Mr Le Cocq will head a delegation of deportees and relatives, accompanied by two former Bailiffs closely associated with the Island’s reconciliation with the town in Baden Württemberg – Sir Philip and Sir William Bailhache – as well as Assistant Chief Minister Richard Buchanan and St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft.
At a ceremony which takes place on 28 April, 75 years after the liberation of the Bad Wurzach camp, they will honour the 12 Islanders who did not return to their Island homes at the end of the war.
More than 2,000 Channel Islanders were deported in September 1942 and February 1943, as a reprisal by Adolf Hitler for German civilians being interned at the request of the British in modern-day Iran in 1941.
After publication of official notices in the Evening Post, many Islanders were given only two hours to prepare for a journey by sea and train to Germany that would last several days, and herald more than two years spent in camps including Biberach and Laufen, as well as the baroque castle of Bad Wurzach.
In spite of individual friendships, formal links between Bad Wurzach and Jersey took 57 years to consolidate after the Occupation. In 2002 former Bailiff Sir Philip Bailhache invited the then-mayor of Bad Wurzach, Helmut Morczinietz, to attend the Liberation Day celebrations, the first occasion on which a German official had taken part in Liberation Day since 1945.
Welcoming the Mayor to the ceremony, Sir Philip paid tribute to those who had developed friendships in spite of the intolerance which had wrenched Islanders from their homes and families.
‘The German language, once a symbol of oppression, is now but a means of communication. The Mayor speaks only a little English and I hope, therefore, you will forgive me if I repeat [my] welcome in his own language,’ Sir Philip said to crowds in Liberation Square that day as he began to speak in German.
Later that year, following initiatives pursued by Mr Crowcroft, his parish voted to sign a twinning agreement with Bad Wurzach, after unsuccessful efforts had first been made at a Parish Assembly 30 years previously. Since then there have been regular reciprocal visits made by dignitaries and citizens from the two communities.
