To help start off out project we went on a visit to Société Jersiaise. This greatly helped us gain understanding of the topic, and gain inspiration for our projects.

To start off the day we had a presentation about the occupation and liberation of Jersey, and the photographic documentation of it all. We then had a chance to go through recovered old photos and pick out our favourite ones which were later sent to us in digital format.

We had a story-telling activity which involved being put into groups and given a stack of occupation photography which we were tasked to move into an order which we saw fitting. The outcomes of this were interesting as every group took a completely different approach to ordering the same set of photos.

We were then given an hour to photograph interesting war monuments or anything relating to the war in the town area. I have photographed buildings which had existed during the war and still exist today as part of this task. It’s really interesting seeing how the town area has been modernised, yet most of the buildings in war photographs can be easily recognised today.

These are some of the photographs I took for this task:

About Batterie Lothringen

Noirmont is a headland which is based in Saint Brelade and is the site which holds ‘Batterie Lothringen’. It is a substantial part of the headland and is a large part of the Island’s war memorial, this being because Jersey was occupied by the Germans for five years and the bunkers at Noirmont are a showing of what the war conditions were like. Most people visit the headlands is to view these restored bunkers and gun replacements.

Day at Batterie Lothringen

On the 6th of June i took an independent visit to Noirmont site to explore the bunker sites with are known as ‘Batterie Lothringen’. The reasoning carrying out an extra shoot is because my previous shoot to Battery Moltke it was very rainy and cloudy which made the image not very appealing and i did not get many images as i didn’t want to ruin my camera in the rain. However, on this visit particular visit it was great weather and therefore i was comfortable enough to take many images of the bunkers which had the most historical content, best photographic features, as well as having lots of historical features.

This was not a guided tour but there were different maps around the site to inform you on the bunkers which were around, as well as information sheets about each bunker, making it very easy to get around as well as informative. Due to this not being a guided tour there was no access into the bunkers themselves, restricting images, although i do think i got good images of the bunkers themselves from the outside.

Batterie Lothringen Facts

• The costal tower at the foot of Noirmont is called ‘Tour de Vinde’ and was built when the French invasion was at its peak in 1810-1814.
• The Germans started to build defense installations at Noirmont in 1941.
• The main bunker in the site is 40 feet long, has two floors and has been restored for viewing.
• The bunker has been restored to very high standards and proves to be a unique insite to the German military engineering.
• Batterie Lothringen was the only German Naval coastal artillery battery to be established in Jersey during the Occupation.
• This site cost the States of Jersey £8,800 and was bought so that the history of WWII soldiers could be kept.

Contact sheets

Most successful images

Key dates about ‘The Occupation of Jersey’

-June 30th 1940 was when Jersey was invaded by the Germans and on this day they sent an airforce of bombers over the islands and bombed jersey harbours.

-May 7th 1945 was when the German army surrendered and the end of the war in Europe was announced.

May 8th 1945 was when the units that made up Force 135 received their orders to move to their marshalling camps in Portsmouth. The main body was meant to arrive on the 12th of May.

-June 6th 2019 is the 74th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings and the start of the liberation of Europe from Nazi Occupation.

-May 30th 2020 is the 25th anniversary of Liberation of Jersey from Nazi Occupation.

Key facts about ‘The Occupation of Jersey’

• The German’s prohibited the use of radios which lead to a lack of communication between the island and the mainland.
• The island was also moved to Central European time. In the months following D-Day, as the Allies regained control of France, the source of supplies fueling the islands was now no longer available.
• The Nazi’s put many restrictions on islanders (curfews, rations, not allowed to drive private motor vehicles) they also did not allow anyone enter or leave the island which lead to food shortages.
•  Food shortages on Jersey were finally relieved by the arrival of the Red Cross ship SS Vega, bringing food parcels to Jersey. Before then, substitutes had been used to replace everyday foods, with seawater replacing salt, for instance, and a mixture of parsnip and sugar beet replacing tea.
• 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.
  • The fortresses are mainly located around the coasts of the island in order to prevent unauthorised access in/out of the island.
  • The remains of theses fortresses can still be found on the island, which showcases the historical factors of the island.
• The religion of Judaism was not accepted by Hitler/Nazis which lead to people within the religion being sent to concentration camps where they were treated poorly and sadly the nazis slowly killed them off.

Week 2-3: 12 -23 June
Editing: Introduction to Lightroom

Complete the following blog posts

EDITING > LIGHTROOM – Import images from folder on M:drive into Lightroom – Create Collection Set: Bunker Archaeology – Create Collection: Bunker Shoot 1 under the above Collection Set – 1st Edit using selection tools such as Pick (P) and Reject (X) – 100-50 image – 2nd Edit using 3-5 stars rating – 50-60 images – 3rd Edit using Colours, Yellow and Green for a final 20-30 images – Use Compare and Survey View for selecting best images – Produce print screens from each stage of editing and produce a blog post with annotation

DEVELOPING > LIGHTROOM •Basic adjustment in COLOUR using White Balance / Exposure / Levels / Brightness /Contrasts / Highlights /Whites/ Blacks •Advanced adjustment: Cropping/ Spot Removal/ Graduate Filter / Adjustment Brush/ Lens Correction/ Transform / Vignetting •Export to EDIT folder: Set of colour images in high-res as tiffs (4000 pixels on long edge) for further experimentation in Photoshop •Export to BLOG folder: same set of colour images as above in low-res jpgs (1000 pixels) to upload to blog post with annotation •REPEAT same procedure as above in BLACK & WHITE and export both a set of high-res (4000 pix) and low-res (1000 pix)

EXPERIMENT 1: CROPPING > LIGHTROOM •In Photoshop open up high-res tiff files •Using cropping tool only begin to make some radical changes by selecting areas of your images for a different visual impact. •Produce at least 3 different crops for 6 images. •Export to BLOG folder: same set of colour images as above in low-res jpgs (1000 pixels) to upload to blog post with annotation •REPEAT same procedure as above and export both a set of high-res (4000 pix) and low-res (1000 pix)

EXPERIMENT 2:  COLOUR > B&W ADJUSTMENTS > LIGHTROOM   •Use tools such as White Balance / Exposure / Levels / Curves / Brightness /Contrasts / Colour Balance / Hue / Saturation / Colour overlay and make radical changes to the overall aesthetic of the images.  •Try and adjust images according to your visceral quality – relating to your deep inward feelings rather than how something looks! •Produce 3 different adjustments with  images •Export to BLOG folder: same set of colour images as above in low-res jpgs (1000 pixels) to upload to blog post with annotation •REPEAT same procedure as above and export both a set of high-res (4000 pix) and low-res (1000 pix)

History of Site:

• 15.5cm Gun emplacements and underground passage bunkers.
• Battery Molkte consists of 4 15.5cm K418(f)

A2: PHOTOGRAPHY

PERSONAL INVESTIGATION

BUNKER ARCHAEOLOGY

The occupation of Jersey began in 1940 on the 1st July and five years later ended on the 9th May in 1945 and was one of the most significant moments in the Channel Islands history.

The arrival:

Before the Germans fully invaded the Channel Island, the Germans wanted to ensure the that the channel islands had little to no defence, on the 28th June the Germans sent troops across from the nearby French coast (which had been recently been occupied by the Germans just a few days before) and landed an air attack against St Helier harbour in Jersey. German aircraft also strafed La Rocque Harbour. In total nine people were killed.The Germans then dropped copies of an ultimatum, on Jersey at 5:00am on Monday the 1^st July, with a total of three copies dropped- two in Bath Street and one at the airport. They were then immediately taken to the Bailiff, Alexander Coutanche. Coutanche summoned the Royal Court at 9.30am, and the States met later and passed an Act to comply with the terms of the ultimatum. Copies of the translation of the ultimatum were put up around the Island with the following footnote:-

“The States have ordered this Communication to be printed and posted forthwith, and charge the inhabitants to keep calm, to comply with the requirements of the Communication, and to offer no resistance whatsoever to the occupation of the Island.”

Fortification:

Among the lasting legacies left behind by the German from the occupation include fortifications erected around the coast and some at other specific locations. Although many had been destroyed and removed just after the war to remove any remains from the Germans to what the civilians wanted to forget at the time, a lot have now been restored as a reminder of a period otherwise best forgotten. Many guns emplacements, bunkers, towers and other concrete constructions have remained to this day, some are now tourist attractions.

Life in the occupied island:

When the Germans took over the island they also bought a substation about of rules that required all citizens of the Jersey channel Island to follow. For example these included, a daily curfew, a switch to Central European Time, a ban on listening to anything other than German radio stations (subsequently relaxed, but followed later on by a ban on all radio use and confiscation of sets), a ban on private use of motor vehicles, a ban on sales of spirits and an order preventing the raising of prices of any commodity. Initially rationing followed the pattern already imposed before the Germans arrived, but as the Occupation years went by, restrictions became stricter and stricter.

The Jews:

There were many story on how the Jews were treated and their lives, these can be reached through the book written by Frederick Cohen, called The Jews in The Channel Islands during the German Occupation 1940-1945

He writes:

“The implementation of the anti-Semitic Orders in the islands had a substantial effect on the lives of the registered Jews as each measure cumulatively placed further restrictions of their freedom, singling them out from the rest of the community.”

One example given is that of Mr and Mrs Samuel Simon: “For example, Samuel and Beatrice Simon’s great-granddaughter remembered that they lived in a ‘terrible state of fear’, especially after they had received a deportation notice. Their actual deportation having been delayed due to Samuel’s poor state of health.64 They were traumatised by the special curfew imposed upon Jews, and indeed such was their state of fear that they kept their curtains closed all day. Shortly before Samuel’s death the Simons moved to their daughter Ella’s home at Langley Park, St Helier. Samuel died on 7 November 1943.

Liberation:

The Channel Islands were liberated a day after the official end of the war in Europe and this joyous event is celebrated annually on 9 May 1945. The decreasing numbers of islanders present then and alive today have, without exception, vivid memories of the final events of their occupation by German troops.

The occupation of the channel Islands lasted for five years from the 30th of June 1940 till their liberation on 9th May 1945. The whole occupation received little resistance however, it almost ended in near starvation in the last winter. Both Guernsey and Jersey’s civil courts were allowed to operate.  They did change the time zone from GMT to CET and the rule of the road was changed to driving on the right. They allowed certain types of entertainment to continue like cinema and theatre, their marching bands even performed from time to time. Lil Dagover, a famous German actress of the time, even visited German troops in Guernsey and Jersey in 1944.

However, there’s been a lot of debate about the amount of resistance the Channel Island had against the German Occupies. The majority of islanders believed that resistance would have been counterproductive and would result in punishment for everyone. There was some resistance. Islanders hide slaves and Jews in their homes and people broke the curfew to graffiti messagers against the Natzis. Radios were banned during the occupation period, a rule that many people broke and got punished for. However, many historians argue that the islands did not resist enough and were very Churchillian. A quote from ‘Living with the Enemy in German-occupied Channel Islands’ says  “did not fight on the beaches, in the fields or in the streets. They did not commit suicide, and they did not kill any Germans. Instead they settled down, with few overt signs of resistance, to a hard, dull but relatively peaceful five years of occupation, in which more than half the population was working for the Germans.” But then again what else could the people do. Their fighters had gone off to war, the Germans were heavily armying the place and after seeing how the German’s treated the slaves they brought over no one would’ve wanted to oppose them in fear for their own lives.

Life under the Germans was difficult. Many lost their jobs and couldn’t find a new one under a non-German employer. Deportations began September 1942 so morale fell. Essential items like food and medicines along with fuel was very little quantity.  This caused a lot of crime. The only thing that prevented the majority starving was the red cross packages in the final winter. There are even some cases of islanders sharing their parcels with starving Germans. The Germans also placed a lot of restrictions on the islands. There were restrictions on; more than three people meeting together, freedom of speech, fishing and countless other things. People were forced to accept; a curfew, cycling in a single file, the German language in schools and eventually accepting a job from a German employer. There was confiscation of radios, houses, animals and weapons.

The history of Jersey and the Occupation is now looked after by Societe Jersey and the Jersey archive. This includes a photo archive of the occupation including images taken by the Germans, plans of the bunkers and occupation cards. The purpose of an Archive is to preserve pieces of history so people can come and look at photos and documents from the past. In Societe Jersey you go and look through the archive boxes then request images in a digital format for a charge unless you’re a member. You can only handle the images with gloves and they are kept in acid proof boxes in order to persevere them for as long as possible.  At the Jersey archive you can look and registers of birth, death and marriage of your ancestors and view related documents online where you can pay a small fee to get a copy of. Archives act as repositories of history and knowledge in the way that they contain images and documents of mundane life and how things were back then. You can look up your family and trace them back. They remind us of where we come from and give us a window to the past.

Societe Jersey was founded January 1873 by a small group of prominent islanders interested in history and preserving it for others. In 1893 they founded the Jersey Museum which is now looked after by the states but Societe Jersey can still put their collections in the museum. Their most important sites are La Hougue Bie, which they purchased in 1919, and La Cotte de Saint-Brélade. They have carried out massive excavations at those sites. There is an annual membership.

Jersey Archive was established in 1993. Their purpose is to manage, preserve and provide access to the past to the people of jersey. As of 2017 thousands of images from the Jersey Evening Post photographic archive are now available to view online. People who come to read material require a reader ticket and must wear gloves if it’s a really old document. These can be provided at the reception. However, you can also email them since they are on social media platforms. The archive helps provide information, settle legal disputes and show property ownership.

For me the experience of going down to Societe Jersey was useful because it gave us an idea about what life was like in the occupation and began to think about creating narratives. I personally learned there were two sides of the occupation. The side that should the German’s taking part in the community and being friendly, and the other which was the slaves and the arming the bunkers.

What was most interesting about the Archive trip was seeing the way Jersey was in the past and how it compares to our modern life. It was also interesting to see how Jersey was under German influence. What surprised me the most was how the majority of the images are saw showed them getting involved in the community.