“Have you been offended?” Holocaust memory in the Channel Islands at HMD 70

Abstract

The Channel Islands have experienced great difficulty in coming to terms with the Holocaust given the implication of the local authorities in the registration of the islands’ Jewish population during the German occupation. While the situation in Jersey began to change in the 1990s due to the actions of the island's leadership, the issue is still taboo in Guernsey today. Taking a historical approach, this article addresses the power of that taboo at the time of Holocaust Memorial Day 2015, proposing the concept of the “incremental memory event” as a way of understanding the differences in memory in both islands.