Island leaders helped Nazis to trace Jews

EVIDENCE that British people helped send Jewish women to their deaths was revealed yesterday in government archives of Guernsey's years under Nazi rule during the Second World War.

Documents suppressed for 53 years proved there was close co-operation between the island's leaders, police and the German military in identifying and tracking down five Jewish women. Three died in Auschwitz in 1943.

A Methodist minister, the Rev John Leale, acting president of Guernsey's Controlling Committee or 'Cabinet', handed the names to the German commander in St Peter Port on 26 November 1940.

The island police chief, William Schulpher, had drawn up the list on the orders of the Bailiff, Victor Carey, head of Guernsey's machinery of government.

The Bailiff was knighted in 1945 for his services during the occupation. He died in 1957, aged 86.

David Winnick, Labour MP for Walsall North, who campaigned for the release of the documents, yesterday asked why the latest batch was not released at the same time as others on the period.