Another Mother's Son (2017)

I saw the movie: “Another Mother’s Son” about the true story of Louisa Gould saving a Soviet POW, Fyodr “Bill” Polycarpovitch Burriy, during the German Occupation of the British Channel Islands in World War 2. I have seen other movies and TV shows about the German Occupation: but this movie seemed to be a more realistic depiction of what life was like under the Germans rather than a romantic version. The British Channel Islands were the only British territory occupied by the Germans during the war. While some people evacuated the islands before the Germans came most of the local population stayed. Even though it was a small population to other occupied areas the Channel Islands still had the same types of people: those that collaborated with the Germans (personally and professionally), those that denounced their friends and neighbors, those that passively resisted and those that actively resisted the Germans.

Louisa Gould (played by Jenny Seagrove in the film) actively resisted the Germans when she hid “Bill” for around 2 years. Gould was born Louisa Mary Le Druillenec in St Ouen, Jersey on October 7, 1891. Louisa married Edward William Gould. For most of her life she ran a grocery store at La Fontaine, Millais in St Ouen. . Edward died in 1933, leaving his widow to bring up their sons Edward Richard and Ralph Harry, and running the family business. The boys both obtained Howard Leopold Davis scholarships and gained BA degrees at Exeter College, Oxford. Mrs Gould refused to leave Jersey during the evacuation before the German Occupation, and Ralph continued his education in England while his brother served in the Navy.  Edward, an officer in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, was killed in action when HMS Bonaventure was torpedoed off Alexandria in March 1941. Beginning in late 1942, Gould hid Fyodr “Bill” Polycarpovitch Burriy, an escaped Russian slave. Aware of the severe penalties for harboring enemies of the Germans, Gould said simply "I have to do something for another mother's son." Gould hid Burriy inside her St. Ouen home for 18 months. A neighbor later reported that Gould was harbouring Burriy. In June 1944, the German forces searched her house. While they did not find Burriy, they found a scrap of paper that had been used a Christmas gift tag, addressed to Burriy, and a Russian-English dictionary that he had used for practicing his English. Burriy managed to avoid capture during the search and until the end of the war. Gould was arrested by the Nazis and charged. At trial she was sentenced two years in prison for harboring Burriy, and for the possession of a radio which she had kept despite regulations requiring her to hand it in.  Arrested with her were her brother Harold Le Druillenec, and her sister Ivy Forster. Following her trial, Gould was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Her brother Harold Le Druillenec was sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and would be one of only two British survivors. Louisa Gould was gassed to death in February 1945 in the camp at Ravensbrück. In 1995, a memorial plaque was unveiled in St Ouen, Jersey; Burriy, the former Russian slave, attended its unveiling. In 2010 she was posthumously named a British Hero of the Holocaust.

Fyodr “Bill” Polycarpovitch Burriy was born in 1919 to a Smolensk, USSR family that moved to Tomsk in Siberia when he was a child. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 Fyodor was called-up to serve in the Soviet Air Force where his plane was shot down by the Germans in October 1941. In June 1942, Fyodr was transported, with hundreds of other prisoners to St Malo, France where he was sent to the island of Jersey. Once in Jersey, Fyodr was processed by the Organization Todt (OT) and moved to the Immelmann Camp – a notorious camp known for his harsh treatment of its prisoners. Fyodr tried to escape twice and each time was caught and severed beatings. On September 23, 1942 he escaped for a third time and this time it was successful. He made it to a farm and was then transferred to Louisa Gould’s house/shop. Bill soon became part of the family and was taught English as well as how to use a French accent so the Germans wouldn’t know he was an escaped Russian POW. In June 1944, after an intercepted letter by a neighbor denounced Louisa Gould to the Germans, “Bill” left the Gould house shortly before Louisa and other members of her family were arrested and was hidden for by various people for the rest of the Occupation.  In May 1945 he was repatriated to the Soviet Union where he was kept under suspicion by the KGB for the next 20 years (for having allowed himself to be captured by the Germans and for living in the West.)

“Another Mother’s Son” shows what happens to good people in evil times.  I hadn’t heard of this true story before seeing this movie, but am really glad that I now know it and the real people behind it.


http://theoccupationdetectives.com/Jersey/Occupation%20Stories/Louisa%20Gould%20and%20Russian%20Bill/