大象传媒

Mrs Irene Gosset interviewed by John Gaisford and Rosie Mere
Transcribed and edited by John David from audio and video recordings

But it was the forced labourers that were the worst, I鈥檇 forgotten about that. We sheltered a forced labourer, my mother got threatened with prison, but fortunately it was the end of the war and I often wonder what happened to him, Romain, Nice looking, well he would have been nice looking, he came from Brussels, he didn鈥檛 have much English, but he made us understand he played in a jazz band, and he pointed at me and he said 鈥淲hen the war over you marry me鈥� and do you know I burst out laughing!. I often think how unkind I was, but it just sort of took me off 鈥� you know. But he came around the back of our house one day and my mother was doing some washing, and he came around, anyway, she took his clothes 鈥� she must have given him some of my father鈥檚 clothes to wear 鈥� and she said they were crawling with lice, and he had a poisoned foot, and my father bathed it, and as we lived by the St John鈥檚 we took him up there. Anyway, we don鈥檛 know where he came from, we didn鈥檛 ask, but he used to go off during the day, I think up to the Ivy Gates. Once or twice he brought my father a bit of German bread, and once or twice he brought my mother some sugar. He used to sleep on an old horse-hair sofa, but you know he never stole a thing from us, never did any harm, and then one day he didn鈥檛 come back, and my poor mother was home alone, and a couple of German guards came down, with him between them, and she said he was shaking like a leaf. And they threatened her with prison. Anyway, fortunately, she said, they don鈥檛 know about you, but if my mother had used her common sense she would have known that Romain would have probably told them there was a young girl there. Anyway, sorry, I鈥檝e gone back a bit, but I thought that was quite an interesting bit. I鈥檝e often wondered if he ever survived the war, he might have got killed on the way back, you know. I don鈥檛 think the Germans would have killed him then. He was from Brussels.
I鈥︹�� What happened to the forced labourers then, at Liberation, was there any presence of them on Liberation day? Were you aware of any of them being鈥�
Mrs Gosset. No I wasn鈥檛. They could have been, see, they would have been set back like the Germans, but it was a terrific job, really, to get rid of all these thousands of people, of course some of these forced labourers married locals and their descendants are here today. I don鈥檛 know if any of them are still alive, but I have taught, because I went to train after the war, I went to do my full training as a schoolteacher, and I have taught the children of some of those forced labour, who are very well known in the Island, they have done extremely well, because they came from backgrounds 鈥� the Dutch have always been known for industry, and their children are like that, and they have built up businesses and they are very successful.
I鈥︹�� The one you had living with you, was he Dutch?
Mrs Gosset. No. he was Belgian. Very little English. Somewhere in my autograph album I鈥檝e got his autograph,
I鈥︹�� What was his name?
Mrs Gosset. Romain. R O M A I N I don鈥檛 know if there was an E. I don鈥檛 know any other name. He was tall and dark and very pale, I think he would have been about twenty, or twenty-one, something like that. But he didn鈥檛 look as bad, perhaps he hadn鈥檛 been in the Island so long.
I鈥︹�︹��. So they had some of those doing forced-labour work?
Mrs Gosset. Oh, there was Dutch, there were Poles, there were鈥�.
I鈥︹�︹��. There were lots of Poles, weren鈥檛 there, and we always think of them as being always all Polish, but they weren鈥檛, there were all kinds.

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