Hi all, Since these might be of interest to some (and I have relatives there) I thought I'd flag (re-flag?) these as being available online: Jersey Occupation Registration Cards Occupation Registration Cards Quote: "The entire civil population of Jersey was required to register under the Registration and Identification of Person (Jersey) Order, 1940. The cards are inscribed on the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register." http://catalogue.jerseyheritage.org/features/german-occupation-registration-cards/ The entire civil population of Jersey was required to register under the Registration and Identification of Person (Jersey) Order, 1940. The official set contains over 31,000 registration cards. Each registration card contains personal details, such as name, address, date of birth and a photograph. Any children under the age of 14 are recorded on the back of their father’s card. The registration cards have been catalogued and are available through the Jersey Heritage database via a name search." The Archive available on this site: Archive Also contains a number of other collections relating to the occupation there: Occupation Collections All the best, Rm.
Just a further note re: http://catalogue.jerseyheritage.org/features/german-occupation-registration-cards/ (Afraid I hadn't looked at these for a while, probably 6 months or so, but now things appear to have changed a bit since I last took a view. So while the fascinating written details are still available to read, the scans of the actual cards themselves have been "distorted" somewhat so that you actually have to subscribe to the site in order to more fully get to view the original cards themselves). (Perhaps not mammon I guess, as they do actually have to pay for this somehow!) - still a useful resource anyhow. Purchasing & subscriptions The Jersey Heritage Catalogue will allow you to purchase and download copies of the German Occupation Registration Cards giving you access to photographs and family history information. We are adding more collections to our pay per view and subscription service on a regular basis. Collections that are have now been added to pay per view and as part of subscription are the Alien’s Registration Cards and Applications from those outside the Island to return after the Occupation. Annual subscription to the Jersey Heritage Catalogue is available at a price of £30 per year or £20 per year if you are a member of Jersey Heritage or the Channel Islands Family History Society. If you only require a few records, you can also buy access to individual items in the archive. The Occupation Registration Cards are a set of unique documents that show the faces, backgrounds and communities of people of Jersey who lived under the German Occupation. Wishing to control the movements of the civil population, the German authorities made it compulsory for everybody to be registered under the Registration and Identification of Persons (Jersey) Order, 1940. This registration process required the collation of personal details concerning everyone within the island. Every islander was then issued with his or her identity card whilst the German authorities kept an official set which is now at Jersey Archive. The specific information collected includes name, maiden name, address, date and place of birth, occupation, any militia experience and distinguishing features. Children under the age of fourteen were recorded on the back of their father’s card. As a result a set of cards was created which recited a great deal of personal information together with a photograph of each adult. They were updated regularly with details added if people moved or had more children and as soon as children reached the age of fourteen they were issued with their own card. The Occupation registration cards form a pictorial census of the Islanders who were occupied and their experiences and memories have shaped the views of the local community. The cards have no direct equal but Guernsey do hold similar material registering the population of Jersey’s sister Island. The cards reflect the most studied, written about and most well known part of Jersey’s history. They also reflect the most controversial part of Jersey’s recent past – within the faces of the individuals who have been registered we see those who became local heroes such as Albert Bedane who hid a Jersey Jewish woman from the German Authorities and was honoured by the State of Israel as ‘Righteous Amongst the Nations’, or, Louisa Gould a woman who sheltered a Russian prisoner of war and, after being convicted by the German Courts for spreading news and listening to wirelesses, died in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. We also see so called collaborators such as the infamous Alexandrine Baudains who informed on her fellow Islanders and, after Liberation, was imprisoned and subsequently left the Island for fear of reprisal.
Ah well... we had to go over to St Helier to recover the records from the Jersey Archive in order to see my partner's grandmother's card (this was six years ago); but I must admit that the service there was superb; very nice, helpful people. (Well, save for the rather snooty blue-rinse brigade volunteer from the Family History Society we encountered once who was adamant that everything we knew was wrong...despite our encounter with her being our third visit) By the by, I remarked to an historian of the occupation in the UK that grandma looked somewhat fierce on her card, something the family say was not her way. I was told that it was a point of honour, almost of passive resistance, to look so in the photographs taken by Germans.
It is startling to wonder if the Channel Islands are a microcosm of what the fate of the UK might have been. I think Hitler was planning to ship off many or all of the able bodied British men to forced labour in European work/slave camps. I have seen some Nazi propaganda of the Islanders which is distinctly chilling. Nazi propaganda films channel islands - Google Search The "distorted images" on the Jersey heritage site of my aunt's father have the rather odd effect though of making him look like he is "beaming" http://catalogue.jerseyheritage.org/collection/Details/archive/110074842?rank=3 My aunt's mother too: http://catalogue.jerseyheritage.org/collection/Details/archive/110074845?rank=1 I have to say the "effect" there is very odd If I hadn't seen your comment above I'd of said perhaps that the camera man had told them to smile or else just cracked a rude joke about Hitler? And if you laughed they knew you were ones to "watch-out" for. Perhaps by the time they got around to these pics they were telling them to "smile and look happy" - or else? They were fed up with all the scowls and were asking "what are you all frowning about? - ze master-race is here and things are going to be just brilliant from now on..." All the best, Rm.
From what I have been led to believe,certainly in the occupied countries of Western Europe,that the Germans immediately conducted a census of the population for purposes of administration and far deeper implications of intelligence with regard to potential civil disobedience,resistance and recognition of those who opposed National Socialism principles.(I think that the Third Reich itself,conducted three census exercises in Germany from gaining power to up to the outbreak of war) Some in these occupied countries decided not to be party to this registration requirements for obvious reasons although it would have been difficult with close communities such as the Channel Islands to avoid registration.Those who opted for non registration depended on false papers or where not organised,none at all Interesting to note that the Third Reich bought the IBM punch card system when they achieved power and used it as a tool for recording censuses.. ...information gathered was also used as a data base for their genocide ideology....something that was directed at IBM postwar.
A little known aspect of the Jersey occupation is that the population included some hundred British conscientious objectors who had gone there in May 1940 to fulfill obligations for farm work as a condition of exemption from military service.
Interestingly beyond searching by person it is also possible (through simple keywords) to search there by address in order to see who once lived where... It is quite intriguing to be able to match the houses to occupants, especially when you think about "far deeper implications of intelligence" - I imagine searching by punch card system wasn't quite as sophisticated as modern search engines though. I guess if the Germans knew your name it would be relatively easy for them to find out your address, but I wonder if the IBM system back then was sufficiently "clever" to tell them who had a right under the occupation to live in each house. BTW... as regards "Selling things to the Third Reich" though is there already a thread for this out there? It's an intriguing subject in itself in it's own right, so I'd like to see such a topic at some point) - presumably the US (and IBM) was neutral at "that point" of sale, it even sounds like it was done pre-war. These days of course everything breaks down so quickly through simple use or is totally software dependent that you'd have to stay "friends" with your suppliers or else your whole total infrastructure will rapidly collapse through lack of technical support, added to which everyone's spooks are reading our email and knows all our names and addresses cause most of us post them to Facebook anyhow Many thanks, and all the best, Rm.
As I stated the procurement of the IBM filing system was bought by the Third Reich in the early days of the regime.The punch card system,although an advance in the manual storage of information but the cross referencing of information,in this case of individuals was a time consuming laborious task and would involve a fair degree of manpower to link any census against an individual's ID whether false or genuine. Further,at the time the telephone system was rudimentary and connections were always connected through switchboards which was open to covert observation of any conversation by the switchboard operator.....leakage of intelligence relating to those in resistance and those who might be collaborators was always a possibility.Should the switchboard operator sympathise with the German occupier or the Vichy regime in the case of France,clandestine agents and dissenters often would find their security compromised.Equally telephone conversations among collaborators with the German occupiers and Vichy officials were at risk from sympathatic switchboard operators...the telephone was the Achilles heel in the conduct of clandestine operations against the occupier, As one SOE agent put it....never use the telephone for communications.....never get involved in relationships with women and never let anybody be aware of your overnight address. It has to be said that the availabilty of the present IT systems may have completely negated or severely limited the opposition from resistant groups against the German occupier. Incidentally both Ford and General Motors had subsidiaries in prewar Germany.Normal commercial practices between them and their parent company continued until the Third Reich declared war on the US in December 1941.
