Lunchtime Talk - Occupation Reconciliation
Jersey Library
Event Overview
One of the most distinguished guardians of Jersey’s Occupation history, Michael Ginns MBE, sadly passed away after a long and eventful life. That life is celebrated in Occupation Reconciliation, a biography by Juanita Shield-Laignel launched on 16th December 2017 on what would have been Michael’s 90th birthday.
As a teenager in 1942, Michael was among the hundreds of Islanders deported and interned in Germany on the orders of Adolf Hitler, whose forces occupied the Channel Islands from 1940 to 1945. His years in the Wurzach camp had a profound effect, which later found expression through his work as one of a few founder members and then president of the Channel Islands Occupation Society. A leading figure in Jersey’s post-war reconciliation, Michael Ginns visited Bad Wurzach many times as a friend and was instrumental in its twinning with St Helier. In 2009, after ten years of research, he published his major work of historical record, ‘Jersey Occupied’.
Juanita Shield-Laignel MSBth, is the Editor of a local lifestyle magazine, intuitive artist and holistic therapist.
