‘Quite Contrary to the Principles of British Justice’: The Jews of the Channel Islands 1940-1945

Prof. David Fraser University of Nottingham, UK  From 1940 to 1945 the Channel Islands were the only part of Britain to fall under Nazi occupation. German anti-Jewish decrees became part of the Islands’ legal structures. Local police and government officials identified and registered the few remaining Jews.Jewish property was Aryanized and Jews were deported, all with the knowing involvement of government officials who remained officially loyal to the British Crown. This lecture examines both the legal and moral failures and the ambiguities which surrounded this little known part of British Jewish history.  David Fraser is Professor of Law and Social Theory at the University of Nottingham. His research examines the intersections of law and the Shoah. In addition to his study of the Channel islands, his recent publications include, The Fragility of Law: Constitutional Patriotism and the Jews of Belgium,1940-1945 (2009) and Daviborshch’s Cart: Narrating the Holocaust in Australian War Crimes Trials(2010)