Author Jaqueline King Visits our School
Jaqueline King, an author who now lives in the UK, used to live in Jersey and has used Jersey as inspiration for many of her books. She visited our school to discuss her book which reflects on life in Jersey during the Occupation during World War Two.
The author, who is a well-known Jersey author, published a relatively new book in 2020 titled ‘A Cake for the Gestapo.’ During the assembly, we listened and learned about interesting stories about her relatives who grew up on the Island during the Occupation of the Channel Islands.
The fictional book was about a gang of four children in the German Occupation of WW2 who resisted the Nazis by playing tricks on them. Jaqueline used many of her family’s past fascinating experiences to create the book from family members who worked under Winston Churchill, those who fought and died during the war, members who spied on the Nazis, and including their daily lives and experiences and survival during the Occupation. These experiences of her family helped her to recreate this story.
During the assembly, she showed us a vast number of items that played a particular role during the Occupation of the Channel Islands and which also played a role in her book. She showed us a German dive bomber model which bombed the harbour of Jersey and bombed, mistakenly, a food truck, a chocolate tin that lasted the whole of the war as rations like this were scarce, sweets which they had (and they gave us), an eel that took a hold of her leg when she was a child while on a Jersey beach with her Grandfather and also some clothes which they wore back then. We also got to see identity cards which people had to carry around for Germans to check (contains name, colour hair, colour eyes, date of birth and birth location.)
Life then was hard; but people persevered and showed resilience and rebellion against the Germans. A man had told Jaqueline the tricks he did as an act of defiance to go against the Nazis. He had taken photos of the soldiers as an act of rebellion against the Reich.
These rules were applied:
- Rationing
- Curfews
- The confiscation of boats
- The confiscation of radios
- The confiscation of motor vehicles and fuel
- The confiscation of cameras
- Restrictions on drinking alcohol
- Restrictions on patriotic signs and songs
- Driving on the right-hand side of the road
- Carry around an identification card at all times
- Jewish people must wear the star of David on their right arm.
Her discussion and presentation helped us to understand what life was like back then and the sacrifices that were made for freedom. It gave me an understanding of why Liberation Day is celebrated and seen as such an important day on the Island.
Derek
