During the first half of the visit to the archives we had a talk and found out a lot about the content of what is stored at the archives and pieces of historical facts and data that were shown to us.

I learnt that when people immigrated to Jersey, they were given "Alien cards" which acted like visas and identification cards.
The earliest record that the archives hold is from 1378 which is over 600 years old. 

The archives also hold police records, for instance, they have a record of a boy named Louis Belamore who was 13 years old, and he was taken to court for shoplifting. The result was that he was banished from the island of Jersey as he was not born there, forbidding him to return.

In terms of the occupation of Jersey, the archives hold records of the King's letter to Jersey, stating that the island should be demilitarized. They also have a copy of the terms of surrender, troop records and typed out BBC news. The archives hold over 30,000 occupation registration cards that were required for every islander who was over the age of 14.
Louisa Gould was an islander who sheltered a Russian prisoner, however she was eventually caught. I found out that islanders were allowed to send Red Cross letters to the UK, however they were only allowed to use 25 words and were meticulously censored by the soldiers. 

German soldiers also sent letters back home for Christmas, however, some of the post workers stole some of the letters. One of the post workers who stole the letters kept them for over 60 years until they donated them to the archives. 

For the second half of the visit, we went upstairs to firstly look at some of the copies of items held by the archives. I saw an identity card, under the name of Goldman which had a large red cross across it to display that they were Jewish. 

I wrote down some of the reference numbers of some of the artifacts what can be requested or viewed online:
German letter: B/A/W30/1
Letter from Captain Sanders who was the captain of the first vessel: L/C/219/A1/2
Liberation letter: L/C/18/1

Afterwards we has a guided tour inside two of the rooms where the archives were kept and looked at the real-life artifacts. We also learned about the process of looking after the artifacts and also the measures the archives go through to making sure the items are in the best condition they could be. For example, when you walk into the vault, you are hit by a wall of air as it prevents insects from entering the vaults. If a fire occurs, the vaults close within 30 seconds and then a gas is released that removes the oxygen in the air which stops a fire from occurring from within the room.
 
I learnt from this trip the importance of the archives as you can learn little things that make up a bigger picture of the world during that time period. I also realized the extent the workers go through to preserve the artifacts and how meticulous the care is.