Britain Under the Nazis: The Forgotten Occupation
2025– · Channel 4 · 60 min · 1 season
S01E02 · Episode 2
Fri, 6 June, 5:00 am
The second of a two-part documentary recounting the German occupation of the Channel Islands - Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney - during the Second World War. Two years into the occupation, life under Nazi rule took a darker turn as mass deportations of islanders to German prison camps began. Thousands of slave workers were brought in to transform the islands into fortresses. Food supplies ran desperately short, while acts of resistance grow bolder even though resisters faced severe consequences if caught, including possible execution. Upon D-Day, islanders' dreams of liberation were cruelly dashed.
About
To mark the 80th anniversary of the eventual Liberation of the Channel Islands, Britain Under the Nazis: The Forgotten Occupation tells the story of one the most controversial periods in WW2 British history, utilising eye-witness accounts from those who lived through it.
In June 1940 Britain abandoned the Channel Islands to the Nazis. 69,000 islanders were left to live with the enemy, facing an impossible dilemma: to collaborate, resist, or tread a difficult line in between. Their words, drawn from little known diaries, memoirs and letters from both the occupiers and occupied, are brought to life by actors for the first time. Leading historians Gilly Carr and Louise Willmot bring together their meticulous research, including recently unearthed documents that shed fascinating new light on this forgotten period of fascism on British soil.
Episodes
- E01
Episode 1
Fri, 30 May· 60 minThe first of a two-part documentary recounting how, in June 1940, Britain abandoned the Channel Islands - Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney - to Hitler's forces, leaving nearly 70,000 islanders facing the dilemma of collaborating with or resisting the occupying forces. Mass deportations and slave labour camps were rolled out on British soil, and with no official investigation into the occupation, the fallout from the disarray remains toxic to this day. Contributors help paint a shocking picture of a world of informants, collaborators, black marketeers and brave resisters.
- E02
Episode 2
Fri, 6 June· 60 minThe second of a two-part documentary recounting the German occupation of the Channel Islands - Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney - during the Second World War. Two years into the occupation, life under Nazi rule took a darker turn as mass deportations of islanders to German prison camps began. Thousands of slave workers were brought in to transform the islands into fortresses. Food supplies ran desperately short, while acts of resistance grow bolder even though resisters faced severe consequences if caught, including possible execution. Upon D-Day, islanders' dreams of liberation were cruelly dashed.
