Joan Speaker Detailed Notes and Images

Joan was age six when the occupation of Jersey Channel Islands first started and had only been in school two years before hand. She lived in the middle of Jersey, at the highest point (Le Platon) and was an only child. Due to being an only child, she says her parents didn’t baby her at such a young age and she knew the circumstances of the situation the people of Jersey were in. Her living in the north coast of jersey meant that she could see over France and witnessed the Germans settling over in France before deciding to come to Jersey, meaning she was so close to the country that she could hear the bombing going on.

3-4 days before the Germans arrived in Jersey, Joan helped her mother put up white flags in her garden to stop them shooting at the area. June 1940 is when everything started. The family heard the planes come over above their heads which is when Joan met with her five year old female neighbour and they sat in the deserted roads watching the planes fly above them. However, due to their being a rumour that bombing was taking place on Victoria Avenue (St. Helier) Joan’s mother moved the children to under the bushes on the side of the road, sheltered out of sight from the Germans. The three of them sat over night listing to the planes go by, listing to the bombings which she described as being overpoweringly loud and mostly watching the stars in the sky which she found very relaxing.

Living in the highest point of Jersey meant that once the Germans had overtaken Jersey, they then set up base in the area which Joan was living as it was a good point for the Germans so shoot over at France while being able to also see what was coming towards them. Cliffs around the area were also blocked off meaning Joan could no longer play along the cliff edges which she expressed was an activity she used to do a lot. Although the Germans and France were shooting at each other, the germans also used to trade good with them to allow people in Jersey to live. This was the time where ration booklets also came and everyone had to track the amount of food they were buying, and the shop keepers could see the amount that they were allowed to be given. Depending on your occupation depended on the amount of food you got. Joan’s mother cheated at this system and registered her occupation as being a farmer as there was a farm next door to her house, this was believable and allowed the family to get 5grams more of food. The dates people bought food was also noted in these booklets in small squares in the top right hand side. The amount of food being given was no where near enough to last people a week and meant that people started to grow crops, sometimes illegally.

At this point in time the Germans introduced rules to keep the islanders in line, the first being a military zone which meant islanders couldn’t go on beaches. The curfew time was also brought in where in summer everyone had to be home by 10pm and in winter 9pm, no one was allowed out the house until 6am the next day creating restricted movement and allowed the germans to do whatever they lived during this time. During this time blackouts were also happening and everyone had to black out their windows with cardboard to stop any light shining to the outside at nighttime. All radios and other electronics had been taken away to stop people knowing what was happening at this point as well.

The brits are known for liking their tea, and of course there was no rations of tea being given out meaning people had to make their own. This consisted of grating parsnips which people grew, oven baking the parsnip until brown and then pouring hot water onto the parsnip which made a tea favour. If you wanted to buy supplemented off other people you had to use the new German phennings which was money at this point.

Coming back onto people growing their own crops, farmers were told how much they were allowed to grow which was a very restricted amount and kind of made no point of every growing stuff in the first place. They also couldn’t cheat this system as the Germans kept a very close eye on how much everyone was growing. Joan said most people kept to the rules (95%) but the other 5% were punished if not staying in line.

Process of Elimination