{"id":3306,"date":"2020-03-27T12:08:15","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T12:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/?p=3306"},"modified":"2020-03-27T12:08:15","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T12:08:15","slug":"75th-anniversary-visit-to-commemorate-the-liberation-of-jersey-internees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/75th-anniversary-visit-to-commemorate-the-liberation-of-jersey-internees\/","title":{"rendered":"75th ANNIVERSARY VISIT TO COMMEMORATE THE LIBERATION OF JERSEY INTERNEES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At mid-day on 28 April 1945 <\/strong>ona bright and sunny morning,a column of tanks from theFree\nFrench Second Armoured Division rolled down the main street of the small German\ntown of Wurzach, led by three men on foot. \nOne was a French soldier carrying the French tricolour, a Jerseyman with\na Union Jack and the town mayor with a white flag.   A large white cross had two days before been\npainted on the roof of castle indicating that this was not just a Hitler Youth\ncamp (they were located at the back of the castle) but contained civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier that day the\nFrench officer in charge had stopped his tank at the castle gates and after\nspeaking to a small group of Jersey prisoners waiting impatiently behind the\ngates, kicked these in allowing the Jersey folk to pour on to the little square\nand taste freedom for the first time in 2.1\/2 years.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After such a long incarceration,\neveryone in the camp took in the sights and sounds of freedom in their own way\n: the joy and emotion of the camp adults<\/strong>\nwhen the French tank Saint Malo trundled down the main street over the cobble\nstones; the new shopping experience in the local shops to spend their few\nprecious Reichmarks on materials and silk stockings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teenagers<\/strong>,\nexhilarated by their new found freedom, explored the surrounding villages, some\ncompletely demolished by tank fire and still smouldering. Young Jersey lads\nhaving commandeered abandoned German army motorbikes roamed around the\ncountryside, even arriving at the Mengen airfield where American troops plied\nthem with food and fruit juice (causing stomach upsets due to such rich food).   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The camp children<\/strong> who had known nothing of the big\nworld outside were confronted with completely new sights and sounds : the\nbiggest impression was of the fierce looking North African soldiers (Goumiers)\ndressed in their traditional long flowing robes and headwear many mounted on\nsmelly, bad tempered mules.  They were weighed\ndown with several rifles, bandoliers of ammunition, knives and pistols in their\nbelts and an array of watches on their arms, camping out with their mules at\nnight and playing cards by the roadside by day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of those very camp\nchildren who today are in their early 80s have been back to Bad Wurzach (now a\nspa town) to visit the castle with its grand entrance hall and staircase,\nlocating their dormitories and looking out over the area where the Hitler Youth\ncamp was located and where the Jersey kids marched up and down along with the\nGerman boys (some no older than the Jersey lads) picking up their marching\nsongs and only separated from each other by a sturdy barbed wire fence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to 2020 <\/strong>when a special 75th<\/sup>\nanniversary trip to Bad Wurzach had been under preparation organised by the St\nHelier \u2013 Bad Wurzach Twinning Committee to enable those internees who were\nstill strong enough to make the trip, some of whom had never yet returned to\nthe camp since leaving in 1945 to revisit the town and relive old memories.  In the party also were to be many children and\ngrandchildren of internees themselves too frail to travel or who had passed\non.  28\nApril 2020<\/strong> being the special day, as was the tradition, a commemorative\nceremony was to be held in the beautiful Gottesberg chapel on the hill with an\nex-Mayor playing the beautiful organ, followed by wreath laying in the ceremony.  In the town cemetery the names of the 11\nJersey internees who did not return would be read out and the visiting\ninternees would lay a single red rose on each of their graves.  That evening a tattoo ceremony was to be\norganised in front of the castle with the town\u2019s marching band (Stadtkapelle)\nfollowed by a nightcap in the Hotel Adler opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 4 day programme was\nto include a day\u2019s excursion to Lindau, a picturesque town on Lake Constance\nwith its old town and yacht marina. \nThere would of course be dinners with speeches and lively entertainment with\nlots of time for everyone to talk, walk, relax or take a mud bath in the Spa\nHotel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year Bad Wurzach\u2019s\nnew Lady Mayoress, Frau Alexandra Scherer, would have met the visiting internees,\nmembers of the Twinning Committee and Jersey dignitaries for the first\ntime.  Jersey would have been officially\nrepresented by the Bailiff Tim Le Cocq, the Deputy Chief Minister Constable\nRichard Buchanan, the ex-Bailiffs Sir Philip and Sir William Bailhache and\ntheir wives.  In total there were to be\njust over 30 in the Jersey group visiting Bad Wurzach for the 75th<\/sup>\nanniversary.  Sadly, it remains to be\nseen whether many internees will be strong enough to visit in 2021 since it was\nanticipated that the 2020 trip would be the last official visit.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a positive note, the Twinning Committee intends to organise a get-together later this year for all those internees who would have travelled in the group, those who were physically unable to travel and the children and grandchildren of internees who would have been on the trip.\u00a0 When the date is known, details regarding this event will be posted this website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At mid-day on 28 April 1945 ona bright and sunny morning,a column of tanks from theFree French Second Armoured Division rolled down the main street of the small German town of Wurzach, led by three men on foot.  One was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10001,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"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=3306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3307,"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3306\/revisions\/3307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sthelierbadwurzachpartnerschaft.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}