It is an honour as the UK chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) to support the laying of 15 Stolpersteine, in Guernsey and 20 in Jersey by celebrated German artist Gunter Demnig.
I am sure many of you are familiar with his stumbling stones that can be found across the cities of Europe to remember the victims and survivors of Nazism.
The wonderful thing about Stolpersteine is the way you stumble across the stones embedded in the everyday pavements we all walk on. They are outside the family homes of Jews murdered during the Holocaust and in many more places where we remember the victims and the survivors of Nazism.
I am proud that the UK Presidency of IHRA alongside Dr Gilly Carr of the University of Cambridge, Helen Glencross from Guernsey Museums and Chris Addy from Jersey Heritage have supported this initiative.
It is an opportunity for us all to reflect on the importance of remembrance and to ensure that we remember our history no matter how painful. Without confronting our past, we will never be able to move forward.
Jersey (25 July 2024)
I welcome the laying of 20 stones today of survivors of Nazism, among them a number of Jewish islanders who were persecuted, 2 of them later taking their own lives.
It is important that we recognise those who survived persecution as well as those who died because of it, and I hope that the names of those being honoured today will become as well known as that of the Jersey 21.
Guernsey (26 July 2024)
Recognising the Guernsey eight who died in Nazi prisons camps, the 3 Jewish women who were murdered in Auschwitz, Frank Falla, who did so much to fight for those deported for their opposition to the Germans and Elisabet Duquemin, who was later deported to internment camps as a British Jew are important.
But I especially welcome the inclusion of Frank Tuck and Kingston Bailey, 2 Guernsey police officers who were deported to Nazi labour and concentration camps after being accused of stealing food from German stores. After torture-induced confessions, the men were tried by a German court-martial along with 16 of their colleagues. Crucially, 10 of them were also tried by the Royal Court
Both Frank Tuck and Kingston Bailey men survived but with life-altering injuries and PTSD. Sadly, their families continue to live with that injustice today.
I am pleased by the recent announcement by the States of Guernsey that they intend to address injustices and abuses committed during the Nazi Occupation of the Island during WW2.
