Number six of the wall paintings, made by Teddy Baden on what is named ‘The Liberation Wall’ inaugurated 8 May, is a very provocative image of paradise island during occupation … the sky is blue, even with a bunker behind, the young German soldier with his nice face, wears a gun, boots and helmet on the back of a greasy cow retaining a half nude Guernsey girl smiling in high heels … a non-romantic way of saying, ‘make love, not war’ – but it was war.
Love stories existed during occupation, not to blame girls (in France, awfully, the ones with a relation with the enemy were shunned after the war). Fat cows were eaten by the occupiers, not by people of Guernsey who were starving.
To my opinion, Liberation is not behind this image, neither for women, nor for Guernsey. I would have preferred to see the Guernsey Donkey giving a kick out to a German helmet.
It has never been a glory to cooperate in any way with the enemy during occupation.
Please save the honour of the island, change this painting, in memory of all those who suffered here, and so many close to us in Alderney and everywhere in a world war.
Marianne Mallard
Castel
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.