12. The Red Cross Saved Citizens From Certain Death
By the winter of 1944, the Germans were not giving enough food to the people occupying the islands. The crops had been taken over by the Nazis, so no one was able to hold on to any supplies for the winter. This meant that people were starving, and they desperately needed help. A man named Tom Jehan explained to the BBC that inside of his house, as well as both his entire front and back yard was turned into a garden. He tried to plan cabbages and whatever else he could manage to grow, and yet it was still not enough to supply him and his family enough food throughout the winter. Despite being prisoners of Germany, there was not enough to go around, and The Third Reich refused to pay for anything the British people needed.
In November of 1944, the military officials gave the Bailiff of Guernsey, Victor G. Carey, permission to contact the British Red Cross and ask for help. He wrote the following letter; “Conditions rapidly deteriorating here. Will soon become impossible. We appreciate difficulties, but civilian population need urgent supplies of essentials. We urge immediate visit of Red Cross Representatives. All rations drastically reduced. Bread finishes December 15th. Sugar finishes January 6th. Fat production much below subsistence levels. Ration of mild reduced to one third of a point per head by the end of the year. Soap and other cleaners, stocks completely exhausted. Vegetables generally inadequate to supply civilian population, through the winter. German consumption heavy. Salt exhausted. Clothing and footwear stock almost exhausted. Fuel, gas and electricity finish end of year. Coal stocks exhausted. Wood fuel inadequate. Many essential medical supplies finished.”
The Germans allowed a Red Cross ship to come to the islands without threat of being gunned down by submarines. Just before Christmas in 1944, a ship called The S. S. Vega brought supplies from the Red Cross. They brought nearly all of the supplies on Carey’s list, as well as “luxuries” like large tins of coffee, milk, sweet corn, tea, and more. They say that without the help of the Red Cross, they surely would have died of starvation during the occupation.