On 9th May this year, Channel Islanders will celebrate the 56th anniversary of the most joyous day in their history - their liberation from five years of enemy occupation.
    But for members of the Craft who had remained in the Islands, while sharing the joy and relief experienced by all Channel Islanders on that day in 1945, it was a time also to reflect.
    They were thankful for their release from the threat and fear of persecution, or indeed worse which, during those five dreadful and dreary years, hung over them like a dark shadow.
    As the late Charles Cruickshank wrote in his Official History of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands, the event may have been a comparatively small and unimportant one in the full context of the Second World War.
    But for the Germans it was their first, and as it turned out, only conquest of British soil and the prelude, they hoped, to the early occupation of the remainder of Britain. It was also a great morale booster and of substantial propaganda value.
    When it became clear that the Channel Islands were not to be defended following the collapse of the Allied front in north-west Europe in May 1940, the Islanders who had decided not to evacuate had to prepare themselves for occupation by enemy forces.
    The prospect naturally caused a great deal of apprehension. But for freemasons left in the Islands, and there were hundreds of them, it was expected that the occupation might be particularly unpleasant and uncertain.
    Nazi persecution of the Jews had been equally vigorously directed against German freemasons, Nazi propaganda often depicting World Jewry and the freemasons as the common enemy.
    However, the masonic authorities in the Islands, that is to say in the two small, but separate Provinces of Jersey and of Guernsey & Alderney, took comfort from the proclamation issued by the German Military Command on the first day of the Occupation.
    Clause eight of this stated that "in the event of peaceful surrender, the lives, property and liberty of peaceful inhabitants is solemnly guaranteed."
    The Provincial Grand Masters at the time - in Jersey, Charles Edward Malet de Carteret, a former Bailiff of the Island and in Guernsey/Alderney, Victor Gosselin Carey, who held the equivalent office in the Island of Guernsey, took advice.
    They were told by the German Military Command that, provided no further masonic meetings were held, nothing would be done to interfere with the masonic temples in the Islands, or indeed with their contents.
    Relying on these assurances and the proclamation, both Provincial Grand Masters complied. In Guernsey, whereas some of the more valuable artefacts were removed, in Jersey nearly all the vast amount of beautiful furniture, furnishings, regalia etc, including the thousands of intrinsically valuable and masonically priceless and irreplaceable items in the splendid library and museum, were left in situ.
    Unfortunately for local freemasons, the solemn undertaking given on the first day of the Occupation eventually proved untenable.
    Not surprisingly, perhaps, given the Nazi paranoia about the freemasons, not long after the establishment of the regular occupying troops in the Islands, more sinister forces were despatched from France and Germany, bent on pursuing the Nazi vendetta against freemasonry.
    In Jersey, the events that then followed were closely observed, at some risk to himself, by the then Librarian and Curator of the Jersey Masonic Library and Museum, W. Bro. George Knocker. These are well chronicled in his writings, published soon after the Liberation, and subsequently, following further research by myself, in a number of publications.
    Similar events that took place in Guernsey (and in Alderney, where there was a small masonic temple) were not recorded in such detail, but they followed the same pattern.
    The first indication that something was afoot which did not augur well was the unannounced arrival at the masonic temple in St. Helier, Jersey on the 19 November, 1940 of the head of the Secret Field Police, the Geheim Feld Polizei.
    He demanded from the caretaker (who had been allowed to remain in residence in his quarters within the building), the keys to all the rooms and placed seals on all the doors. Then, on 23 January, 1941 a squad of special troops or Einsatzstab arrived from France, and proceeded to make an inventory of the main contents, and to take photographs of the main meeting room or temple.
    This was followed by the arrival of further squads of Einsatzstab, this time from Berlin, who commenced the systematic looting and pillaging of the building on 27 January 1941.
    All the main pieces of furniture, the many beautifully embroidered lodge banners and furnishings, and the whole contents of the splendid library and museum, were stripped out, packed and loaded on to lorries and shipped out of the Island.
    Anything that the looters did not want was either smashed and left lying around, or piled in great heaps in the caretaker's garden and set alight. At the completion of the operation the doors were re-sealed and the building locked up.
    For the remainder of the Occupation the masonic temple in Jersey was used mainly as a liquor store and to house wireless sets confiscated in 1942. In Guernsey the building remained largely unused, but suffered substantial damage through lack of maintenance But in each case, thankfully, no action was taken to defile or destroy the structures of the buildings, in a manner similar to that in which the contents of each had been treated.
    It also came to light, from articles published in the local press in the Islands, this being under the strict control of the occupying authorities, that the reason for shipping the main furnishings of the Temple in Jersey intact was to transport them to Berlin to set up of an anti-masonic exhibition.
    Likewise, the reason for taking photographs was to enable the exhibition managers to replicate precisely the laying out of a traditional masonic lodge. And it also emerged from documents discovered only as recently as 1990,that the exhibition was staged with the full authority and encouragement of the Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler and the most senior members of the Nazi party, including Luftwaffe chief Herman Goering, the notorious Jew-baiter Alfred Rosenberg and Hitler's deputy, Martin Bormann.
    But what, following the completion of the ransacking operations of 1941,was quite remarkable, and which has caused much puzzlement and speculation, was why, having taken such drastic action against the physical attributes of freemasonry in the Islands, no steps were taken to pursue, harass or persecute individual members of the Craft.
    As has already been pointed out, there were a great many left in the islands, full details of whom would have been readily ascertainable from the records and membership lists stolen during the looting and pillaging.
    And the further question has been asked - why, despite orders from Hitler himself sent directly to the Commander-in-Chief of all the occupying forces in 1943 that any remaining Jews and high-ranking freemasons should be deported to Germany, no action was taken to identify and deport such members of the Craft?
    So far as "any remaining Jews" were concerned, of the few who had not left the Islands when the occupation became imminent, most had been deported, but much earlier on. The attitude of the German military in this matter has opened up the intriguing line of speculation that some of the most senior commanders may have had masonic connections or sympathies. Moreover, up to the time that Hitler came to power in 1933, that some may even have been members of the Craft in Germany.
    As has already been mentioned, the Germans saw the capture of the Channel Islands as an important prelude to the early occupation of the whole of the Britain. They were anxious to study closely the behaviour of the British Channel Islanders under enemy occupation, so as to learn how best they might shortly govern Britain.
    Berlin felt, therefore, that the occupying forces should be led by individuals who would create, as far as possible in the difficult circumstances, a favourable and sympathetic impression on the local population. The story about the way, and the extent to which the policy was applied - the personalities, background and behaviour of those entrusted with its implementation, and the masonic connections of some of the most senior military commanders involved - forms a subject for separate and fascinating discussion and speculation.
    Immediately after the Liberation, the masonic authorities in each of the Islands were presented with a massive task of restoration and rehabilitation. Despite the enormous difficulties involved, in Jersey it proved possible to hold the first meeting of Provincial Grand Lodge in August 1945, just a month after the building was re-possessed by the masonic authorities.
    It did, of course, take many more months, indeed years to fully restore the interior of the building and to replace the hundreds of beautiful and valuable furnishings, etc which were stolen or destroyed in 1941.
    It is known that the anti-masonic exhibition referred to earlier was held in the Potsdam area, which suffered dreadful damage in the closing stages of the war, and it is more than likely that the building in which it was staged did not escape. Indeed, apart from a small quantity of books retrieved from an archival depot in Offenbach in 1946, none of the loot has ever been recovered. It seems highly unlikely that, despite many appeals, enquiries and searches that anything further will now turn up.
    In Guernsey, the main fabric of the masonic temple in St. Peter Port had suffered much more serious damage than that in Jersey, requiring a great deal of repair and reconstruction. Nonetheless, it still proved possible to convene the first meeting of Provincial Grand Lodge for more than five years in January 1946.
    As the more recently published photographs show, the recovery and restoration in both Provinces has been remarkable. In Jersey, as those who lived through those five dreadful years are able to recall and compare will readily testify, the present splendour and beauty of the interior of the building even exceeds that which existed in 1940.
    And thanks to the dedication and persistence of successive librarians and curators, and the generosity of countless donors worldwide, the small Province of Jersey boasts one of the finest and most richly endowed masonic libraries and museums in England and Wales.
    In Guernsey there have been equally, if indeed not more dramatic developments. While the interior and contents of the masonic temple in St. Peter Port had, in similar fashion to the one in Jersey, been very quickly restored to something like pre-war standard, maintaining this large and rambling building was proving to be an unsustainable financial burden.
    So it was decided that the property should be sold and a brand-new purpose-built masonic centre erected on the site of the smaller masonic hall outside the town and owned by St. Martin's Lodge.
    This splendid and striking new structure, covering some 9,500 square feet and comprising one large and two smaller lodge rooms, and all the usual facilities, was completed at a cost of £1.3m and dedicated in July 1998. It houses all the many fine furnishings and artefacts acquired since 1945, and these are shown off to much better advantage in the spacious new building.
    On Alderney, as has already been mentioned, the masonic temple in St Ann's suffered similar indignities and violation, as did those in Jersey and Guernsey. But here, also, through the sustained and devoted efforts of local brethren and their countless friends outside the Island, things were quickly restored to some form of normality. Indeed, the need for refurbishment and repair has provided the opportunity to introduce facilities that did not previously exist, such as kitchens and a dining room.
    While local brethren in all the Islands can take the greatest credit for their efforts in the massive task of restoration following the traumatic events of 1940-1945, they will forever be thankful and grateful for their countless friends worldwide who have contributed so substantially to the success achieved.

W Bro Dennis Perrin was invested with the Grand Master's Order of Service to Masonry last December by the Pro Grand Master, Lord Farnham. His award of the OSM was in no small way due to his acknowledged expertise on the Occupation, and his work in building up, improving and cataloguing the collection of books and exhibits at the Jersey Library & Museum, pillaged by the Nazis during that dark period.