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Nazi deportation of Channel Islands family revealed in survivor's account
At 92 years old, Gloria Bullen has shared her harrowing experience of being forcibly taken from Nazi-occupied Jersey as a child and sent to a German internment camp during World War II.
The night of the roundup
In 1942, German soldiers, accompanied by a local constable, arrived at the Webber family's home in Gorey, Jersey, at 11 p.m. The constable, visibly distressed, informed them they would be collected at 8 a.m. the following morning for deportation to Germany.
Gloria, then 10 years old, recalled the moment: "We'd heard of people going to Germany but didn't know anything about it, then the constable came and said Dad was English and he had to go."
Her father, Thomas Webber, a British national, fell under Adolf Hitler's decree ordering the deportation of all British men aged 16 to 70 who were not born in the Channel Islands, along with their families. The order was retaliation for Britain's internment of German nationals in Persia (modern-day Iran) in 1941.
Journey to internment
On 16 September 1942, Gloria's family-parents Elsie and Thomas, and siblings Shirley, Sandra, Benita, and Barry-were allowed to pack just one suitcase for the six of them. They were taken by boat to St Malo, then by train across Europe to southern Germany.
After a brief stay at an internment camp in Biberach, they were transferred to an 18th-century castle in Bad Wurzach on 31 October 1942, joining over 600 other deportees from the Channel Islands.
Life behind barbed wire
Conditions in the camp were dire. Gloria described chronic food shortages until the Red Cross intervened, providing parcels that were sometimes shared among entire families. "There was a time when each one of us had a parcel or else one time you had one parcel between the whole family, which didn't go very far," she said.
The castle, surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by Hitler Youth initially, later housed elderly retired soldiers who patrolled with rifles they often used as walking sticks. Activities were severely restricted, with limited schooling and supervised walks outside the camp.
"You never mixed with the people in the village, they weren't allowed to speak to us, they weren't even allowed to look at us, they wouldn't let us speak."
Gloria Bullen
Liberation and lasting scars
Gloria's father spotted French tanks entering Bad Wurzach on 28 April 1945. A tank marked "St Malo" confirmed their liberation. The family was flown to Hendon, England, before returning to Jersey by ship in August 1945, where they were greeted by former campmates.
Despite the joy of freedom, Gloria carried deep resentment over the lost years of education. "When I went back to Grouville School, I couldn't catch up. I lost three years of schooling, which is so damn annoying as I was going well with a scholarship," she said.
A life rebuilt
Gloria moved to Cornwall with her husband, Norman Bullen, in 1954. Her story, shared with the BBC last month, sheds light on a lesser-known chapter of Nazi occupation and its enduring impact on families.
