CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—Archaeologist Gilly Carr of the University of Cambridge has been researching the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands, which began in 1940 and lasted until 1945. There was one German soldier for every three inhabitants on the heavily fortified islands. Last summer, she requested information from residents, and received a briefcase full of papers that were compiled in the 1960s. “The file is incredible. Resistance in the Channel Islands was different: it was not organized, and was unarmed—individuals and small groups doing small acts of silent and symbolic resistance. I realized as soon as I saw it that this is the most important resistance archive to come out of the Channel Islands in the last 50 years,” she told The Guardian. The stories had been compiled by Frank Falla, who was deported to Germany and imprisoned for organizing a newspaper after radios were confiscated in 1942. The testimonies were sent to the Foreign Office, which was distributing compensation received from Germany. “It is an immensely important archive, demonstrating their bravery and courage,” commented Sir Geoffrey Rowland, the current bailiff of Guernsey. To read more, go to "Archaeology of WWII."
