Oranges, Occupation and a chance meeting in California

Monday 22 August 2022

When Dave Treadway asked a fellow guest at a Boxing Day dinner in California what her oldest Christmas memory was, he never anticipated the journey it would end up taking him on.

It was a chance meeting that forged a link with the Channel Islands, the Occupation and one special lady who lived through it all.

Dave Treadway and his wife are making their first trip to Guernsey this year, accompanying Jill Vincent Oliver, who not only lived through the occupation of the island in 1940, but spent the last few years of World War II in a concentration camp in Biberach.

The 87-year-old was deported to Germany alongside her brother, mother and father when she was six.

After emigrating to the US in the 60s, Jill is now returning to Guernsey to celebrate her 88th birthday.

Pictured: Mr Treadway and his wife have developed a strong friendship with Jill (middle).

Mr Treadway was so fascinated by Jill’s story that he has since written a book about her experiences: 'One Orange for Christmas.'

“Two years ago she gave me permission to write her story, and I just finished a book that has been published on Amazon,” he told Express, after explaining the chain of events that led to a decade long friendship and his first trip to Guernsey…

“My wife and I, we met Jill 15 years ago,” began Mr Treadway, who lives in California.

“Some friends invited us to a [Boxing Day] dinner, and Jill was one of their friends at the dinner. 

“We didn’t know her before that day. She was the oldest person there and I just started a conversation, and I asked: ‘Jill, what is your oldest Christmas memory?’

“She said: ‘I remember the time when me and my family got one orange for Christmas to share – because that was all they gave us in the concentration camp in Germany.’ She went on to tell some stories and the host took me aside late and said ‘I don’t know what it was about that question, but she’s never shared any of those stories, even with her family’.

“So, we started a friendship that me and my wife have kept for many years.”

Pictured: Debonair, the house in Guernsey Jill was kicked out of, alongside her family, to make room for German officers.

Jill was one of a few thousand British citizens deported to German concentration camps in the last few years of the war. She spent three years at a camp in Dorsten and then in Biberach. 

After being liberated, Jill kept some handmade birthday cards and a tapestry she made while in the camps. 

“Her and her husband in the 1960’s emigrated to the US and she has been in the US since then,” said Mr Treadway. “She lived in San Diego California.”

Express will be meeting up with Mr Treadway and Jill when they come over to the island later this year.

Pictured top - left to right: The tapestry Jill made in Biberach, a book from the concentration camp and Jill and her brother.