It was the first time that Engelbert Hoppe, now aged nearly 82, had set foot in the Island since the end of the war.
In a voice that continually broke with emotion, he spoke of his time in Jersey as a young man far away from home and in a situation not of his own making.
He told of the kindness shown by Islanders whom he got to know and of his own anti-Nazi beliefs, sustained by his own and his family’s Catholic faith.
Herr Hoppe arrived aged 19, a few days before the D-Day invasion began to cut off travel between Jersey and France.
For most of his time in the Island during the next year he was stationed in machine-gun posts in bunkers at Corbière and La Pulente.
