Discourse and Defiance under Nazi Occupation: Guernsey, Channel Islands, 1940–1945 by Jorgensen-Earp Cheryl R

Author:Jorgensen-Earp, Cheryl R. [Jorgensen-Earp, Cheryl R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781628960082
Publisher: Michigan State University Press
Published: 2013-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

“What weather! What weather!” said Dr. Brotsch.

“Weather? We like it.”

“Like it!”

Captain Henderson said, “Oh, well, it's only autumn yet, we haven't had the winter.”

“Autumn! Winter!” exclaimed Dr. Brotsch, “What is it like here in winter, then?”

“Oh, winter! In the winter we have storms.”57

This actual conversation has the same rhythm that builds to a punch line as that mainstay of American folk humor, the Farmer and the Stranger joke (“Say, Farmer, you been living here all your life?” “Not yet.”) In this case, the story pits the Guernseyman as the Farmer, steeped in local knowledge and common sense, against the German as the clueless, effete Stranger passing through.

Jack Sauvary related another purportedly true story of native wits confounding endless rules and regulations. Early on, farmers were allowed to keep half of their own pigs when they were slaughtered, the rest having to be surrendered. One farmer, on slaughtering a pig, cut the animal across the back, sending in the front part and keeping the back portion for himself. Jack heard that the authorities “made a little fuss,” but the farmer maintained that he had only done what the law demanded by sending in half. His technical compliance was indisputable, but the law was quickly changed to specify that the pig must be divided down the center of the spine. In relating this story of clever circumventing of the powers-that-be, Jack put in parentheses, “Trust a Guernsey farmer to be cute.”58

Some of the one-upmanship stories about the Germans were brief and likely apocryphal. A common tale (Robin called it “the tale of the day”) from October 1940 was that a German officer stopped a Guernseyman in the Grange, asking in broken English, “Heil Hitler—Which is the way to the Regal?” Whereupon, the local man supposedly replied, “God save the King—first turn on the left.”59 Other jokes at the Germans' expense were throwaway lines, bon mots made in the company of friends. An example of such witticisms would include a running joke in Kitty Bachmann's circle. During the time when so many private homes were being seized by the Germans, La Guelle remained untouched for the time being. Kitty claimed to be tempted by an unidentified friend's advice to “rename the house ‘Stalingrad’ because it had not been taken.”60 This is the humor found in difficult circumstances that binds a subordinate group together in common viewpoint and understanding. It finds a “chink in the armor” of those in control and exploits that flaw to diminish perceptions of their power and competence.

Before leaving the stories and jokes told at the expense of the Germans, it is interesting to examine more formal jokes, ones that are presented as purely fictional and structured to build to an actual punch line.61 These jokes have a particularly subversive potency. One such joke is found in both Ambrose Robin's diary and in the diary of Violet Carey, their accounts appearing only a week apart. Robin worked for the States, and Violet Carey was not only related to the Bailiff but was also married to a jurat of the Royal Court.

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