As I am back to school next week, I though I would update my blog as to how my summer research went.
I stayed in Guernsey for 2 weeks in July, and through friends on the island I managed to organise 4 separate interviews. Each interview lasted for around an hour and from them I gleamed much extremely useful first hand information. I interviewed Francis Girrard, a builder contracted by Germans during the occupation, Ray Gaudion, a Policeman at the time of the occupation, and two ladies, Olive Saar and Molly Bihet, both who were children during the war. The latter, Molly Bihet, has written three books on the subject and was extremely helpful in the direction of my project. Overall the interviews presented many views that I had not considered earlier in my preliminary research, most prominently their views and attitudes to resistance, escapism and survival which I believe will now form the basis of my project.
I also visited the Guernsey Occupation Museum, the Underground Museum and the Priaux Archive Library, who were incredibly helpful in suggesting potential interview candidates and allowing me access to their substantial war time newspaper archives. I have also collected many books on the subject, and these will undoubtedly prove useful for reference when I come to write my final essay and compile my presentation. My collection should also solve the problem of lack of resources available for me, even when I spent hours at the John Rylands University Library earlier this year, trying to find a single print that pertained to my subject!
I am very pleased with my summers work, and although I still have much ahead of me to do, I am now looking forward to moving my project onwards!
