Discourse and Defiance under Nazi Occupation

Guernsey, Channel Islands, 1940-1945

Cheryl R. Jorgensen-Earp

Narrated by William Dupuy

Available from Audible

Book published by Michigan State University Press

Captured by German forces shortly after Dunkirk, and not relinquished until May of 1945, nearly a year after the Normandy invasion, the British Channel Islands (Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Herm) were characterized during their occupation by severe deprivation and powerlessness. The Islanders, with few resources to stage an armed resistance, constructed a rhetorical resistance based upon the manipulation of discourse, construction of new symbols, and defiance of German restrictions on information. Though much of modern history has focused on the possibility that Islanders may have collaborated with the Germans, this eye-opening history turns to secret war diaries kept in Guernsey. A close reading of these private accounts, written at great risk to the diarists, allows those who actually experienced the Occupation to reclaim their voice and reveals new understandings of Island resistance. What emerges is a stirring account of the unquenchable spirit and deft improvisation of otherwise ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Under the most dangerous of conditions, Guernsey civilians used imaginative methods in reacting to their position as a subjugated population, devising a covert resistance of nuance and sustainability. Violence, this book and the people of Guernsey demonstrate, is not at all the only means with which to confront evil.

Cheryl R. Jorgensen-Earp is the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and three books. In 2001, she was named Virginia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

REVIEWS:

“The author engages the reader through a novel-like style that captures most effectively the sense of human emotions and struggles people faced with such life-altering changes brought on by the Nazi occupation. In the process, the author makes a convincing case that one doesn’t need to be marching in the streets or participating in guerrilla theater to be engaged in acts of political resistance.”

—Shawn J. Parry-Giles, Professor, Department of Communication, Director of Graduate Studies, University of Maryland