Guernsey, Alderney, and Jersey each received a visit from the German Ambassador to the United Kingdom as part of the build up to Liberation Day.
Her Excellency Susanne Baumann was visiting the Channel Islands for the first time, after being appointed to the role last year.
It was the first visit of a German Ambassador to the Bailiwick of Guernsey for more than a decade.
She spent time in Guernsey ahead of Liberation Day before also travelling to Alderney, where Homecoming Day is celebrated in December.
The Ambassador laid a wreath at the German Military Cemetery at Fort George, and had a tour around St Peter Port while in Guernsey.
She also met His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Richard Cripwell and the Bailiff, Sir Richard McMahon.
Her Excellency also met Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez; the President of Policy & Resources, Deputy Steve Falla; the Lead P&R Member for External Relations, and other senior members of Guernsey’s government.
Speaking to Express, Her Excellency said she was “very much aware about the history” of the islands specifically “the German’s horrible role here”. She noted that each of the islands were treated “in a different way”.
She spoke of the importance of learning from that history, and ensuring it does not get the chance to repeat.
“What is important for me, is that we do learn from our history, and of course that we live up to our responsibility, which means to work on reconciliation and to work on learning from the history, in a way that history cannot repeat itself,” she said.
That importance is placed high within Germany, said the Ambassador, adding that they “do a lot with regard to our past” and that the country invests “a lot in the education of our children, of our youth, to make them aware of the horrific crimes which were committed by Nazi Germany on the Channel Islands, but also on a more broader scale”.
Her Excellency pointed towards that focus on education as a way to promote the idea of reconciliation with the younger generations.
“That’s part of our education system,” she said.
“When I look to my daughter’s school career, they looked at least three times into the Third Reich and what happened during the Second World War.
“We make sure that young people learn and that they do engage in reconciliation.”
Her Excellency’s trip wasn’t just to focus on Liberation Day, and Second World War education, but was also linked to last year’s signing of the ‘Framework of Friendship’, in the build up to the 80th anniversary of the islands’ liberation.
Deputy de Sausmarez described welcoming the German Ambassador to Guernsey as “a privilege”.
“Our island of course shares a painful past with Germany, but having signed the Biberach-Guernsey Framework of Friendship arrangement here last Liberation Day, counter-signed in Biberach last month, we can formally acknowledge that past whilst looking to a hopeful future built on respect, cultural understanding and co-operation.
“I’m glad that we have had the chance to discuss with the Ambassador the wider relationship between Guernsey and Germany, reflecting that our economy is strongly interlinked with Europe and that we have shared democratic values.”
