Appeal launched for families of Occupation heroes

Iris Prigent and her late husband Gordon on their wedding day

Jersey Heritage wants to trace the families of 10 islanders who were persecuted by the Nazis or helped people to hide from them during the Occupation.

The organisation will be putting special memorial stones across the island to commemorate significant Islanders from the war years.

It wanted members of their families to be involved and they have already identified 20 people so far.

They included Harold Le Druillenec, who was sent to a concentration camp after helping a Russian prisoner to evade capture.

Anthony Faramus is thought to be the only British survivor of Mauthausen and Buchenwald concentration camps.

Historian Michael Ginns was deported as a teenager and spent most of the war imprisoned in a castle at Wurzach in Germany - only to lead efforts to reconcile the island with Germany after the war.

Jersey Heritage has managed to track down the families of these people, and several others who it would like to commemorate.

Iris Prigent says her late husband Gordon "would have been happy" to be remembered

Iris Prigent's late husband Gordon was sent to work in Alderney after refusing to work to the Germans in Jersey.

She said: "My husband Gordon suffered greatly as a result of being sent to Alderney for refusing to work for the Occupiers. This experience affected him for the rest of his life.

"Gordon would have been happy to think that he and many others who suffered during the German Occupation are being remembered.”

John Max Finkelstein, a Jew who was deported from the island in 1943 at the age of 60, is one of 10 whose relatives were yet to have been traced.

He survived Buchenwald, and returned to Jersey where he died.

Suzanne Malherbe and Lucy Schwob, better known as Marcel Moore and Claude Cahun, carried out acts of sabotage and resistance, distributing anti-Nazi propaganda leaflets.

While they became famous as artists, Jersey Heritage has not been able to find anyone connected to them by blood.

Artist Gunter Demnig with an example of a Stolperstein

The memorials will be in the form of a Stolperstein - which are cobblestone-sized brass memorials, which have an engraved cap detailing a person they are remembering.

There are many across Europe and made famous by the artist Gunter Demnig.

Chris Addy from Jersey Heritage said: “The Jersey stones will raise awareness of Islanders who were persecuted for their Jewish origins or went into hiding for that reason; those convicted of acts of resistance, defiance or attempted escape; individuals sent to Alderney as conscripted labourers; or interned in Germany for being British born.

"We have made every effort to contact the families of those due to be honoured but would love to hear from any relatives we have not yet been able to identify.”