{"id":3170,"date":"2019-04-29T13:25:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T12:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/?page_id=3170"},"modified":"2019-12-12T12:20:11","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T12:20:11","slug":"74th-liberation-celebration-remembrance","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/events\/2019-74-years-since-liberation\/74th-liberation-celebration-remembrance\/","title":{"rendered":"74th Liberation Celebration \\ Remembrance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This years Liberation memorial service and afternoon tea will be held at the War Tunnels. Sunday 28th April 2019 Commencing at 15.00<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome – Clive Armstrong, Chairman<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On behalf of the St Helier Bad Wurzach Partnerschaft, we welcome you Mr Bailiff, former internees, ladies and gentlemen to the 74th Internee anniversary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At about 12.45 today marked the 74th anniversary of when tanks started rolling down the Memminger Strasse and onto the Marktstra\u00dfe, parking up in front of the Rathaus (Town Hall) situated opposite the Schloss Wurzach where, for the previous 2\u00bd years approximately 650 lslanders had been held prisoner, today we are here to celebrate this event in Our Islands History, and to remember those who did not return and those who did return but are sadly no longer with us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internment reading<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The text is from \u201cA Jersey Child\nInterned by Hitler Gloria\u2019s Story\u201d by Susan Symons 2018 and \u201cThree years behind\nbarbed wire\u201d  by Joan Coles 1985<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday 15th September 1942<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A notice appears in the local\npaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Order of higher authorities,\nthe following British Subjects will be evacuated and transferred to Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Persons\nwho have their permanent residence not on the Channel Islands, for instance\nthose who have been caught here by the outbreak of war.<\/li>
  2. All\nthose men not born on the Channel Islands and of 16 to 70 years of age who\nbelong to the English people, together with their families<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Detail instructions will be given\nby the Feldkommandantur 515.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Wednesday 16 September 1942 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At two o’clock in the early hours\nof the morning, there was a knock on the door of ten-year-old Gloria Webber’s\nhome in Jersey. The caller was a local official and had come to deliver bad\nnews. Her entire family, parents and five young children, were on a list of\nJersey residents to be deported by the German occupying forces. The deportation\norder was effective immediately and they had to be at St Helier harbour, ready\nto leave, by four o’clock that same afternoon. Gloria and her siblings, along\nwith of other Jersey children, would lose the next years of their childhood\ninterned on the orders of Hitler in an old castle in the south of Germany,\ncalled Schloss Wurzach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Thursday 15th September 1942 the deportation was delayed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    FRIDAY 18 September 1942: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We left Jersey. After a calm\ncrossing under a beautiful moonlit sky, we reached St. Malo at 7 o’clock next\nmorning. A glorious dawn broke as we docked the old fortified town was\nsilhouetted against the morning sunrise. After much waiting on the ship we\nboarded the train at 10. 15 a. m.  actually, leaving the station at 1.50 p. m.\nThis train was to be our home for nearly three days, but this of course we did\nnot know! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Service of Remembrance \u2013 Deacon Iain MacFirbhisigh<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Reading \u2013 Former internee Francelise Davison<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Readings by members of the Jersey Arts Centre youththeatre<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Tamsin Hollyman – reading ‘1980’ by Abraham Sutzkever<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mac Galvin – reading ‘On Hearing A Name Long Unspoken’ by Leonard Cohen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Gen Hargreaves – reading ‘The Bridge Builder’ by Will Allen Dromgoole<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Life in the camp Reading \u2013 Former internee Mrs Lola Garvin<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    —<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Names of Those who did not return \u2013 Clive Armstrong<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A Minute\u2019s Silence for reflection – Deacon Iain MacFirbhisigh<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Liberation reading – Clive Armstrong<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The text is from \u201cThree years behind\nbarbed wire\u201d  by Joan Coles 1985<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    FRIDAY 27 April 1945<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After a night of intermittent\ngun-fire from the hills around this place, the morning came with sunshine and a\nsouth-west wind. Guns were still firing in the north-west. In the south-west\nsmoke clouds could be seen rising from the forests and these gradually appeared\nto come closer. By 10. 30 p.m.; We returned to bed once more and all is quiet\non the Wurzach front, the troops seemed to have by-passed the village<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    SATURDAY 28 April 1945<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After a quiet night, the dawn\nbroke with glorious sunshine, “whirring noises, indiscernible from the\nSchloss could be heard all morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At about 12.45 internees were\nstanding at the windows facing south-west when a shout went up. Some\nVolksturmers had run into the road with the white flag, on the horizon in a\nfield to the right of this road, appeared the first tank to relieve Wurzach !  This sighting will always be etched on my\nmind, and the tank contained the first of our French liberators!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It rained a gentle shower as we\nstood, as a family, we watched the large tanks park beneath the low eaves of\nthe village houses. Alongside of us were elderly Germans, in tears, as we were,\nthankful at a safe deliverance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    About 40 tanks cars etc., passed\nthrough this village without a shot being fired on it. At the Rathaus (Town\nHall) the French Commander halted and German guards from the Schloss came out\nof the guard-house and gave themselves up. Some members of the S.S. were also\narrested and with the guards were placed against the Rathaus wall where they\nwere “covered” with guns. After a count they were placed on top of\nthe first tank and driven away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Many incidents were witnessed by\nthe internees who greeted the tanks as they lined up in the streets. These tanks\nwere named after towns, ports, etc., in France and we saw one marked St. Malo\nand greeted the occupants with many handshakes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At first the troops many of them\nNorth Africans were very reluctant to open their little ‘portholes’ but, when\nit was explained that we were “Anglais” and interned “dans la\ngrand maison” they beamed with smiles and shook hands all round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To see the gates broken down and\nkicked away, was a great sight and witnessed by many of us. It was also\nphotographed by the entering troops who were fallen on and kissed, patted on\nthe back and hand-shaken all round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Previous to all this the French\nCommander had came up to the barbed wire in front of the Camp and said:-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “You are free”!!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    —<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Closing Prayer\u2013 Deacon Iain MacFirbhisigh<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    —<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    FOLLOWING THE\nSERVICE, THERE WILL BE A LAYING OF ROSES IN THE GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    YOU ARE INVITED TO\nJOIN US FOR AFTERNOON TEA.<\/p>\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n

    <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This years Liberation memorial service and afternoon tea will be held at the War Tunnels. Sunday 28th April 2019 Commencing at 15.00 Welcome – Clive Armstrong, Chairman On behalf of the St Helier Bad Wurzach Partnerschaft, we welcome you Mr … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10001,"featured_media":0,"parent":3057,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mc_calendar":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3170","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10001"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3170"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3179,"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3170\/revisions\/3179"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}