EVERY year Jersey has reason to celebrate an anniversary which commemorates the enduring value of freedom and the defeat of a tyrannical power.

That anniversary is, of course, marked on 9 May, Liberation Day, but there is another date which is linked to everything that is the antithesis of what liberation stands for.

Seventy years ago today, the German Occupation of the Channel Islands began and the people of the Bailiwicks were suddenly compelled to come to terms with enemy invasion and an entirely new – and deeply unpleasant – way of life which they were compelled to endure for the next five years.

If we now concentrate on marking Liberation, this is because of the positive messages associated with it and also because it marked a renaissance which rapidly transformed the privations and suffering of the war years into a remarkable success story. This, however, does not mean that the events of June 1940 can be forgotten. They were, and in terms of significance still are, a crucial phase in Island history.

With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that Jersey escaped the extreme mass brutality visited by the Nazis on many other occupied territories. This could not be known in 1940, and when invasion was preceded by bombing and the loss of life, Islanders could only have feared the worst.

Thanks to the Constable of St Helier, Simon Crowcroft and historian Howard Baker, the bombing and its victims were quite rightly remembered earlier this week at St Helier Harbour. On a broader canvas, John Nettles, the actor who has done so much for Jersey in the past, is presenting a television series which tells the story not only of June 1940 but also of the entire German Occupation.

It is entirely appropriate that, even seven decades on, we continue to reflect on by far the darkest and most traumatic phase of the Island’s recent history. There are still lessons to be learned and insights to be gained from what was endured and from the courage of those who acted courageously in the face of a brutal occupier.

That said, there are major positives that must also be accentuated. We have come a long way since the 1940s, and Germany, far from being an enemy, is a staunch ally.

If this needs emphasising, look no further than the extraordinarily close relationship built up between the Island and the German communities where Islanders were interned during the war. The past is important, but such friendship is the shape of the present.