The Classroom and the Chancellery

Conditions in the Channel Islands during the 1940–45 German Occupation and their impact on the health of islanders: A systematic review of published reports and first-hand accounts

“…There is certainly some evidence that people died from malnutrition, including one death of an adult male on Jersey in September 1941 where the cause of death was listed as heart failure due to malnutrition. 132 Many more such cases had been reported by 1945. 133 The lack of proper medical supplies is also likely to have contributed to mortality rates, 134 such as the lack of insulin which led to the deaths of most of the diabetics on the islands.…”

“…Some elderly people seem to have ended the war at an alarmingly low weight, as evidenced by an inquest into the death of a 70-year-old Jersey woman where "malnutrition" was cited as a secondary cause, and whose weight was reported to be only 3 stone (19kg). 100 Some of the islanders in prominent positions also appeared to have suffered disproportionately, as a result of the fact that it would not have been proper for them to have been seen to be indulging in the black market. As a consequence, the Dame of Sark lost 4 stone (25kg) in weight during the occupation, and towards the end of the siege weighed only 7 stone (44kg).…”

“…By September 1943 there was no mains water supply between 7pm and 7am, 82 and by the end of the occupation these hours had been further curtailed. This was exacerbated by low rainfall during the occupation years -a serious problem for islands dependent on rainfall for their water supply.…”

“…105 Likewise, Leslie Sinel recorded in his diary that by June 1942 some islanders had "lost weight to an astounding degree". 106 In his history of the occupation of Jersey, RCF Maugham mentioned that in 1943 the general public began to look emaciated, and that by the end of the war, "[t]he people grew thin, their features pinched by privation and want… [n]ormal strength and vitality could just not be maintained". 107 Although this weight loss must have been alarming, it seems to have been malnutrition that affected the islands most as opposed to outright starvation 108 since the principal problem lay with the composition of the diet rather than a paucity of calories, at least until the onset of the siege.…”

“…62 The situation was similar in Guernsey, where gas supplies ceased in November 1944 and electricity supplies in December of 1944. 63 By this point communal kitchens were the only source of hot food 64 and many public buildings such as schools had to close because there was no way of heating them. Paul Sanders, in his history of the occupation, argued that the lack of cooking and heating facilities was almost as serious as the lack of food in terms of the health and morale of the population.…”