Nazi Prisons in Britain: Political Prisoners during the German Occupation of Jersey and Guernsey, 1940–1945

By Gilly Carr

Nazi Prisons in Britain is a ground-breaking book – a systematic study of Jersey and Guernsey prisons during the German occupation of the Channel Islands based on the experiences of the prisoners. It brings to light for the first time the surviving sources – memoirs, diaries, official archival material, poetry, graffiti, autograph books, letters and material culture are all included. This dazzling array of evidence reveals the reality of life behind bars in Nazi prisons on British territory.

Gilly Carr’s powerful book shines a light into political prisoner consciousness and solidarity, and shows how they resisted the regime with the limited tools at their disposal. It gives a fascinating insight into how the experience varied according to age, sex, class, and seriousness of offense.

The text is enlivened by the words of notorious wartime criminals, including Eddie Chapman – Agent Zigzag – and the traitor Eric Pleasants, who later joined the SS. Also featured are the letters of the ‘Jersey 21’, who later died in concentration camps, those of surrealist artists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, condemned to death for their resistance activities, and the lost prison diaries of Frank Falla, Guernsey's best known resister.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Sep 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781526770943

Gilly Carr

Dr Gilly Carr is Senior Lecturer and Academic Director in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Continuing Education. She is a Fellow of St Catharine’s College. Her research interests are in the field of modern conflict archaeology, POW studies and heritage studies. Her most recent monographs include ‘Legacies of Occupation: Heritage, Memory and Archaeology in the Channel Islands’; ‘Protest, Defiance and Resistance in the Channel Islands: German Occupation 1940-1945’ (co-authored with Paul Sanders and Louise Willmot); and Victims of Nazism in the Channel Islands: A Legitimate Heritage? She has also published many journal articles and book chapters on the archaeology, history, heritage and legacy of military occupation, and on the material culture of internment.