All Journal stories The German Occupation of Sark
The Sark JournalLove Across the Divide
Social contact, military authority and one post-war marriage
German servicemen lived among Sark鈥檚 civilian population during the occupation.
German soldiers and Sark residents played football together and attended dances and other social events. Some islanders learnt German.
Three hundred soldiers arrived in 1941
The early German presence was comparatively small. Soldiers were billeted at the Bel Air Hotel, and officers used Rose Cottage on Rosebud Hill as their headquarters.
Another 300 German soldiers arrived in October 1941.
Early in the occupation, some servicemen regarded Sark as preferable to the Eastern Front. The Sark Visitor Centre鈥檚 2020 booklet, Sark: An Island Occupied, records German soldiers sending Sark butter home.
German lessons had practical uses
Phyllis Baker learnt German in 1941. During Werner Rang鈥檚 1943 posting, her German allowed her to translate between Sark residents and German medical staff.
Read Phyllis and Werner鈥檚 story.
Dame Sibyl refused to publish a notice about sex
In 1942, the Chief German Medical Officer issued an order concerning women being treated for venereal disease.
The notice required those women to refrain from sexual relations with German soldiers and civilians for three months and threatened punishment for non-compliance. It was not a general prohibition on relationships between Sark women and German soldiers.
Dame Sibyl Hathaway refused to publish the notice on Sark.
August Goebel had a local girlfriend
The Sark Visitor Centre鈥檚 2020 booklet, Sark: An Island Occupied, records that Goebel, the German Sanitary Officer, had a local girlfriend.
After he was murdered in April 1942, German investigators considered whether sexual jealousy might have provided a motive. The investigation later led to Metz, a German soldier who had opened private letters addressed to Goebel and sometimes answered them.
Read the German doctor murder story.
Phyllis Baker and Werner Rang remained in contact
German medical orderly Werner Rang became friends with Sark resident Phyllis Baker during his posting in 1943.
After Werner later became a prisoner of war in Britain, he and Phyllis corresponded for two years.
They shared their first kiss in 1947 and married on 13 May 1948. Werner settled on Sark with Phyllis and later ran the island鈥檚 volunteer ambulance service for many years.
For the wider occupation story, read Sark in the Second World War. If you want to spend longer on the island, see retreats on Sark.
