The two part series begins later this week on Channel 4…
The production, Britain Under The Natzis: The Forgotten Occupation, tells the controversial and little-known story of the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II – the only part of Britain invaded and occupied by Hitler’s forces.
The Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands created an almost impossible dilemma for residents: should they resist, collaborate, or walk a line between the two?
The documentary-drama draws on incredible first-person testimony, meticulously pieced together to give multiple perspectives on what really happened – with stories that intersect, overlap and defy each other in their version of the truth.
Marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Channel Islands, the words of those who lived through the occupation are brought to life by actors while expert historians – who’ve spent years unearthing original diaries, memoirs and letters, as well as the previously unseen private photo album of a senior Nazi officer – paint a shocking picture of a world of informants, collaborators, black marketeers, forced labour camps and brave resisters.
The second part looks at the Channel Islands two years into the occupation and life under Nazi rule takes a darker turn as mass deportations of islanders to German prison camps begin.
Thousands of slave workers are brought in to transform the islands into fortresses. Food supplies run desperately short. Acts of resistance grow bolder even though resisters face severe consequences if they’re caught, including possible execution. Most face a bitter struggle for survival.
The Nazis build forced labour camps, raising the spectre of the Holocaust on British soil. When D-Day comes, islanders’ dreams of liberation are cruelly dashed. With the islands cut off from food supplies, islanders and Germans alike face starvation. Eventually the islands are finally liberated. But the day of reckoning for collaborators never comes, leaving a divisive legacy that lives on to this day.
The first episode airs on May 29th, the second a week later on June 5th.
Britain Under The Natzis: The Forgotten Occupation, Thursday at 8 pm on Channel 4
