The Germans search a house in occupied Guernsey.

Martha Martel (née Hubert) interviewed by Lynne Ashton of the Guernsey Museum.
Tape recording transcribed and edited by J David

I….….….. Did you ever have Germans visiting your own house?
Mrs Martel. Yes, my uncle decided to go off in a boat with some other people, and after that our house was searched three times, I wasn’t there actually, because by then, because by then the woman I’d been learning my trade with had to give up dressmaking, because she was having a nervous breakdown, so I decided I’d go and work at Grut’s, and fortunately I managed to get a job there with two of my other friends, and it was sort of while I was there most times, I was only there once when they came in to search the house, and one day we had — they’d always drive up the back drive and leave their motor-bikes and just come in the house, burst into the house, and it was always by the back door, and fortunately for that, because a couple of times somebody had to run out through the front door and throw the wireless, the crystal set into the weeds.
I….….….. Because you weren’t allowed to have radios
Mrs Martel. No. My Father always listened to the one o’clock news, and the crystal set was behind the curtain, and another time he put it quickly behind the curtain, no-one had time to run out of the front door, and they started to search the house, Mum and Dad were really terrified, they thought, good Lord, they were going to find the set this time, but my brother was walking around with his hand in his pocket, and we had a very small crystal set, and after, when the Germans left, because my father said “Thank goodness they didn’t look behind the curtain,” and my brother said “It’s all right, I had it in my pocket”, and he had his hand in his pocket all that time, following the Germans around. So they needn’t have been so frightened, but they really thought, well this is it.
I….….….. Because I gather if people were caught then they could be sent away.

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