Our story is about the rations and the process of getting the food and supplies for the food.
I tended to prefer the images that focused on the people involved in the war rather than just the guns, as many people who want to learn about the occupation of Jersey tend to be fixated on the actual warfare side of the occupation.
This trip has given me an insight in what I want to do. I would like to further explore the idea of the people involved in the occupation of jersey or maybe the more personal objects that they owned during the war. I could explore personal archives of people such as my family and compare them to public archives. Or I could visit places such as the War Tunnels or peoples own personal collection of objects and photograph them.
Here are some of the archival images that I liked and requested in high resolution. We got a brief history into the photographic archives and looked into the lives of both the German and Jersey people.
The Channel Islands were the only part of the Britain Isles to be occupied by German forces in WW2. The five-year occupation came to an end on 9 May 1945.
The German Occupation of Jersey began one week after the British government had demilitarized the island fearing for the safety of civilians should there be any conflict. The codename for this was “Operation Green Arrow” and the initial German Air Force reconnaissance flights mistake civilian farming lorries for troop carriers. On the 28th of June , the German Air Force, not knowing of the demilitarization, bomb and machine gun multiple sites on the island. The attacks killed ten people and wound many more. A few days later on the 1 of July 1940 General Richthofen, The Commander of the German Air Forces in Normandy, dropped an ultimatum from the air demanding the immediate surrender of the island. White flags and crosses were placed in prominent positions, as stipulated by the Germans, and later that day Jersey was occupied by air-borne troops under the command of Hauptmann Gussek.
At 7.15am on 9 May, on the quarter deck of HMS Bulldog, Second-in-Command for Guernsey General Siegfried Heine signed the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the German Command of the Channel Islands, effecting their capitulation. On completion of this, General Heine was then ordered to “immediately cause all German flags and ensigns now flying in the Channel Islands to be lowered”. At Midday an overjoyed Bailiff Coutanche accompanied a German delegation led by the island Commander, General Major Rudolf Wulf, aboard HMS Beagle anchored in St. Aubin’s bay, where the separate surrender of Jersey was to take place. Arriving at the same time in St. Helier’s harbour was a small naval inspection party sent to report on the health of the islanders, who were promptly overwhelmed by an enthusiastic crowd delighted at seeing their first liberators landing on Jersey soil.
An archive is a collection of historical records or an actual place that they are located in. Archives contain documents which have been collected over a longitudinal period of time. These primary documents are then stored and used to showcase the function and or story of a particular person or organisation. Archives are used to allow us to gain a more in depth understanding of the historical factors at a particular moment in time, and act as a repertoire allowing us to reflect on the history of that specific place and time. Records stored within an archive is varied, from diaries, legal documents, financial documents to photographs and film. An archive can act as repositories of cultural memories of the past, as we are able to store reliable documents, which are memories of the past, which when we reflect on the documents will clearly show cultural memories. Although they are reliable, imagery is highly subjective which can lead to misinterpretation of the objects stored within an archive. Archival memory can be considered a social construct as they can show power of relationships in that society at that particular time in history.
At Jersey we have 2 archives, the first being Société Jersiaise , this archive was founded in 1873 for the study of Jersey Archaeology, history, natural history, the ancient language and the conservation of nature. The photographic archive of the Société Jersiaise contains over 80,000 images dating back from as early as mid 1840’s.
The other archive we have on island is, Jersey Archive. This archive is slightly different compared to the Société Jersiaise, in that the Jersey Archives is set up specifically for the collection, preservation and restoration of records, laws and photos. The Jersey archives hold over 300,000 documentations and photographs, which date back to the early 19th century.
An archive is a collection of historical documents and or records that are there providing information about a place, institution, or group or people, or a major historical event. For example; The Occupation of Jersey. Archives include documents and records but buildings and historical sites can also be protected and preserved through the archival societies. Archives are used to preserve history and information and allow more understanding and knowledge into history from institutional points of view via legal documents and governmental or military documents as well as a private or personal insight via diaries or personal financial documents or personal photographs. An Archives purpose is to act as a link to the past and it’s some of an archives main objectives will be to preserve the historical artifacts, sites, documents and photographs so that they aren’t lost or forgotten. They allow the new generations to be able to connect with the historic pasts of their area of living wherever that may be.
The archives act as repositories as they are a reliable and relevant source of evidence to events of the past. They act as repositories in the way that the information in the archives will be sectioned and split away into sub sections and relevance, for instance all archives surrounding the occupation will be filed together in each of it’s different forms eg Photographic archives. They act as repositories of cultural memories as they will have social and cultural connections to the place they belong to, they show how social and cultural constructs have changed and shaped our cultures, places and people around us.
Photography can act in a double role with the archives as they can be used for a scientific purpose or a documentary purpose, these types of photographs will be created with the intention of being informative with what they show, they will be clear and easy to read and understand as their purpose will be to inform and show something. Photography can also be produced for personal uses, such as family and personal photographs or in an artistic way where the meaning and context may be a little unclear and harder to interpret as it’s not produced to be clearly informing about something. This is how photography can act as a double role within the archives as it can prove scientific purposes showing clearing what was going on and being informative of what life was like and what was going on and then photography on the personal level can show private insights to the small lives of people or what culture was like if it’s being produced in and artistic way.
David Bate’s text talks about how museums will use archives and the collections they have of artifacts and documents to create displays of a particular historical moment or culture. Museums aim to create a story he states that items ‘are often chosen from a vast repository aiming to construct a particular story’. In the beginning of the text Bate’s beings discussing the British Museum and how it’s first official photographer was employed in 1854 to document it’s artifacts. Fenton was taking photographs of the museums interior, the aim being to create an impression of how it was to see these objects in the Victorian era. The photographs were said to ‘evoke a “pastness”’ which shows the effects of the photographs with how they are suggested to create an ‘atmospheric space’ and a ‘kind of silence’ this is suggesting that the photos are creating an aura around them, like an invisible barrier between the present looking back into the past.
A key artist also mention in David Bates work is Louise Lawler, her photographs feature artworks in private homes, public museums or auction houses and other key institutions. Her art is there to show how art is contextualized or de-contextualized by their environments. Lawler’s work casts a ‘keen anthropological eye’ with ‘visual framing’. Her work is showing something around the behind the scenes of the artifacts, it’s giving it a different view or say of how it gets presented for people of the public to look upon.
Another key artist is Susan Hiller, Bate’s talks about her collection ‘Dedicated to the unknown artists 1972-6’ it is a collection of three hundred post cards all around the coast of Britain. Each postcard presents an image, variously hand-tinted and black-and-white, several of them are paintings. The pictures become part of the archival display of how culture sees itself, ‘repeated over an iconographic trope’. Hiller’s work is very powerful and yet silent and is showing something surrounding the culture stored in archives.
Susan Hiller “Dedicated to the Unknown Artists”
For my own personal studies looking into archival material will help and push me along and can enrich my personal study as the topic of the Occupation of Jersey is something that really changed and developed the way in which the island itself worked and the landscape as well as the people who lived on the island and the attitudes they had. We can see clearly demonstrated on our island the physical impacts of the occupation from the bunkers and war tunnels and other fortresses that had been built, it is from the work of the archives that we still have these buildings and reminders of history of what has shaped our island to this day. I feel that looking into the other archival material will help as it can give an in-depth insight into what happened and what went on. It can give a personal aspect and I feel it helps to put into perspective exactly what went on , for example diary entries or newspaper clippings as well as photographs that were taken to document the occupation as well as personal ones kept by families.
Archives have developed and changed as the world has been changing, we now have access to the internet and have the ability to store things in such a wider manner via computers and phones. Many people will have similar to their own personal archives by having phones and social media where they are documenting their lives and keeping their own personal photographs and storing them. Archives have developed to be preserving historical facts and times of places and societies and mass institutions as well as personal archives of people and families.
In conclusion, archives can serve a key role in a photographers work and in preserving parts of cultures and places. They provide a link and connection to the past and help us to understand things in a clearer manner that have happened before. Archival material helps to create a narrative and a story to show and understand a time, for example this one being the Occupation of Jersey, the bunkers together with the photographs and diaries as well as letters can help us to create this narrative story of what was going on and what happened.
The Societe Jersiaise is an archive in Jersey Channel Islands which preserves Jersey’s important history. The Societe Jersiaise was founded in Jersey Channel Islands in 1873 and it explores the archaeology of jersey, history, the acident language and the conservation of the environment. The group of Jersey individuals who founded this archive were interested in Jersey history and make these actions in order to follow their passion of wanting to keep Jersey history so it can be shared with generations. Once this Societe grew, it was made into a museum and now includes archaeological sites in order to preserve them.
Our Day
In order to gain more of an insight to the chosen subject we were given two presentations by representatives of the Jersiase Archive where they told us background information on the archive such as that it opened in 44, and includes over 100,000 images from the mid 40s. Jersey is known for its development of Photography and that it has a large history in photography. The first images which were collected in Jersey were from photographers such as William Collie and Thomas Sutton and they were brought over in 1840.
We were also given a brief explanation of what the German Occupation was. This being that the Germans occupied Europe from the times of 1939- 1945 which was when WWII started. We were also told that the occupation was carried out by the government of Nazi- Germany and the military forces. The occupation is well-know for the terrifying outcome of starvation which ended up with occupied and occupiers dying during the winter of 45. The presentations also included information as to where all the first edition photos of the Occupation are kept which were explained to be kept in boxes, sealed in a carefully watched temperature room which they keep very cold of avoid fingerprinting on the photographs.
We then went through collections from the archive and personal collectors work. They were kept in plastic covers at all time for protection.
Images which stood out to me
While looking at the different images we were told to try to make a story out of the different images we saw, to try and put yourself in this situation and to help expand you’re thinking of how people lived and the surrounding they were in. This helped to broaden our knowledge of what the kind of atmosphere would be like in the crowds and when you were by yourself at home.
Our story…
After our second activity, we then ventured into the town center to take images of objects in jersey which linked up to the German occupation in st. Helier. Carrying out this activity helped open my eyes to how much historical objects we have in jersey which i had never noticed before.
My images..
In conclusion i think that attending the archive center was a good way to start our photography project as there was lots of information given to expand knowledge and evidence to study so that there is a clear understanding of the style the images in those days were taken, the type of images that were taken, and the location of the images.
The Société Jersiaise is a learned society in Jersey that was founded in 1873 in the manner of similar county societies in the United Kingdom for the purpose of:
The Publications of Local History
The encouragement of the use of French, the official language
The study of the ancient local dialect
To archive, as far as possible, the conservation of all prehistoric and historical sites
To found a library, mainly historical and archaeological
To collaborate with other societies with similar aims
The Société continues to fulfill these objectives, with two important differences: because it can no longer be said that French is the official language the encouragement of its use has been dropped and, secondly an important addition to the aims is the study of all branches of the natural history of the island and publication of the results of fieldwork in these subjects. Publications of a Bulletin Annual (Journal) commenced in 1875 and an annex to the society’s second annual report for 1876 drew attention of members to the importance of a number of subjects including ‘Recording in permanent photography local prehistoric monuments, buildings and ruins’. The Société Jersiaise realised its aim of opening a museum in 1877. By 1878 a museum had been formed. In 1893 the Société moved to No.9 Pier Rd, which continues to house the museum. The Société is a registered charity funded through subscriptions, donations and legacies.
With the practice and collecting of photography already identified as priorities these activities were continued as significant part of the Société’s museum and library opperations. Multiple interests in the medium of photography, as a method for research, as documentary and scientific records and as an independent art form are actively maintained by society members to present day. These patterns of development, established over more than 140 years, have resulted in the accumulation of a photographic archive which is remarkable in it’s insular context.
Our Visit
On our visit to the Société Jersiaise we sat down and were talked to buy two people who work within the archives, one being specifically from the photographic archives. We had opportunities to look through some of the photographs that had been taken throughout the occupation, some included photographs of documents and signs produced throughout the occupation, others of military buildings e.g Bunkers and also air raid shelters, others included photographs of the people and the islanders as well as German soldiers. It was all very interesting and helpful to see the evidence and visuals of what had happened to the island during this time and gave some good insights into what archival and documentary photography is like and about.
we sat down and were talked to buy two people who work within the archives, one being specifically from the photographic archives. We had opportunities to look through some of the photographs that had been taken throughout the occupation, some included photographs of documents and signs produced throughout the occupation, others of military buildings e.g Bunkers and also air raid shelters, others included photographs of the people and the islanders as well as German soldiers. It was all very interesting and helpful to see the evidence and visuals of what had happened to the island during this time and gave some good insights into what archival and documentary photography is like and about.
As well as getting to see the photographic evidence we also had the ability to look through the printed versions of the Green Books, produced about significant points across the island, usually having some military value, these included maps and plans as well as photographs which all happened to be very detailed. This was useful and an interesting insight into the other ways the Société Jersiaise and the Archives are preserving the history with not only photographs but also pairing them with documents produced.
Below shows some of the photographs that I found in the archives at the Société Jersiaise:
