5. Women Who Associated With German Soldiers Were Ridiculed
While many of the British citizens wanted to ignore the Germans, it became clear that these were just normal guys. Many people knew that there was no way of knowing just how long the occupation would last. Some believed that it may be forever, and life needed to keep moving forward. It should be no surprise, then, that there were romantic relationships between English women and the German soldiers. Many of the young English men were fighting in the war, so there were plenty of single young women to go around. There was also a huge benefit to dating a German, since they had access to all of the best food and supplies.
Some women were with the enemy as a temporary fix for loneliness and hunger, while others genuinely fell in love. No matter what their reason may have been, these women were called traitors on both the islands and the mainland. They earned the nickname “Jerry Bags”. There was a rumor that as many as 800 women living in the Channel Islands were sleeping with German soldiers, but that number has been grossly exaggerated, and most believe that the number was closer to 200. Even years after the war was over, people still spoke negatively about these “Jerry Baggers”.