Review by:  
Shannon Nagy
University of Texas at Austin
The Changing Face of the Channel Islands Occupation:  Record, Memory
and Myth
Hazel R. Knowles Smith (Houndmills Basingstoke Hampshire:  Palgrave
Macmillan, 2007), 312 pages

The Changing Face of the Channel Islands Occupation: Record, Memory and Myth
re-examines past scholarship on the Channel Islands Occupation with a renewed
sense of dedication to reclaiming pride in the Islands’ marred and guilt-ridden past.
Touching briefly on the ways in which memory impacts historical research and
functions collectively in a community and amongst individuals, Hazel R. Knowles
Smith attempts to recapture the Channel Islands occupation’s atmosphere by
predominantly relying on survivors’ published and unpublished accounts, diaries,
letters and memoirs. The Changing Face… is yet another example of how memory
and myth contribute to one’s present-day perceptions of the past and how it is left up
to the historian to reconcile recollection with fact. Adding to the already vast
scholarship on the Islands’ occupation, Knowles Smith challenges her
historiographical predecessors by claiming to present a more accurate and less
sensational picture of the wartime occupation while simultaneously restoring the
Islands’ historical pride and reputation.

Her chapters are short yet numerous providing the reader a succinct and
comprehensive account of Island occupied life from various facets. Knowles Smith
constructs her argument by dividing the book into five main parts that chronologically
address the historical facts of the occupation, the perspectives and motivations of
the individuals involved in Island government and politics, island inhabitants’ personal
accounts and experiences, the lives of forced workers and finally, Island life after
liberation. She places particular importance on addressing and refuting topics of past
exploitation such as the degree in which Islanders resisted, cavorted, and
collaborated with their German occupiers, the relationship between the Islands and
Britain, tales of starvation and the treatment of the Islands’ Jews. As in any study that
relies predominantly on first-hand accounts, one wonders how typical these
experiences were throughout Island society’s echelons. There is no doubt that
Knowles Smith paints a distinct picture that encapsulates the Islanders’ harrowing
experiences but one wishes that she supported the evidence found in the first-hand
accounts with hard data. Furthermore, the book is peppered with haphazardly placed
photographs which seem insufficiently captioned and appear largely irrelevant to
Knowles Smith’s study.  

Knowles wishes to present the “true story of the Islands occupation” in order for her
readers to make their own conclusions based on the evidence that she presents.
However, her own analysis is lost in her presentation of excessive and, at times,
overbearing quotations. Furthermore, Knowles Smith’s lofty claims of offering an
account of the Occupation stripped of embellishment and sensationalism result in a
conclusion that proves both disappointing and lacking. In the end, she argues that
the Islanders should reclaim their history proudly and without guilt rather than
perpetuating the idea of a past wrought with shame. However, despite its
shortcomings, Knowles Smith’s work will indeed open up new fields of inquiry on the
subject of the Channel Islands Occupation. Overall, The Changing Face of the
Channel Islands Occupation illuminates the controversies and scandals surrounding
the Islands’ occupation and synthesizes personal accounts making this work a useful,
unconventional source for use by other scholars.
© Copyright 2007-08 British Scholar. All rights reserved.
Book of the Month
July 2007