大象传媒

Throughout history during wars and occupations the best and the worst of human character rises producing heroes and great courage in the face of danger, but it also produces traitors, collaborators and informers. Guernsey was no exception to the rule and there were a few of those, in fact the U.K. was no exception either, an example of this being Lord Haw- Haw who was an Englishman. Pierre and I were unfortunate enough to have one such female informer living in close proximity in St Saviour causing us many visits from the Police and SS with investigations. One such incident resulted in Pierre having to do a two-week prison sentence for killing his own pig. I used to cycle into St Peter Port every day then in order to visit a certain gentleman in the prison serving a German sentence and being allowed visitors, in order to smuggle food into Pierre. The prison diet was dreadful, cooked beetroots unwashed served up in a mash, Pierre passed his ration on to the other prisoners who would fight for it. While Pierre was there one poor man who was serving a long prison sentence on false evidence given by his wife, who wanted him out of the way so that she could enjoy unmarried life, had reached the stage of malnutrition and used to scrape up anything he could find in the drains, became so desperate that he hung himself in the wood shed where he was detailed to work. Pierre discovered him and found this and the dark and cold very hard to bear even for two weeks. Prisoners slept on concrete floors on very hard horsehair mattresses three to a cell. Farmers and Growers of potatoes were ordered to sell their entire crop to the Guernsey Potato Board who in turn was compelled to supply the German Authorities. The Grower himself was allowed a small ration for his family, totally inadequate for his needs. However most of them kept as many as they dare supplying their own relatives and friends. On one occasion with the help of one of his workers, Pierre hid a large quantity under a barn floor; this worker however lived adjacent to our 'informer', and the information was passed to her, resulting in a court appearance, fine and the loss of crop for Pierre. During the last year of the occupation the Water Board Pumping Station used Crude oil for its machinery supplied by the German authorities, it was not ideal but was all that could be found at that time. There was a lot of waste oil, which they had to destroy, and as we were just close by the attendant would sometimes give some to Pierre for his own use. The 'informer passed on this information to the Germans resulting in both Pierre and the attendant being summonsed to Grange Lodge by the High Command and fined for wasting oil! Pierre had to pay 1000 marks.

Lily Mauger

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