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After starting academic life as a prehistorian, Senior Lecturer Dr Gilly Carr, Course Director of ICE’s Postgraduate Certificate in Britain and the Holocaust, was inspired to investigate the archaeology of World War II. And so began a twelve-years-and-counting career dedicated to unearthing the unspoken history of the Nazi-occupied Channel Islands.

Since focusing on Britain’s lesser-known wartime past, Gilly has consistently shined a light on a place that rarely takes centre stage in our national discourse. The Channel Islands were the only part of the United Kingdom to fall under Nazi occupation – a regime Islanders endured for five years – and yet what do most of us know about that experience?

Giving voice to victims of persecution

"People think Britain didn’t have a direct connection to the Holocaust and that British citizens weren’t sent to concentration camps – but they absolutely were,” says Gilly, “But there’s been very little focus on it. Persecuted Channel Islanders and their families haven’t historically received the recognition they deserve.”

Gilly’s work has increasingly aimed to secure this long-overdue recognition. Her most recent book, published earlier this year, is titled Victims of Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands: A Legitimate Heritage? It’s the first book to examine the experience of all known deported Channel Islanders in Nazi prisons and camps, their struggles with PTSD and their exclusion from the wartime narrative.

"Through my research, families have been able to fill in the unknown journeys of missing loved ones,” explains Gilly. “It’s incredibly emotional to track down the graves of mothers and fathers and see the peace it gives their children.” That emotion is evident in two BBC documentaries where, with Gilly’s assistance, family members of Channel Island men locate the final resting places of their long-lost relatives.

Ensuring we remember

Giving voice to these wartime stories led to Gilly’s appointment as the Islands’ first representative to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and in August she was appointed to the Advisory Group for the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, which will be sited next to the Houses of Parliament.

“I’m proud to consider myself an activist, and I’m determined to make sure our nation doesn’t forget these events and understands their modern relevance,” says Gilly. “For the Postgraduate Certificate, I’m teaching a module focusing on the Channel Islands occupation. I hope students will see how Britain is connected to the Holocaust and be able to appreciate how close we were to these seemingly far-off atrocities.”

Learn more

To find out more about the Postgraduate Certificate in Britain and the Holocaust, visit: www.ice.cam.ac.uk/pg-cert-holocaust

To read more about Gilly’s work on the Channel Islands, visit: www.cam.ac.uk/channelislandsvictims

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This article was originally published as part of the 2019 Michaelmas edition of Inside ICE.

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