​​The women, who were stepsisters, had a creative and romantic partnership. Lucy, who was of Jewish origin, ignored the First Order against the Jews in 1940 demanding the registration of Jews.

In 1942 they launched a news leaflet for the benefit of German troops, based on BBC broadcasts supplemented by political commentary, and translated into German by Suzanne. This leaflet purported to be the work of an anti-Nazi German soldier - the soldier with no name - and was distributed several times a week for two years.

Leaflets were left in cigarette packets and matchboxes, in cafés and shops, and pushed through the windows of empty military vehicles. They urged the troops not to fight, emphasized the brutality of the Nazi regime, and contrasted the sufferings of German soldiers and civilians with the privileges of the Nazi elite. The two women also left messages on German graves in the cemetery near their house. They also sheltered a fugitive Ukrainian slave worker named Pyotry Bokatenko. Suzanne and Lucy were arrested in July 1944 and tried in November for ‘unlawful possession of wireless [radio] and camera. Spreading of hostile propaganda with intent to undermine the German Army.’ After their arrest, both attempted suicide but were apparently saved by the vigilance of the prison guard. They were initially sentenced to death by the German Court, but this was commuted to life imprisonment after the Bailiff and his advocate appealed to the German authorities for mercy.

​Of her miserable experience during the last winter of the war, Lucy wrote: ‘The cells were small, with little light from a ‘window’ touching a fairly high ceiling, and oriented north-east. There were pipes running along the stone white-washed walls but, throughout the winter of 1944/45, there was never any heat at all. The only furniture was a plank, a dirty straw mattress, two ultra-thin rags called ‘blankets’, a wooden stool. There was also a rusty enameled basin, a drinking pot, and a chamber pot. A multitude of fleas, a few mice, and a familiar kitten provided entertainment. Dysentery was frequent.’

​Both women were released from prison just before the Liberation of Jersey in May 1945, although Lucy’s health never recovered from the experience.​