WW2 file: The Guernsey resistance

From the testimony of Walter Henry Lainé "At the beginning of June 1943 I was arrested by the Gestapo in Guernsey and charged with retaining my wireless set contrary to German orders and listening to the BBC and conveying the news to others … I did about four weeks in the local jail before being taken to an annexe of Dijon … [he was later moved to Saarbrücken and on to Frankfurt]. I served most of my sentence under SS guards. I was in solitary confinement, except when working in a shed in one of the prison yards, and here I worked on nuts and bolts used for the construction and repair of German tanks. I don't think international law permits a prisoner of the Germans doing this work, but I had no choice. The allies' advance into Germany forced the Nazis to take all of us out of prison on a forced march into the interior of Germany … Finally I was released on 30 April 1945 by the advancing American army. All the time I was in prison I, along with the others, was subjected to the most appalling treatment, mainly by being starved and, at the slightest provocation, beaten. I was denied every human right such as Red Cross letters and parcels and medical attention. On our forced march across Germany many died through starvation, malnutrition or utter exhaustion, and if they fell by the wayside they were just left there to die. Fortunately, I survived, but I was in very poor shape. When I was taken to prison in Frankfurt I was accompanied by another wireless set offender from Guernsey … who was driven mad by the Nazis and died, raving mad, in his cell."