Liberation joy is mixed with hope
The ongoing joy of Liberation Day and some of the worst elements of the German Occupation of the islands have coincided this week.
Yesterday will be considered another huge success by organisers, the hundreds involved, and the many thousands more who enjoyed the day.
It has taken a while for Liberation Day to find its feet again after the Covid lockdowns, but everyone seems largely satisfied with the current scale and delivery of an appropriately-sized celebration – while looking forward expectantly to the expected enhanced celebrations of 2025, when we mark 80 years since the Liberation.
Meanwhile, a few miles north, Alderney residents can look forward to what Lord Eric Pickles, the UK’s Post Holocaust Issues Envoy, said was the truth that they deserve – to have accuracy and clarity about what actually happened in their island during the Occupation years.
That will certainly be valuable.
But the truth that Alderney 'deserves' might not always help the island. Will it be able to control the next debate that the research ignites? There has already been coverage about why the UK failed to prosecute Nazis for war crimes in Alderney in the immediate aftermath of the Liberation. Unless the results of the review are truly surprising, that is likely to continue.
Alderney deserves the chance to know the truth, and move on.