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I had no problem with the Germans, I was quite used to them and one of the things that stands out was how we were looked after, not only by our family, our relations if we still had them over here, but by neighbours. Everyone treasured the children that were left on the island, and I believe there were over a thousand children of school age left on the island when the war, when they evacuated, so there were quite a number of children, and people were very kind to us.

The Germans themselves were very kind to us, because of course, they missed their own children. Where we lived, opposite the cookhouse, they used to pass through our yard, across the yard twice a day, so we were quite used to them. Although they couldn’t speak to us because I only spoke, and so did my brother, the patois, which they didn’t understand. We certainly didn’t know the German! They smiled, they showed us photographs of their children, and many were with tears in their eyes when they watched us play. It’s sad to think how much they did miss their children.

You see, I couldn’t remember the time before the war. I grew up in the war, so the Germans were natural, they were part of my life, and I was not frightened by it ever. We certainly saw a lot of Germans on the road, but that would have been normal. It would have been strange if we didn’t see them on the road. But they didn’t acknowledge us, or us them really. We just carried on our own way.
MARGARET LE CRAS

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