In
October 1941 a notice was published in the Jersey
Evening Post calling on Jews to register with Clifford Orange,
Chief aliens officer in Jersey. Most Jews had already left the island but
twelve remained and registered. As on the continent the persecution of the Jews
was a systemised affair, firstly they had to register, then display a sign on
their businesses announcing 'Jewish undertaking' and then the businesses were
Aryanised and sold to non Jews. Subsequent orders restricted the hours during
which Jews could shop and imposed a curfew on them. They were also to wear
yellow stars with the word 'Jew'
rather than 'Jude',
the Jersey authorities protested and whilst ordered, these stars never
appeared. These
Jews (along with Freemasons, former officers of the armed forces and susepcted
communists) were deported in February 1943 as retaliation for the British
commando raid on the 'Sark'. Only one of them was singled out for 'special
treatment' - John Max Finkelstein, originally from Romania, who was eventually
sent to Buchenwald and Theresienstadt. He survived the war. The other deportees were sent to internment camps in France and Germany and were not separated from the other islanders. Those prisoners are remembered on this plaque. |  |