| Summary
| | April 9th 1940 Denmark was occupied by German troops. The Germans stayed in the background and the Danish government reluctantly entered into a co-operation with the occupying power until August 1943. |
April 9th 1940 Denmark was occupied by German troops. The Germans stayed in the background and the Danish government reluctantly entered into a co-operation with the occupying power until August 1943.
From 1943 there were special circumstances in the Sound region, because of the short and fast connection to Scania in the neutral Sweden, where the Swedes received thousands of Danish refugees with hospitality and solicitude.
The Occupation of Denmark April 9th 1940
On Hitler’s orders plans were worked out under the code name “Weserübung” for a military offensive against Norway. Denmark was only supposed to have been a stepping-stone for the German attack. For that purpose the Germans felt that an occupation of Eastern Jutland would be enough. But the Germans decided to occupy all of Denmark. The German General von Kaupisch were appointed leader of the operations against Denmark. A force of 40.000 men was at his command. Around April 9th they knew that something was going on, and that it was only a question of time, before Denmark was occupied too. At approximately 04.00 AM the Germans troops crossed the border in Southern Jutland. All over the country German troops were deployed and the Danish military did not have a chance. There were fights in Denmark, 11 Danish soldiers died and 20 were wounded. The German casualties were never published.
The occupation can simply be divided into two phases.
The Collaboration Phase: April 9th 1940- August 1943
It was a kind of a peace occupation, where the Germans stayed in the background. The Danish government continued, general elections were held and the Danish military, police and judicial system was still functioning.
Et højdepunkt her var Danmarks tiltrædelse af antikomintern-pagten den 25.11.1941, hvor Danmark kom i selskab med Tysklands allierede.
The Rebellion Phase: August 29th 1943-May 5th 1945
The collaboration continued officially until August 29th 1943, when the government - because of the public feeling, the Germans´ threats of death penalties for sabotage and the supposition that the Germans would lose the war - resigned and left the daily administration to their permanent secretaries. The resistance movement extended their activities and organized a “shadow Cabinet”, The Danish Liberation Council. The Germans responded by sending Danish Communists to concentrations camps in Germany, internment of the Danish military, persecution of the Jews and terror gangs. Activities, which made many flee the country.
In the Sound region the opportunities to escape were good. One of the reasons being the short and fast connection to Scania in the neutral Sweden, where the Swedes, with hospitality and solicitude, received thousands of Danish refugees. A gesture, which brought the Sound region and the two countries closer together.The Occupation of Elsinore
| | Elsinore awoke, like the rest of the country early on April 9th, at the sound of low flying, heavy and ominous German bombers. |
The Germans arrived late in Elsinore. It was not until 6 PM on April 9th that the garrison commander in Kronborg, colonel O.H. Permin received a telephone call saying that a German advance party would arrive in town. The advance party arrived at 9 PM, accompanied by a pro-Nazi Danish policeman from Elsinore, superintendent O. Madsen. They were accommodated in the youth hostel, “Wisborg”, south of Elsinore. The late arrival meant that the Danish soldiers commanded by colonel Helge Bennike from the 11th battalion in Holbæk, without the permission of their superiors was transported to Helsingborg with the H-H-Ferries and the navy´s surveying ship “Freja”, which was stationed in Elsinore harbour. April 11th a German battalion was quartered in the cornet school in Kronborg. The battalion commander accommodated himself in Hotel Øresund in the centre of town.
Flight of Soldiers from Elsinore |
Everyday Life
| | Everyday life in Elsinore continued for the first three years almost normally. |
Everyday life in Elsinore continued for the first three years almost normally.
But the blackout, the ice winters, the lack of goods and the many rationings gradually made life more difficult. But the lights from Helsingborg were a gleam in the dark.
The Blackout
The Germans required a blackout already that the same evening at 7 PM. A demand that was hard to meet with such short notice in Elsinore.
In Helsingborg the Swedish authorities also required that lights were put out, but on May 24th they chose to let the lights shine again. In an almost religious manner the shining Scanian coast became a symbol of freedom for the entire northeastern part of the Sound region.
The blackout and the subsequent oppressive atmosphere in everyday life, was the thing the Elsinore citizens complained most about as the war progressed. Gradually it became a tradition to defy the blackout demand and exchange bonfire greetings between Elsinore and Helsingborg.
The blackout was also the first thing that the population lifted themselves on the evening of May 4th. The blackout curtains were removed and candles were put in the windows. A tradition, which has lasted for many years in Denmark on the anniversary of the Liberation. But now it has almost disappeared.
But the nationally known “national anthem” of Elsinore still remains: Henry Karlsen´s “Kronborg Waltz, where one the well known lines related the atmosphere: “Soon they will put on the lights in Helsingborg, they are like a thousand stars...
The Lights in Helsingborg | 
Office Party at Christmas |
Shortage of Goods and Rations
With the occupation normal trade with the outside world was restricted. The few goods, which did arrive, had to be distributed and soon a number of goods disappeared from the shelves in the shops and other goods were rationed. There was a distinction between official rations and private rations, where it was left to the private shopkeepers to distribute to the customers via buying cards. In Elsinore the butcher shops introduced two “meatless” days a week in 1943, because of the lack of goods.
When it was rumoured that the shops had goods, long queues formed in front of the shops. The private distribution often demanded that you had a good relationship to your tobacconist!
The tough ice winters in the war years was a further strain on the population. Even before the occupation there was lack of coal, and an extensive peat production took place all over Denmark. If nothing else it became a great job creation programme. All in all the resourcefulness was great, when people tried to heat up the living room and the kitchen. For instance Alfred Christiansen in Elsinore constructed a newspaper briquette press, where old wet newspapers were transformed into heat rendering briquettes in the stove or the kitchen range.
The chimneysweepers had a field day, because the many forms of emergency fuel brought with it a lot of tarry soot in the chimneys.
The petrol quickly ran out and most people chose to chock up the car. The number of registered vehicles fell from 3150 to 562 in the beginning of January 1943. However, doctors, midwives, nurses and so on could still get a limited amount of petrol. For the trade and the industries the gas generator became the alternative.
The gas generator worked with solid fuel, and beech wood logs were the best. In Elsinore it was the Elsinore Motor Co., who was the first to deliver and in July 1940 52 gas cars had been given a permission in Elsinore. However, it never worked that good. It was tiresome, dirty and toxic and there were innumerable engine problems. Other chose, literally, to use horsepower by harnessing a couple of horses to the vehicle.
Queuing up | 
Peat Cutting | 
Cold Times | 
New Fuel | 
Horse Bus |
Substitute Goods
Another effect of the lack of goods was an extensive industry of substitute goods, where only the imagination and – honesty – was the limit. Substitute coffee and substitute tobacco with exotic names, which covered for a dubious mix of mysterious substitute goods, took over. Some goods were still rationed in the 1950´s.
One paradox was that the taste of for instance the coffee substitutes products, “Rich´s” and “Danmark” became so addictive that many people kept using them long after the ration had ended. “Rich´s” as well as “Danmark” existed long before the occupation, but during and after the occupation they became large businesses with many employees.
After the liberation, where the rations continued in Denmark, the shops in Helsingborg, Landskrona and Malmo became an El Dorado for the population in Copenhagen and North Zealand.
Livet går videre: The Mothers´- and Children Welfare in Elsinore (GB)
As early as the beginning of the century many women were employed in industry and elsewhere. The fishnet factory in Grønnehave, the two textile factories in the old railway station area and Wiibroe´s Brewery, employed many women. From this came a need for childcare facilities, which grew, when the Tretorn factory and the existing childcare institutions, for instance the Chrildren´s Asylum in Stengade, could not meet the demand.
The municipality could not afford to expand the childcare facilities, but the new law on mothers´- and children welfare (1939), made it possible to start activities, which could meet a great part of the growing demand. King Peder and 2 others called a meeting in 1941 in order to form a local
branch of The Mothers´- and Children Welfare and in August 1942 a day nursery for 35 children from 0-3 years was opened. The nursery rented rooms at the old railway station (Trækbanen) in town.
Børnegården (Translate) |
Swedish Customs Are Imported to Denmark
Swedish Customs Are Imported to Denmark
The magical light from Sweden and the need to escape from the restriction ridden everyday in Denmark, became the start of the national encounter with “The Blue Wall”, the separation between the two countries, which the Sound had constituted since 1660.
Now Sweden became a symbol of freedom. Everything Swedish was good. Swedish films, Swedish singers/actors, literature and Swedish customs. One example is the Swedish Lucia tradition, which was not known in Denmark earlier. The custom came to Sweden in the 18th century via German workmen´s Christmas tradition from the Rhine, where a girl, dressed in white and with lights in her hair, walked around handing out sweets. In western Sweden they had the traditional “lusse night”, in connection with the long night between December 12th and 13th, where they entered the stables and fed the animals a treat. Those two traditions were merged to the tradition we know today on both sides of the Sound, where a lucia bride is leading a row of singing girls dressed in white with candles in their hands.
Swedish Customs | 
Swedish Cultural Export to Denmark |
| |
 | Small | Large | Swedish culture export to Denmark |
 | | Large | Jag har bott vid en landsväg |
Germans´ Hussies/Field Mattresses
In Elsinore, like in many other towns it angered the population that many Danish girls/women fraternized with the German soldiers. The anger often occasioned violent acts against these “field mattresses” as they were scornfully called.
One popular pastime was to cut their hair off. On September 16th 1940 30-40 young people from the Elsinore Technical School at 9 PM attacked some Danish girls, who had been seen in the company of Germans soldiers, and cut off their hair. The Danish authorities interfered and fined the young apprentices.
Field Matresses |
No Police Force
On September 19th 1944 the Germans arrested the entire Danish police force and took 1700 of them to the concentration camp, Neuengamme, in Germany. An act, which led to extensive walkouts all over the country.
The crime rate in Elsinore, which beforehand had risen heavily, rose further and the municipality introduced municipal security guards. However, it did not restrain the many violations of the law.Horserød
| | June 22nd 1941 the Danish police arrested approximately 350 communists and put them in Vester Prison in Cpenhagen. In August they were interned in the Horserød Camp in North Zealand. Later 150 of them were sent to the German concentration camp Stutthof. Among the imprisoned and interned were a number of Denmark´s well-known politicians, writers and future resisters. |
June 22nd 1941 the Danish police arrested approximately 350 communists and put them in Vester Prison in Cpenhagen. In August they were interned in the Horserød Camp in North Zealand. Later 150 of them were sent to the German concentration camp Stutthof. Among the imprisoned and interned were a number of Denmark´s well-known politicians, writers and future resisters.
The Camp in North Zealand
The Horserød camp is situated in North Zealand, approximately 7 kilometres from Elsinore. The camp consisted of approximately wooden hutments and was built in 1917 to hold Russians war prisoners, which arrived from Germany during the First World War. Later the camp was transformed into a holiday camp for children from the slums in Copenhagen.
The arrested Communists were first taken to Vestre Prison in Copenhagen and on August 20th, they were interned in this camp. Here the Danes and later the Germans interned different prisoner categories in the course of the five occupation years.
The Communist Law
Under the codename “Operation Barbarossa” Hitler attacked the Soviet Union on the June 22nd 1941. Hitler´s main enemies were Jews and Communists. The latter had been left in peace in Denmark, but now the hunt for the Communists began in Denmark. The Germans demanded that the Danish Communist Party (DKP), which had three members in the Folketing (parliament), be banned and the leading party members arrested.
The Danish police could, via their extensive files on Communists, arrest 339 persons immediately. The Germans had only demanded that 38 be arrested. A great part of the arrested had to be released, when they apparently only had a peripheral connection to the party. Two months later the parliament carried a special retrospective law, “the Communist Law”, which “legitimised” the arrests and the subsequent internment.
Both acts were clearly unconstitutional and have since caused intense discussions between politicians, jurists and historians.
In defence of the arrests: If the Danish politicians and police force had not arrested the Communists, the Germans would have done it and have taken the Communists to Germany, where a cruel fate awaited them. Consequently they did it to save them from a much worse fate.
The critics say: The Conservatives as well as the Social Democrats went much further than the basis of the collaboration policy and seized the opportunity to get rid of troublesome adversaries, believing that the Germans would win the war.
The Internment of the Communists
Many of the Communists were interned for more than two years, which was a heavy mental strain. You cannot compare the Horserød Camp with the concentration camps in Germany and the other occupied countries. It was not a death camp and the hygienic conditions were much better.
From the beginning a somewhat officious prison governor, Bentzen, drew up a daily routine, where harassment made life difficult for the interned. Especially the writer, Hans Kirk, spoke up and was punished with solitary confinement for several months in Vestre Prison. In several books Kirk´s letters with the authorities on the harassment are reported.
Prison Director Bentzen | 
Hans Kirk | 
Eigil Larsen | 
Martin Nielsen | 
Carl Madsen |
Escape Discussion
However, one paradox was that the prisoners almost from the beginning had the opportunity to escape, but did not. The creative Eigil Larsen, for instance, had during a grotesque meeting with one of Horserød´s prison chaplains, been able to get a hold of the keys to the main gate, as early as three weeks after the internment!
After the battle of Stalingrad the interns were treated better. The authorities and the prison staff began to doubt that the Germans would win and they feared the reaction of the population. Furthermore the authorities had promised to release the interns, if the Germans took over the camp. A promise they did not keep.
On the other hand the interned Communists were afraid that the Germans would take over the camp, if anybody escaped. This was an important reason as to why the prisoners did not escape. The prisoners discussed it and some wanted to escape, but the internal leadership, among others Eigil Larsen, Martin Nielsen and Carl Madsen, were against it.
The Tunnel in Horserød
In the beginning of 1942 the Communist resistance movement prepared for more intense fighting, but the party lacked the prominent people, who had been interned. These were: Villy Fuglsang, former soldier in Spain, Ib Nørlund and Gelius Lund, the ideologists of the party, the organizer Martin Nielsen, the military knowledgeable ship builder, Eigil Larsen, chairman of the Communists in Elsinore, and Johannes Hansen, a future mayor in Copenhagen. More people were to follow.
The Tunnel
The decision to let these people escape was followed by an impressive piece of engineering by Eigil Larsen. He had let himself be strategically placed in a hut close to the barbed wire fence. In April 1942 he started, with a few friends, a tunnel, which ended a few feet from the fence.
But an officer discovered the escape attempt and raised the alarm. Ib Nørlund managed to escape, while the four others were caught and transferred to Vestre Prison. However, the tunnel was not discovered. All four prisoners said that they had climbed the fence.
That same night Eigil Larsen went through the tunnel and got away. The prison leadership found out about the escape the next day and a search was organized. Neither of them was caught. Eigil Larsen swam across Gurre Lake and hid for two months at the parents of Kristian Engelsen´s - a young party comrade.
Tunnel |
Eigil Larsen | 
Wanted | 
Kristian Engelsen |
| |
 | | Large | Kristian Engelsen on Eigil Larsens escape from Horserød |
The Prisoners Are Moved
In the camp they called in trucks, placed the interns in them and took them to Vestre Prison, Copenhagen, where they were placed in cells, two and two. When the camp was empty the guards systematically searched the camp and they found the tunnel. The prisoners were in Vestre Prison for four months, before they were sent back to a much more strongly fortified Horserød camp.In the meantime 100 volunteers from the Spanish civil war had been placed in the camp. The had combat experience and the will to defy the camp leadership and the Danish authorities.
In the report from the Elsinore police there is a detailed description of the making of the tunnel, and the engineering skills of Eigil Larsen. You can also learn how the police reports were written then.
The Mass Escape, August 29th 1943
August 29th 1943 the Danish government resigned. The reason was the extensive strikes and sabotages, which made the Germans demand the death penalty for the saboteurs.
The Germans´ answer was prompt. On the night between August 28th and 29th the Germans stood, heavily armed, in the Horserød Camp. They were not aware that they were in the smaller aprt of the camp, and that enabled the interns in the other part of the camp to climb the fence.
Under the cover of darkness and the driving rain approximately 90 men disappeared into the forest in Horserød and tried to get to the capital. Approximately 150 of the prisoners did not manage to escape and they were deported to the German concentration camp, Stutthof. 21 of them died there.
The Mass Escape |
Carl Madsen |
Martin Nielsen |
The Civilian Hostages
On the same day that the government announced its resignation the Germans took over and introduced a state of emergency and death penalty. The Danish army was interned and 140 prominent Danish citizens and politicians were taken hostages.
At first the hostages were taken to the Alsgade School in Copenhagen, but in the course of a month most of them released. Tilbage blev gamle og nye modstandsfolk.
Henning Jensen |
| |
| | Large | Listen to Henning Jensen´s report on how things were, when he arrived in Horserød. |
| | Large | Listen to Henning Jensen´s report on his localization from Neuengamme to Verse |
The jews in Horserød
In October 1943 the Germans started the persecution of Jews in Denmark. Most of them succeeded in escaping to Sweden, but about 200 were interned in the Horserød Camp. A few were released but on the 12th of October 170 Jews were sent by bus to Elsinore. From here they were transported in box wagons to the kz-camp, Theresienstadt, in the present Czech Republic.
In 2008 Hanne Abrahams recounts her experiences from Horserød.
Under Extern links, "The Jews in Horserød", in the side menu, you will find the home page with the interview.
Hanne Abrahams |
Resistance and Terror
| | By the end of 1942 a more organized form of resistance against the German occupying power began. E.g. sabotage against the Germans´ transport systems.
The Germans and their Danish sympathizers retaliated with extensive acts of terror and murders. |
Resistance and Terror in Denmark
| | During the autumn of 1942 small groups came into existence, who attacked the German occupation power. |
During the autumn of 1942 small groups came into existence, who attacked the German occupation power.
In the Sound region two groupes, Kopa/Bopa and Holger Danske, firstly organized this. They were effective firghting organizations and carried out some of the biggest sabotages against the Germans and their Danish collaborators.
The Development of the Resistance
Apart from pinpricks against the Germans and their Danish camp followers (spitting and abuse) it was relatively quiet in Elsinore – as in the rest of the country in the first occupation years. But when the 109 Communists were taken from Vestre Prison to the Horserød Camp, which is only 7 kilometres west of Elsinore, it activated the local Communists.
Illegal Magazines
When Eigil Larsen, the leader of the Communists in Elsinore, escaped from the Horserød Camp, an effective illegal printing of magazines were organized. The magazine “Ny Tid” became the most important illegal newspaper in North Zealand and was published throughout the occupation. Eigil Larsen was the initiator of “Ny Tid” and he found the illegal magazines very important for the resistance.
The First Train Sabotage in Denmark
The Danish Communist Party´s leader asked Eigil Larsen to organize the incipient sabotage in the Copenhagen area. This organisation was called Communist Partisans (KOPA). Eigil Larsen decided to sabotage one of the Germans´ many ammunition trains on the coast railway. Form his stay in stationmaster Engelsen´s hus in Nivå, Eigil Larsen knew the schedules and routines of the coast railway. He decided on an area in Egebæksvang Forest in Espergærde as the target for the first action. Here the trains move through a curve and by bending one of the rails it was possible, via centrifugal force, to overturn the train. At this point the organisation did not have any explosives.
Through Kristian Engelsen, Eigil Larsen came in contact with three men with the necessary physical strength and professional skills. They took care of the practical things. After a failed attempt on August 31st 1942, which was discovered by the police, the action was a success on November 6th. The coast railway was blocked for 2 1/2 days before the tracks were clear. The action caused a lot of attention and the Danish police suspected Eigil Larsen and did their best to catch him. But in vain.
The First Train Sabotage | 
The Sabotage Against the Coast Railway | 
German Railway Guard | 
Eigil Larsen |
Wanted |
KOPA/BOPA |
The Escalation in 1943
In the course of 1943 the resistance in Elsinore mostly consisted of strikes in the Elsinore Shipyard and a few failed fires. The only serious sabotage action was a bombing attempt against the ship “Minden” on August 25th 1943. The bomb exploded in the hands of a 62 years old Communist saboteur. He died.
He was so badly mangled that they did not identify him until closing time. His bicycle was the only left in the bicycle rack!
When the official collaboration policy stopped in the end of August 1943 wider circles of the population were involved in the resistance. In the Elsinore area illegal escape routes to Sweden and the organisation of civilian and military waiting groups was the result.
One of the most important sabotages against the German occupation power was an efficient telephone exchange organized by Dansk Samling in Sct. Olaigade, Elsinore. For a long period of time they were able to tap into the communication to and from the Gestapo headquarters in Wisborg. The leader of this action was a German refugee.
Bakowsky | 
The Gestapo Headquarter |
The Military Waiting Groups
With the Russian victory in the Soviet Union in the course of 1943, the English and American landing in Sicily and the military breakdown of Italy – and the internment of the Danish military August 29th 1943, things had changed. BOPA (earlier KOPA) had intensified the sabotages and the Danish government no longer dared take the responsibility of their collaboration with the Germans. Mainly because they demanded the death penalty for the saboteurs. The government left the daily administration of Denmark to the permanent secretaries.
The Cooperation with England
The resistance movement´s connection to England was close and from here the disarmed Danish army was ordered to cooperate with BOPA. This resulted in cooperation with the newly established Danish Liberation Council, who inserted officers in a number of military town leaderships (M-groups) all over the country. Here they should participate in coordinating the cooperation between the Conservative, Social Democratic and Communist resistance and the military. They were supposed to assist the English if they invaded Denmark and establish bridgeheads for the Danish army in Sweden, The Danish Brigade, when it arrived in Denmark.
The Military Waiting Groups in Elsinore
In Elsinore it was the naval captain Jens Westrup, who should take on the difficult task of establishing cooperation between the different groups. In Elsinore these consisted of the Communists, the Social Democrats, the Conservatives, Dansk Samling and the military. It was a complicated structure, but all M-groups in Elsinore were affiliated with certain political groupings.
Organisationsdiagram | 
The Military Waiting Groups in Elsinore |
Tit-For-Tat Murders
The reticence of the German occupation power in Denmark changed from January 1944. Hitler called a meeting with the German leaders in Denmark on December 30th 1943. He demanded that for every killed German or pro-German helpers, five Danes were to be killed.
Organized Terror Corps
In order to make sure of this he sent R.O. Bovensiepen to Denmark in January 1944. He terrorized via the Schalburg and Hipo Corps the Danish population for the next 18 months with murder and arson. The Schalburg Corps was named after a Danish officer, who fell on the Eastern Front in 1942. He was born in Russia and had experienced the Russian Revolution. He was an ardent anti-Communist, participated actively in the Finnish Winter War and joined the SS in 1940. He lived on the North Coast in Hellebæk and the Schalburg Corps stayed in Hellebækgård, the present boarding school in Hellebæk.
The Peter Group and the Brøndum Gang
Besides the two terror corps the Germans used smaller groups of Danish and German terrorists like for instance the Peter Group, the Brøndum Gang and the Loretzen Group. The carried out more than 200 murders in Denmark.
The tasks of the terror groups were murders and terror bombings as retaliation for the resistance movement´s sabotages. Most often 3-4 members assisted in murders and more at terror bombings. The German security police´s files of anti-German Danes chose the victims of the so-called tit-for-tat murders, but many were chosen at random.
The Peter Group worked in secret. If the Danish police accosted the members, they were to say nothing and the Germans would pick them up.
Henning Brøndum and Bothilsen-Nielsen, who terrorized all over Denmark, led the Brøndum Gang.
Henning Brøndum | 
The Brøndum Gang | 
The Lorentzen Gang |
| |
| | Large | The Brøndum Gang takes a coffee break between interrogations |
The Murder in Skotterup
In the Elsinore area a number of innocent people were murdered. The Brøndum Gang murdered the chairman of the houseowners´ association engineer Snog-Kristensen, Copenhagen. The murder took place on the beach in Skotterup in front of one of Gestapo´s residences, Villa Rosenlund in Snekkersten.
Gestapo Villa |
The Murder of Otto Bülow
The murder of sculptor Otto Bülow in Elsinore became the most dramatic. It was a typical tit-for-tat murder. The background was a tragic and unfortunate incident in Elsinore Shipyard. A German immigrant had been liquidated here by the resistance movement on the suspicion that he had informed on 14 Communists in Elsinore. Later it was established that this was not the case.
Immediately the Brøndum Gang arrived in Elsinore and they shot Otto Bülow in revenge. The whole town participated in the funeral of the popular and eccentric artist.
Apart from these murders the terror groups also lit fires in Gilleleje Seaside Hotel, Hulerød Seaside Hotel, and on July 27th the Hillerød train was blown up in Lillerød Station. Three were killed and fifteen were wounded. In Copenhagen and Århus the terror groups were even more violent. But it must be noted that Hitler´s demand for five murdered Danes for every German was not carried out. The resistance movement thus liquidated approximately 400 Danish camp followers, while the Germans “only” liquidated approximately 200 Danes in revenge.
Revenge Murder | 
Otto Bülow, 1940 |
Henning Brøndum |
The Informer Problems
(Venter på tekst)
The Disaster in Snekkersten
Informer activities meant that one of the best escape routes in Snekkersten, the Thomsen-Escape Route was uncovered because an informer had overheard a telephone call from H.C. Thomsen´s Snekkersten Inn, to where two men from “the Holger Danske Group” in Copenhagen were to arrive and recreate.
The result was that the Gestapo shot down the two men from behind, when they got off the train in Snekkersten Station and walked down the path, Grønnegangen. Immediately after Thomsen was arrested, tortured and sent to the concentration camp Neuengamme, where he died. The informer was not apprehended until after the Liberation.
In an amateur narrow-gauge film immediately before Thomsen´s arrest you get an impression of the jolly inn-owner.
A memorial stone was erected on the spot, where they fell, after the Liberation. In the newspapers of the time you can see how the Germans wanted the murders described, but also how Ritzaus handled the matter.
The Murders in Grønnegangen | 
H.C.Thomsen | 
Memorial stone for Thomsen |
German Executions
April 11th 1945 shock waves swept over Elsinore, when it was rumoured that the Germans that same morning had executed four young people from Elsinore. And this at a time, when everybody knew that it was only a question of time before the Germans had to surrender.
Poul Erik Krogshøj Hansen (20 years old) and Knud Petersen (19 years old) were after secondary school apprenticed as shipbuilders to Elsinore Shipyard. Here they met Carl Jørgen Erik SKov Larsen (21 years old) and Henning Wieland (22 years old, who had served their apprenticeship in Aalborg Shipyard. All four went to Elsinore Technical School in order to take their naval architects´ exam.
The two first mentioned went into the resistance movement in connection with the persecution of the Jews in October 1943. At this point Krogshøj Hansen were arrested by the Germans and interned in Horserød, but he got off and was released. In the spring of 1944, he formed a new group with three friends, which was affiliated with the resistance organisation, BOPA. The participated in many forms of resistance work, the printing of illegal magazines, courier work and sabotage. Wieland was arreste by the Gestapo in the autumn of 1944, accused of sabotaging German ships. He strongly denied having done it and he was released.
Poul Erik Krogshøj Hansen | 
Henning Wieland | 
Knud Petersen | 
Carl Jørgen Erik Skov Larsen |
An Acquaintance Informed on Him
In May 1945 the group was uncovered after an acquaintance of the two young men from Aalborg had informed on them. Some of the group´s members were arrested by Hipo-men (Hillfs-Polizei = Danes in German service) in Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. They were so badly beaten up that they could not hold back the names of the others in the group.
The four resisters were sentenced to death and executed in Ryvangen April 11th 1945, where they were buried immediately. After the liberation Poul Erik Krogshøj Hansen´s and Knud Petersen´s bodies were taken to Elsinore cemetery, where they were buried next to each other.
Plaque of the four is hanging in Espergærde Gymnasium and HF. After the verdict the doomed were allowed to write farewell letters to their families. These letters can be read in the book “De sidste timer” (Copenhagen).
The Informer
The informer, 26 years old hipo man, Oluf Bloch Klagenberg was later sentenced to death. The sentence was later reduced to 10 years imprisonment. This brought on protests and strikes, so the courts had to raise the sentence to life imprisonment.
Informer Liquidations
The informers, who betrayed the resisters to Gestapo, posed such a danger to the resistance movement that they had to be liquidated. They could not be imprisoned, and to take them to Sweden would endanger the resisters themselves.
The Flame
One of Denmark´s best known and feared resisters was Ben Faurschou-Schmidt, nicknamed “The Flame”. He supposedly killed more than 7 informers, before he committed suicide in 1944, when the Germans had him surrounded in a villa in Copenhagen.
“The Flame” belonged to the resistance organisation “Holger Danske”. In 1943744 he hung out in the Snekkersten Inn. He was a close friend of the people, who organized the escape routes. The son of the Innkeeper, the 15 years old Frantz Thomsen was once present when “The Flame” killed a suspected informer.
An amateur film shows “The Flame” as the centre of attention in Snekkersten Inn.
“Flame” |
| |
| Small | Large | The Flame with he Ziegler family |
| Small | Large | New Years Eve 1943 in Snekkersten Inn |
| | Large | New Years Eve 1943 in Snekkersten Inn |
Examples From Elsinore
In the Elsinore area there were also a number informer liquidations. In the autumn of 1944 the Holger Danske Group executed a pro-Nazi superintendent, Madsen.
An especially hated person in the area was Johan Ochel. He was employed as an interpreter in the Gestapo headquarters in Elsinore and he was nicknamed “The Viennese Child”. He terrorized the area brutally.
On March 15th Kristian Engelsen´s men liquidated “the Viennese Child” opposite Svingelport in Elsinore. The place is called “Simon Spies´ Square. The weapon was a Husquarna machine gun, which the group had stolen from the Social Democrats. The Danish army in the resistance movement was careful not to let any of Swedish arms help go to the Communists.
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Resistance and Terror in Sweden
| | The brief inscriptions on the tombstones in Pålsjø cemetery in Helsingborg give an impression of how the war was experienced in the neutral Sweden. |
The neutral Sweden defended its neutrality against the Allies and the Germans. In Pålsjö Cemetery’s gravestones the tragic results can be read. Here you can also read the epitaphs of a number of soldiers, who died in connection with the shipwreck of a war ship and were washed ashore in the Scanian coast.
War Graves – Pålsjö Cemetery Relates
In the northern part of Helsingborg is Palsjö Cemetery. At the entrance of the cemetery there are to signs. One says that here is “Commonwealth war graves”, and the other informs of “Deutsche kriegsgräben”.
These two burial plots relate how northwestern Scania experienced the Second World War and how foreign young soldiers found their last resting place here – far from their home.
Of the 113 pilots from the British Commonwealth, who died in the Second World War in Swedish territory, 47 are buried in Pålsjö Cemetery. A few metres next to them lay German soldiers, who died in the same was in this area. They have found their final resting place not far form their enemies from the West Alliance, but also next to fellow countrymen, who died during the First World War. 93 German soldiers lay here.
The Allies
The “Commonwealth war graves” consists of 47 meticulously placed white marble stones and a big sword-decorated cross in the one end. The gravestones tell that it is mainly young soldiers in their twenties. Some death dates appears more often than others and nobody died alone.
July 4th 1942
On the night of July 4th 1942 Bruce Morgan and J. Samson died with four other fellow soldiers. The next morning Helsingborg Dagblad said:
“British plane crashed in Lerberget.
Was hit by the air defence on the Danish side over Hornbæk."
Helsingborg experienced the reality of war at 1 one o´clock last night – perhaps closer than ever. Two aeroplanes, which in all probability were English, flew in a southern direction along the Sound and back, when the Danish air defence fired at them with an unheard of intensity.
One of the planes crashed approximately 200 metres from Lerberget. One of the seven-crew members, a Canadian was saved and taken to Helsingborg´s Hospital. In spite of an intensive search there have been no signs of the other six.”
The two aeroplanes had been on a mission to drop mines in the Sound, and in the course of the next couple of days five mines were rendered harmless by minesweepers. They were on their way home from the assignment, when one the planes were shot down. Of the seven-crew members only the Canadian, who flew the plane, survived. The others were buried here in Pålsjö Cemetery July 17th 1942 and several thousands of Helsingborg´s population slowed their sympathy.
Flowers arrived from high-ranking military persons and institutions, but also from ordinary people. The inhabitants in the area around Lerberget had sent a flower tribute and in Helsingborg they had collected money for a gift for the surviving hospitalised Canadian.
The police in Helsingborg sent the death message to Canada with newspaper clippings from the funeral. After some time an answer came from Bruce Morgan´s stepparents. The answer is quoted in Göte Friberg´s book ”Stormcentrum Øresund”.
”For the last twenty years we have taken care of him like he was our own son. The message you sent that his body has been taken out of the sea and that he has been buried with military distinction, have brought us happiness. These young men have given their life for us, and the freedom of the world, and although our hearts are crying, we are proud of them. The beautiful thoughts and the loving work, which the inhabitants of your town have expressed towards these heroes, was completely overwhelming and we are very grateful to you all.”
Bruce Morgan | 
J. Samson |
August 30th 1944
J. Kennedy died, 21 years old on August 30th 1944 with twenty others. The next day Helsingborg Dagblad said:
According to the available reports seven aeroplanes have crashed during overflights Tuesday night in the areas around the following towns: Knäred, Vittsjö, Örkelljunga, Båstad, Ljungby and Svensköp, and in the waters outside Vejbystrand. Five of the planes were of British nationality. Swedish air defence before the crash according to a close investigation hit some of the planes.
A large number of English aeroplanes flew back after a planned bombing expedition against Königsberg (Kaliningrad). They had been discovered by a German fighter and forced to withdraw. Over the Sound Danish and Swedish sides fired at them. Six planes crashed in northwestern Scania, among other places in Båstead and Skälderviken. Two planes that crashed in Svensköp in Scania and in Agunnaryd in southern Småland had been under fire from the Swedish air defence.
21 pilots were buried on September 7th ceremoniously in Pålsjö Cemetery. The Swedish crown princess, who was English, had sent a wreath. On the D.L.D Moon´s gravestone it says:” To the world, he was only one but to us he was all the world.”
The next day they lowered wreaths in the Skälderviken, where one of the planes had crashed.
J. Kennedy | 
D. L. D. Moon |
February 8th 1945
Six young boys died on February 8th 1945, among them P.L Kirkpatrick, 20 years old from Australia. Helsingborg Dagblad said the following on February 9th:
“Aeroplane Crashed in Brohult, completely demolished.
Cattleman´s house 40 metres from the crash, only one pilot found yesterday."
For the first time a foreign aeroplane has crashed inside the Helsingborg city boundary. This happened yesterday evening around 8 o´clock, when a four-engine British bomber was shot over Helsingborg and crashed at Brohult´s farm.”
There was a lot of activity in the air space in the beginning of February. The Allies carried out massive bombing expeditions against German cities Berlin and Dresden. February 8th a number of allied planes entered Helsingborg´s air space from the north and was fired at by air defences in Sofiero. One of the aircrafts was hit and flew burning over the Tågaborg district and crashed at Brohult´s farm, east of Helsingborg.
In his book “Stormcentrum Öresund” Göte Friberg has testified to the despair, which the men at the anti-aircraft gun felt after the shooting, and Helsingborg municipality made a demand that the minister of defence should change the directives for the shooting of the air defence.
The aircrafts were shot down by the Swedish air defence and at the funeral the memories of the dead were praised by representatives of the Swedish defence and afterwards the families thanked for the marks of honour via Helsingborg Dagblad.
P. L. Kirkpatrick | 
Helsingborg Dagblad February 9th 1945 |
German soldiers
A few metres from “The Commonwealth War Graves” German soldiers are buried. More than 40 of them died on March 1st 1945. Among these Heinz Reck, 26 years old and Horst de Wall, 20 years old. The next day this piece of news dominated Helsingborg Dagblad:
“Horrifying ship´s disaster near Helsingborg.
German war ship with 70 men capsized in the storm.”
A German war ship, a minesweeper was on its way to Aalborg form Copenhagen. The had to turn back because of the storm, but capsized between Viken and Hornbæk and sank outside Vikingestrand in northern Helsingborg. The disaster was this not due to any war action. 42 dead bodies floated ashore along the coast from Landskrona and to the north, most of them just north of Landskrona.
Even these had their last resting place in Pålsjö Cemetary. Many people attended the funeral and the number of people, which had participated in the rescue work, was remarkable. This was not a question of Germans or Englishmen, but a question of life and death.
From the burial report in Helsingborg Dagblad:
“It was a moving moment when seven fishermen from “Gravarna” laid down a wreath and chauffeur Karl O. Hjelm said the last words for the dead and asserted that he and his firends had done what they could to save the their lives during the ill-fated storm night."
German Soldiers | 
German Soldiers | 
Helsingborg Dagblad March 2nd 1945 | 
Helsingborg Dagblad March 10th 1945 |
A Forign Crowd of Peoble
Far from their homes here in Pålsjö Cemetery almost one hundred young men lay buried, one hundred of the many millions, who were sacrificed in the Second World War. Most of the victims of the world war are buried in the same way far from their homes. Göte Friberg, a policeman from Helsingborg gave this precise description of the ceremonies in Pålsjö Cemetary, a description, which probably covers thousands of other funerals during the Second World War:
“No families, no close friend were present, just a collection of correct men with and without uniform and in the background a large, silent, foreign crowd of people.”
Göte Friberg |
The Great Escape
| | I October 1943 Hitler demanded that the Danish Jews were sent to the concentration camps. But large parts of the Danish population helped to arrange escape routes to Scania, where high ranking policemen and civil servants defied the Swedish neutrality and took care of the 7.000 Danish Jews. |
The Great Escape – Denmark
| | Thousands of Danes fled in october 1943 to Sweden across the Sound. Many from Elsinore, Snekkersten and Espergærde. |
Thousands of Danes fled to Sweden in october 1943 across the Sound. Many from Gilleleje, Elsinore, Snekkersten and Espergærde.
The Escape Across the Sound |
Before October 1943
Shortly after the occupation the German occupying power banned travels between the Scandinavian countries. It was necessary to apply for a visa, which the Danes were to administer, but under German control. At the same time a Danish coast police was established to patrol the eastern Danish waters from Hundested in the north to Gedser in the south. The Danish marine was to control the adjacent waters.
From when Denmark was occupied April 9th 1940 to August 1943 only few refugees came from Denmark to Sweden. Partly because of the relative peaceful circumstances in Denmark, but also because of Sweden´s restrictive refugee policies. It appears from Swedish police reports that the Swedish policy of neutrality towards the strong and victorious Germany meant that they often sent the refugees back to Denmark.
The Coast Police |
Vendepunktet (Overskriften skal oversættes til engelsk)
After a series of intense events August 29th 1943 in connection with the resignation of the Danish government and the internment of the Danish military, the number of refugees in September increased to 609, of which 61 were Jews. The rest was first and foremost military persons, resistance people, stateless persons, policemen, but also some unemployed and adventurers, who fled from the blacked out and restriction-ridden Denmark.
Flygtningestrømmen vokser (Rubrikken skal oversættes til engelsk)
The internment of the Danish army, the hostage-taking and the increasing tit-for-tat murders led to a marked increase in the refugee stream to Sweden in the course of the month of September. A number of artists and intellectuals, among them quite a few Jews, began to see the writing on the wall and arrange the crossing to the neutral Sweden.
The nuclear physicist Niels Bohr crossed September 30th, the same day as the architects Poul Henningsen and Arne Jacobsen escaped from Skodsborg together with girlfriends and a fifth party, Herbert Marcus, who was also an oarsman. The boat had been collected by a Falck van in the Bagsværd Lake, as it was prohibited to have smaller vessels less than five kilometres from the coast. It was a dramatic crossing in an overloaded boat, which was unsuitable for that type of transport. Arne Jacobsen was of Jewish origin, and Poul Henningsen was on the list of the tit for tat murders, but he did not know that at the time. They both reached Stockholm, where they spent the rest of the war.
October 2. 1943: The Mass Escape of the Danish Jews
Dette tekstafsnit skal oversættes til engelsk fra Staffan eller Stigs tekst.
Werner Best | 
Duckwitz |
The Hunts for The Jews
The night between October first and second 1943 the Germans started a hunt for the Jews in Denmark with the object of sending them to the concentration camp Theresienstadt in the protectorate Bohemia-Moravia, the present Czech Republic. Officially the Germans explained in the daily press that the Jews were to blame for the disturbances in August. In order to compensate they simultaneously released the disarmed Danish soldiers.
The result was that 234 Jews were apprehended. The raid had follow ups in October and November, where an additional 190 Jews were apprehended. They were deported and 53 of them died in the camp. Most of them old and sick.
Concentration Camps in Europe | 
Theresienstadt |
Martin Nielsen |
Sverige ändrar inställning
In the light of the events in August the Swedish state re-evaluated its policy of neutrality. October 2nd Sweden announced publicly that they would receive the Danish Jews as refugees. In close cooperation with – especially the Scanian authorities and administration, a number of privately based, illegal escape routes along the entire Zealand east coast were established.
The Civilian Resistance
The persecution of the Jews became a turning point for many Danes in their attitude towards the German occupying power. The close integration of the Danish Jews in the Danish society meant that the racial policy of Nazism offended the sense of justice of many Danish citizens. A larger number of the population now resisted actively; often citizens, who had no affiliation with the existing part of the resistance movement, who mostly were connected to the Communist Party and the Dansk Samling party.
In Copenhagen the students went on strike and some of them organized a collection of money, which came to very large sums: Approximately 1 million kroner, which in 1993 correspond to 20 million kroner.
Escape Routes
Thousands of Jewish fellow citizens from Copenhagen made for the Sound coast, where there was total chaos for the first few days with regards to the organisation of this migration. Escape routes sprung up and at first without mutual connections.
In Stockholm the Danish architect, Ole Helweg took the initiative for a meeting with the Swedish foreign minister and Ebbe Munck, who was the representative of the Danish resistance movement in Sweden, and with the help of Jewish circles in Sweden a boat was provided, which sailed from Malmo and this became the beginning of the Danish-Swedish refugee service, which was to sail 367 trips with refugees.
Very different people started separately or in groups to organize escape routes from the metropolitan area to the Swedish coast. Most came over from Copenhagen itself, but also from Gilleleje on the north coast and Snekkersten south of Elsinore were for a period of time became veritable escape centres.
From Where? | 
Ebbe Munch |
Vellykket redningsaktion (Rubrik oversættes til engelsk)
The result was that the vast majority of Denmark´s, approximately 95% 7000 Jews in the course of October crossed over to safety on the other side of the Sound. Approximately 2-3000 directly from Copenhagen, where 80% of the Jews lived.The Thomsen Route
| | H C. Thomsen 18.9.1906-4.12.1944.
The Thomsen escape route was organized by the popular inn-owner of Snekkersten Inn. |
H C. Thomsen 18.9.1906-4.12.1944.
The popular inn owner, H.C. Thomsen, Snekkersten Inn, organized the Thomsen route.
H.C. Thomsen was one of the most prominent escape helpers. In a close collaboration with the other routes, the inn became the maritime headquarters for the escape routes in Snekkersten.
An informer denounced the route in 1944 and Thomsen was murdered in the German concentration camp, Neuengamme.
H.C.Thomsen | 
Snekkersten Inn 1943 | 
H.C. Thomsen´s Cutter | 
J. Gjersfelt, The Stella Route |
The Escape Routes in Elsinore-Snekkersten
The Elsinore area was – because the short distance to Swedish waters (2 kilometres) an obvious crossing place and the small fishing village, Snekkersten, approximately four kilometres south of Elsinore became a junction for the illegal escape routes.
At first the crossings from Snekkersten were spontaneous and overt. Refugees arrived randomly and on their own initiative and made arrangements with the local people, mostly fishermen, who then sailed them across, if they were lucky.
The Routes |
Kystpolitiets rolle
In the time up and around October second the Danish police and the so-called coast police posed the greatest danger, as they monitored the boats and concentrated their efforts around the harbours. There were, however, incidents when pro-German inhabitants of Snekkersten called the police, who subsequently released the Jewish refugees.
In the beginning the coast police was very serious about the surveillance and prevented attempts of escape, but soon they were systematically involved in the crossings and their role in the Elsinore area was of great importance.
The coast police was stationed at Stella Maris on the north coast and here and other places they helped actively to monitor the Germans´ movements.
The Coast Police |
Civilsamfundet reagerer
Other public officers also helped. Vicarages were used for accommodations and many police officers were involved, for instance Thormod Larsen and Jørgen Sandholt from the “Elsinore Sewing Circle”. Some doctors helped to anaesthetize the weakest of the refugees, for instance the young doctor Jørgen Gersfelt, who became a central figure in the Snekkersten-crossings. Gersfelt started to anaesthetize vulnerable refugees, especially children, but soon his house was full of refugees waiting to cross over, and he was thus deeply involved.
Flugthjælperne og pengene
Gerfelt depicted the first period as quite chaotic: All types of boats were used and there were shipwrecks and deaths among refugees as well as the fishermen, who took care of the crossings.
(Oversættes til engelsk)Der foreligger også vidnesbyrd om, at nogle af fiskerne tog sig godt betalt for overfarten.
Chr. Sørensen | 
Gjersfelt´s Boat, Stella |
Fra kaos til orden
Erling Kiær from the Sewing Circle confirms this account of the conditions in the beginning.
Gersfelt also described the financial circumstances involving the refugee transports as a motive to enter the activity. The fishermen set prices on the actual crossings, but in the beginning there was, according to Gersfelt, also “unknown go-betweens”, who made easy money on the transports.
Eventually bigger boats were used for the crossings. These could hold up to 20 persons and the crossing to Kobbarverket (The Copper Works) south of Raa, took, according to Gersfelt, approximately less than an hour, while the trip with a rowing boat could take 5 hours. The crossings reached culminated around october 8. -9th, where the coast police on Stella Maris was involved and Snekkersten had turned into a maritime station, until Gestapo finally appeared. Gersfelt´s account is a first-hand view of the situation and there are also memoirs available about the situation seen from the children´s point of view.
Jonas Børgesen | 
Wiibroe | 
The Kayak Club | 
Children on the Run |
Gestapo skrider ind
The activities of the Gestapo had until then restricted itself to the searching of hotels and boarding houses in the area and in some cases (Pension Torbenhus) a few Jews had been arrested. Because of this private accommodation were used in Snekkersten, especially around the harbour. The Snekkersten Inn with the renowned landlord, Thomsen, was the haunt of a great deal of the boat people and became known as “Færgekroen” (The Ferry Inn).
Eventually and especially after the arrival of Gestapo chief, Juhl, the presence of Gestapo was felt with raids on the inn and it culminated with an arrest on Snekkersten harbour, where 12 men were sent to Horserød, but got off with an 8 days stay. Unfortunately this episode did not become known in Copenhagen and the situation in Snekkersten degenerated into the grotesque.
Snekkersten Inn the the 1940´s |
Faren vokser
The transports now became much more dangerous and the danger came from many sides, also from Sweden, where people, who had already escaped, showed great incautiousness in their letters home to Denmark.
The Gilleleje Tragedy
Because of the tense atmosphere efforts were made to have crossings with bigger ships and a transport of 100 Jews from Snekkersten to Gilleleje was arranged, where a schooner was to sail them across. In this operation there was a certain amount of cooperation with the Kiær-group, and it was Kiær himself, who was in charge of the extensive convoy to the north.
However Gestapo had gotten wind of the operation and on the evening of October 6th 1943 approximately 100 Jews were arrested on the loft of the church. Gestapo-Juhl said later during interrogation that he became suspicious, when they did not want to let him into the church.
Gestapo-Juhl |
Tilbage til Snekkersten
The captives were taken via Horserød to the German concentration camp, Theresienstadt, but the Jews from Snekkersten, except a few, escaped and were accommodated in Espergærde, from where they escaped in the nick of time. Everybody crossed; the last 30 were rowed across in fishermen´s boats. When Gestapo entered Villa Søblik opposite the harbour, the last trip was sailed from Snekkersten itself and instead Humlebæk, approximately 8 kilometres south of there, was used.The Sewing Club
| | “The Elsinore Sewing Club” was the largest and best-organized escape route in Elsinore. The route disintegrated in June 1944. For many years after the occupation, “the Sewing Club” met tradionally once a month in “Klostercafeen in Elsinore. |
“The Elsinore Sewing Club” was the largest and best-organized escape route in Elsinore. The route disintegrated in June 1944.
The Sewing Circle Is Established
The experiences from Gilleleje did not invite to repetitions of big transports and the strategy was altered. They now wanted to use medium-sized and fast boats. This was where the Sewing Circle and Erling Kiær entered the picture. October 10th the Sewing Circle got themselves their own boat and Erling Kiær more or less took up residence in Helsingborg. He made arrangements with the Swedish authorities and from here he made daily trips to the Danish coast, at first in the day in the south as well as north.
Erling Kiær | 
Thormod Larsen | 
Børge Rønne | 
Ove Bruhn | 
Helsingörs Syklubb |
Faremomentet
Kiær said of the activities in this period that it was not especially dangerous, but eventually the Gestapo had gotten wind of the events in Snekkersten and it culminated with the first arrest of landlord Thomsen November 11th 1943.
Another transport, the so-called Christmas transport from Snekkersten took place, but at that point the transports from here had become highly dangerous, because informers as well as civilian Gestapo agents had been brought into action. The refugees on this day were stayed in gateway on Strandvejen 174, while a Gestapo agent stayed in the barbershop a few metres away.
Kiær continued the transports, even though there was no great need. Although the activity increased at the end of November, when a large part of the Danish officer corps, including the commander-in-chief, general Knutzon, fled across the Sound. The risk was, according to Kiær, at this point heavily increased, because the Germans patrolled the waters systematically. In a number of posthumous papers from detective inspector Thormod Larsen from Elsinore you can feel the circumstances and the atmosphere surrounding the transports in the often-coded correspondence.
Samarbejdet med Sverige
The traffic now moved away from the south coast and Kiær sailed in the following period almost every night to the Marienlyst Seaside Hotel. In the beginning of December the Sewing Circle got a new and faster boat and sailed with different types of refugees. In the middle of December the conditions in Sweden worsened and Kiær now worked together with the three musketeers (who in fact were four, chief superintendent Friiberg, lance corporal Palm, and the corporals Olson and Feldt in Helsingborg). They sidestepped their own authorities, but after New Year the Swedish authorities in Stockholm officially recognized the Kiær-route.
Chief Constable Göte Friberg | 
Svensk humanism |
Helsingør/Snekkersten-Ruterne trevles op
From the end of 1943 the Germans intensified their patrols, which had serious consequences for the escape routes. January 20th 1944 the Sewing Circle had planned two crossings from the north coast, specifically Hellebæk. At the second transport they forgot to coordinate the action with the coast police and it went wrong, when a German patrol, which was stationed in Hellebæk, emerged. The Germans challenged them and then opened fire. Thormod Larsen was hit and disabled for life. One of the passengers was also badly injured, but the transport managed to get to Sweden. One of the young assistants from the Sewing Club, Leif Olsen, was caught. The Germans tortured him and he gave away the structure of the organisation and the names of the involved parties.
In April 1944 presumably the Sewing Circle’s cashier, Børge Rønne, made a report to the Danish authorities in Stockholm about the activities of the Sewing Circle. About a month later Kiær was caught (May 12th) and sent to concentration camp in Germany and that same month Gersfelt fled to Sweden.
In the course of May 1944 most of the routes had been uncovered and the arrest of Thomsen in August 1944 put a stop to the activities in Snekkersten. H.C. Thomsen was sent to the concentration camp, Neuengamme in Germany, where he died in December that same year.
The organisation and structure of the escape routes in the Snekkersten area are quite complicated and often overlap, but they can be described thus: Apart from the refugees´ private deals with the fishermen, three groups especially dominated the routes. From these five routes were established.
Erling Kiær |
Thormod Larsen |
Ove Bruhn | 
Thormod Larsen and Tove Wandborg |
Børge Rønne |
| |
| | Large | Tove Wandborg, the nurse who gave Thormod Larsen the kiss of life. |
The Great Escape to Sweden
| | On arrival to the Scanian harbours in Helsingborg and Malmo the refugees were interrogated by the Swedish police and sent to hastily established refugee camps. |
The Great Escape-Sweden
On arrival to the Scanian harbours in Helsingborg and Malmo the refugees were interrogated by the Swedish police and sent to hastily established refugee camps.
Swedish Refugee Policy
The First Foreigners´ Laws
The close cooperation with the Swedish authorities ensured that so many people got over. The background was a change in the Swedish refugee policy after August 29th 1943.
At that time Sweden pursued and immigration policy, which was very restrictive. According to the first foreigners´ law from 1927 a person could be refused admission at the border “if it could be assumed that he had planed to apply for a permanent stay, and that it in all likelihood could be assume that he was not able to earn a living.”
January 1st 1938 a new foreigners law was introduced, which was in force, when the intense persecution of the Jews went on in November in Germany and Austria. That, which really separated the new law from the previous, was that there was s passage on political refugees, which said that if there was a reason to believe that a refugee had political motives, the directory of social services should decide whether the individual was allowed to stay.
But the Jews were not considered political refugees! In principle the Swedish border was closed to them. As the Jews according to the Nuremberg-laws were not German citizens, they could not be sent to any state and therefore they would not be allowed in the country.
The Escape to Sweden |
The J-Passports
As Sweden did not demand a visa of travellers from Germany, it was required that the passport showed who could return to the country, and thus be allowed to enter Sweden. So Sweden demanded, at Germans and Jews had different passports! Otherwise compulsory visa had to be introduced when travelling to Sweden.
Switzerland had the same demands. The Germans introduced a special passport law on October 5th 1938. According to this law the Jews had to have a “J” stamped on the first page of their passports. Whether the German passport law was a result of the Swedish and Swiss demands, or if it would have been introduced anyway, is difficult to establish, but the facts remain: Sweden issued such demands and Germany introduced a passport law, which satisfied the Swedish demands.
Gøre Friberg, superintendent of police in Helsingborg during the war, was well informed on the conditions and he wrote in his book “Stormcentrum Øresund”:
Immediately after the German passport, we, who worked in the border stations, that is, the passport control, received a circular letter from the social services. It said that people wit a “J” passport were to be considered immigrants. They were not to enter the country without special permission. This came to apply to all Jews, when the few of them, who could be considered political refugees, did not count in the immigration statistics.” (p. 31). Furhermore Friberg wrotes: “It is a fact that the result of the Swedish foreigners´ legislature in practice was, that the fleeing Jews were turned away at the Swedish border.
Göte Friberg |
Protection of Swedish Labour
The Swedish immigration and refugee policy was meant to protect Swedish labour against competition many people from the unions and the academic circles participated in this cool-headed position. In Lund a meeting was called in the Academic Society on March 6th 1939, and a clear majority of the more than a thousand students present voted for a resolution, which warned against the immigration of “foreign elements”.
Even after April 9th 1940, when the Germans occupied Denmark, only a few refugees arrived in Sweden from the other side of the Sound. Until August 28th 1943 only 150 Danish refugees were granted asylum in Sweden.
After August 29th 1943
But there were people, who helped the refugees. Not least in the police in Helsingborg, where Gösta Friberg and Carl Palm with white lies and cunning, with thought and hard work saved many. But Friberg also relates in his book, how he on October 2nd 1943 was told by the foreign ministry in Stockholm that the border police from now on could discount all passport formalities.
In the first three war years only 150 refugees arrived in Sweden, but in one week in October several thousand arrived. In one day, 900 arrived in Helsingborg. In the month of October approximately 7000 Jewish-Danish refugees arrived in Scania.
Chief Constable Göte Friberg | 
The Security Police in Helsingborg |
Refugee Pressure on Helsingborg
Helsingborg received in the course of the hectic month of October 1943 more than 4000 Jewish refugees and an enormous organising was required. During the first refugee accumulation in the begining of October the Grand Hotel was filled and several other hotels. It was then necessary to find a refugee camp, which could be used for some time, before the refugees were taken further up the country in order to make room for others.
Ramlösa Spa, which was hibernating, was opened and functioned as a receiving central for all those, who were landed in Landskrona and north. The Ramlösa camp had a permanent doctors´ station, headed by a Danish doctor. As the flow of refugees were steady it was important that they could taken to new camps further up in the country and such an organisation quickly started to function.
Medical Examination | 
Joint Cooking in Ramlösa |
| |
| Small | Large | Helsingborg – Accommodation in Ramlösa Spa |
“To Separate the Grain From the Chaff”
The camp had staff, whose task it was to find “stickers”, i.e. Nazi spies and other observers, who posed as refugees. The most dangerous were placed in the prison in Kalmar. It was somewhat sensitive that Sweden held “stickers” interned for the Danes until the end of the war. It was a silent arrangement without any papers between the Danes and the Swedes, who trusted each other.
It was clear that Göte Friberg from Helsingborg and the detective superintendent in Malmo, Richard Hansen, was involved in this arrangement. Richard Hansen repeated a conversation with the defence minister Per Edwin Sköld in these words, reported in a series of articles in “Svenska Dagbladet”1984-85 by Orvar Magnegård: “You must know that the government closes its eyes for what you are doing. If it is discovered, we cannot do anything to defend or help you. However, after the war you and police superintendent will be forgiven.
In the beginning of 1945 16,700 Danish refugees had arrived in Sweden, and 60% of these came via the Helsingborg area. All in all approximately 25.000 foreigners arrived in Helsingborg int he course of 1943-45.It was the events of August 29th 1943, which opened up Sweden.
Denmark in Sweden
Bøn til stjernerne
Terrorbander
Hærger mit land.
Natten splintres af bombebrag,
Clearingsmord på den lyse dag!
Vi emigranter
Ser ikke land
Tågebanker
Skjuler mit land
Miner driver i Øresund,
Mørket gaber med ild i mund.
Ønsker og tanker
Naar ikke land
Milde stjerner,
Lys for mit land!
Lad med fred på den klare dag
Røgen ringle fra husets tag,
Arbejdets kærner
Fylde mit land
(Den danske digter Otto Gelsted fra sit eksil i Sverige)
The Unofficial Denmark in Sweden
After August 29th 1943 the Danish envoy in Stockholm, chamberlain J.C.W. Kruse and his entire staff declared themselves independent and were thus ready to make an effort for the refugees, which poured over the Swedish border. The Swedes now received the Danes with open arms and they were allowed to establish a Danish press service. The editor Erik Seidenfaden had approximately 40 employees and was now able to transmit the attitude of the “unofficial” Denmark to the world public as a news service.
The Resistance in Sweden
It was also from Stockholm the Danish Liberation Council´s representative, Ebbe Munch, cleverly facilitated the connection between the resistance movement in Denmark and the allied authorities. In reality Munch functioned as an unofficial envoy and held the administrative and financial threads in his hand. A refugee office also established in Stockholm headed by professor Stephan Hurwitz and the later conciliator, Sigurd Wechselmann.
From Malmo editor Leif Hendil, Ekstra Bladet (Danish newspaper) directed the biggest Danish escape route: Danish-Swedish Refugee Service. A large part of the money to this came from Swedish Jews.
Ebbe Munch | 
Leif Hendil |
The Reception of the Refugees in Scania
At the reception in Helsingborg or Malmo the refugees went through medical examination, and were fitted out, if necessary. The police – often in cooperation with the Danish police, also investigated their circumstances, because they were afraid of spies.
After these preliminary arrangements they were allowed to travel on in Sweden, if they had contacts, which could procure work and housing. If not, they were sent to refugee camps in the neighbourhoods of Helsingborg and Malmo.
With so many people crammed in the hastily established refugee centres, it was no wonder that harassments arose. Not just internally among the refugees, but also in relation to the Swedish hosts. The Danish poet, Otto Gelsted was among the first to escape in October 1943. Here he came in close contact with a group of fellow Jewish refugees and in his memoir novel: “The Refugees in Husaby”, he conveys a well-informed picture of the atmosphere.
The Reception in Malmo | 
The Reception in Malmo | 
The Reception in Malmo |
Work, Schooling and Education
At this time there was a lack of labour in Sweden, and many entered the Swedish labour market. All in all the Danish refugees were helped in every kind of way by the Swedish authorities and private citizens. Schools were established for the children; Danish students were admitted to the universities, scientists and artists were allowed to continue their work.
On November 15th 1943 a Danish school was established in Lund with 40 pupils. January 1st 1944 primary school started and July 1st the school had 170 pupils and 25 teachers. A dansih school was also established in Göteborg, which had 200 pupils and 25 teachers at the end of the war. Furthermore there were smaller Danish schools in Helsingborg, Jönköping and Norrköping.
Danes studied at the universities in Lund, Uppsala, Stockholm and Göteborg and in 1944 final Danish jurisprudence university exams were held in Stockholm. Examiners and external examiners were Danish and eight students passed the exams. As the world war progressed and Germany lost footing, many of the refugees wanted to leave their mark on the course.
The editor of one of Denmark´s largest newspapers, Herbert Pundik has explained this in his memoirs; “Det kan ikke ske i Danmark (1993) (It Cannot Happen in Denmark):
One of the historians of the occupation in Denmark, Hans Kirchhoff assessed in 2001 the reasons why
Settlement |
Children on the Run | 
Employment | 
The Gratitude of the Refugees |
The Danish Brigade
| | The weak Danish military was given, in the autumn of 1943, permission to establish a secret highly trained army in Sweden, Danforce. Also called: The Danish Brigade. A clear breach of Sweden´s neutrality policy. |
The weak Danish military was given, in the autumn of 1943, permission to establish a secret highly trained army in Sweden, Danforce. Also called: The Danish Brigade. A clear breach of Sweden´s neutrality policy.
The Danish Brigade |
Ebbe Munch | 
Time Lines for the Decision Making Process |
The Danish Resistance Army in Sweden 1943-45
After some considerations the Swedes also gave the Danes the opportunity to establish a secret army, “The Danish Brigade”. The Swedes armed the brigade and ended up promising them air force and naval support in case of the landing of the brigade in Denmark.
For a third of the 17-18.000 Danish citizens in Sweden the Brigade became their basis in an otherwise apathetic and empty existence as refugees. With the Danish traditions of the Brigade, the firm organisation and the strong fellowship and not least the feeling of their being able to save Denmark, many found a meaning in life.
The Resistance Army
The Danish Brigade became a small Danish resistance army in the neutral Sweden. The Brigade was established on November 15th 1943 at the request of the Danish intelligence service and Danish and Swedish Social Democratic politicians and was officially dissolved on July 10th 1945.
At its height in the spring of 1945 the force included approximately 5000 Danish refugees with a core of 8-900 officers from the Danish army and navy. The Brigade also included 200 women.
Calling it a police force, which after the war should help to maintain law and order in Denmark, solved the problem of explaining the presence of a Danish army in the neutral Sweden. The real intention with the Danish Brigade´s tasks was during the whole period uncertain. Among the brigadiers themselves as well as among the Danish and Swedish politicians and the Allies.
The Task
However, one important aspect was clear among the politicians on both sides of the Sound and the top officers: The resistance army was a nationalist Army, which was to be the resigned politicians´ counterbalance to the Danish Liberation Council and influence of the resistance movement and with them the Communists in occupied Denmark.
In step with the development of the war, it was the progression of these matters, which was the cause of disagreements. The Danish collaboration government’s resignation in August 1943 and the internment of the Danish officers, created space for an alternative, secret “government”: The Danish Liberation Council, established in September 1943. This was cross-party, self-established organisation, which coordinated the efforts of the growing, illegal resistance movement. The influence of the Communists in the Danish Liberation Council was considerable and was due to their prominent role in the military sabotage and the illegal magazine distribution. However, it became the Social Democrat, Frode Jacobsen, who, in opposition to his leading party colleagues, became the leading figure. In contrast to the resigned government the Danish Liberation Council had the support of the population. This development meant:
- that the Social Democratic top politicians was robbed of their domination role in Danish politics, which was lost to their hereditary enemy, the Communists
- that the officers in the Danish army felt outdone by a flock of untrained extremist civilians.
The humiliation was great. Firstly the officers had not been allowed to show their worth on April 9th 1943. Between these two, normally hostile parties, a community of interests were created. By establishing an effective military alternative to the resistance army, under Social Democratic control, the politicians could secure themselves against a presumed Communist coup and the officers could re-establish the lost military honour.
There was agreement on the strategic (long term) goals, but disagreement on the tactics (how the goal was to be achieved).
- Should the Brigade be deployed before the Germans had surrendered? Perhaps supported be the Swedish military?
- Should the Brigade be deployed, when the Germans had surrendered?
The Placing of the Brigade in Sweden
The Brigade wanted to be placed in southern Scania, close to Denmark. But the Swedish government refused, because of the neutrality policy and because they were afraid of how the Germans would react. The Germans would probably not stand for such an obvious provocation so close to the Danish border.
In the spring of 1945, the Brigade had, with the increasing help of the Swedes, developed into a ramified military organisation with seven military camps in southern and middle Sweden. Five of them, Sofienlund, Ronneby Bruden, Ryds Brun, Tingsryd and Karlskrona on the border between southern Småland and Blekinge.
The Placement of the Camps | 
The First Camp, Sofielund | 
Memorial Stone |
The Brigade´s Strength and Organisation
The Brigade never became, in spite of an elite training in the manner of the commando units we know today, a fighting unit, which could be deployed against the German occupying power in the Denmark. To the disappointment of the Brigade soldiers, the English officers, headed by general Dewing refused vehemently to let the Brigade try a suicidal mission like that.
In 1945 the Brigade consisted of five battalions, with major general K. Knudtzon as the commander.
- Four battalions with light equipment, light machine guns and small arms.
- Fifth battalion was heavily equipped with a machine gun company, a company equipped with 81 mm and 120 mm mortars.
Together the were a regiment, which could be bcaked up by a smal Danish fleet (Karlskrona) and squadron of planes, however they had not been trained to work with the English planes.
Brigade Commander K. Knutzon | 
The Mortar Group | 
Sätre Brün: Exercise | 
Women´s Army Corps in Hortunaholm |
The International Influence
The discussions concerning this changed in step with the developments in the European battlefields in 1944 and 1945. The Danish Liberation Council’s close connection to the Englishmen’s international organisation of European resistance movements (SOE), meant that the English consistently rejected the Danish officers´ anit-Communist agenda.
The English foresaw that they´d might need the Brigade. In close cooperation with the resistance movement the united forces could tie down German troops in Northern Europe.
The End in Sight
As the war progressed in 1944, it gradually became clear for most people that the Germans would lose the war. The tactics of the English and the Americans were to avoid concentrating their troops in Germany. They were not interested in a war in Denmark, where they would to use manpower. They wanted the Germans to surrender without a fight. The Germans wanted the same, so they could concentrate on the defence of Germany.
The result of these strategic and tactical deliberations was that they did not want to deploy the Danish Brigade, as it would complicate things. The Brigade was to arrive after the Germans had surrendered. Then they could make sure that the Danish Liberation council and thus the Communist resistance movement were held in check.
The Soviet Union was not blind to the deliberations of the Allies and in the course of 1945 a radical change occurred. The Soviet Union did not want a Danish nationalist army under the command of right-wing officers to take away the pronounced influence of the Danish Communist resistance movement. In short: They felt, like the English and the Americans, but for other reasons, that the Brigade could stay where it was: Deep in the forests of Småland.
Internal Frustration
The international development and its effects were not easy to understand for the officers and privates in the Brigade. The boring military training and the wish to get in action was prominent.
The people in the Brigade were told again and again that they should wait. The internal division were many and the leadership had a hard time holding it all together.
As the war progressed many of the Brigade soldiers felt that they let down the resistance movement in Denmark by taking a “holiday” in Sweden. However, apart from some attempts of rebellion form officers as well as privates, they succeeded to hold it all together until May 4th 1945, when the Brigade was sent to Elsinore, Zealand.
Bathing Life | 
The Locals | 
In the Field | 
Harvest Festival | 
Swedish Generals Say Goodbye |
The Homecoming of the Brigade in Elsinore | 
The Mayor in Elsinore Receives Them | 
Elsinore May 5th 1945. |
The Liberation
| | May 4th in the evening BBC sent the message that the Germans had surrendered in Denmark effective from the next morning. Enthusiastic crowds filled the streets and the Danish Brigade in Sweden was ferried across from Helsingborg til Elsinore. Here Elsinore´s mayor “King Peder” received them.
At the same time the Danish military groups began their guarding tasks. |
The Liberation – Denmark
| | May 4th 1945 in the evening it was announced in the radio that the Germans had surrendered effective from the next morning. |
May 4th 1945 in the evening it was announced in the radio that the Germans had surrendered effective from the next morning.
The Freedom Message From London |
The Liberation – as Seen from Elsinore
The Liberation Evening May 4th 1945
On May 4th the liberation message was sent in the BBC´s news bulletin at 8.30 PM. The Germans had capitulated, however, not in Norway, and the capitulation was in force the next day, Saturday, May 5th, 8 o´clock AM. Everywhere in Denmark people tore down their blackout curtains, lit candles and crowded the streets jubilantly. In the local cinema the film was stopped so people could participate in the cheering in the streets.
German Surrender Without a Fight?
During the night there was hectic activity in the resistance movement and the military waiting groups in Elsinore and the partners in Sweden. The situation was tense. They had no way of knowing how the Germans troops would react. Kronborg, for instance, had 3000 German soldiers stationed with cannons and heavy arms.
The uncertainty and confusion about this was tragically illustrated in Bornholm, the southern part of the Sound region, where the German commandant refused to surrender to the Russians. This resulted in a devastating and – acknowledged from all sides – unnecessary Russian bombardment of Rønne and Nexø.
Strategic Core Area
Helsingborg as well as Elsinore were central strategic areas. For Helsingborg´s part it was the huge organizational task of gathering, in a few hours, the Danish Brigade (Danforce) from the destinations in Småland and the camps north of Stockholm to the central disembarkation place in Helsingborg.
It was a late decision. They also had to decide how the Swedish army should be depolyed to support the landing on the eastern coast of Zealand.
Swedish Generals Say Goodbye |
The Liberation Day, May 5th, 1945
It was night before the town leadership was told that the Danish Brigade was ordered to land i Elsinore. In the evening on May 4th the town leadership had taken up headquarters in the Brewery Wiibroe and at 4AM the German patrolling in the streets ceased. At 8 AM the German ships in the harbour hoisted the peace flag and all over Elsinore Dannebrog (the Danish flag) was hoisted accompanied by the church bells.
On the morning of May 5th the Liberation Council had ordered the town leadership in Elsinore to concentrate on the following:
- Elsinore harbour was to be cleared of German obstructions.
- Make sure that the Germans in the strongly fortified Kronborg would not shoot at the Brigade on their was across the Sound.
The task was solved like this:
- At 8,50 AM the resistance movement had disarmed the German posts at the ferry berth
- At 9,00 AM the harbour was occupied by 15 armed and 50 unarmed resisters
- At 9,00 AM the town leadership and mayor Peder Christensen negotiated a deal with the German commandant in Kronborg, which allowed the Brigade to land freely in Elsinore.
At 11,30 AM the first troops from the Brigade landed in Elsinore harbour without problems.
The End og the Occupation! |
The Military Waiting Groups in Elsinore | 
The Waiting Groups Take Action |
The Arrival of the Brigade
On May 4th the Danish Prime Minister Vilhelm Bull ordered the Brigade to come home. The Germans had surrendered. The Danish camps were gathered in one big accumulation camp in Helsingborg and on the morning of May 5th 1945, a fleet consisting of almost anything that could float made out for Elsinore.
On departure there were celebrations and on arrival in Elsinore the popular Social Democratic mayor Peder Christensen held a moving welcome speech. Then they went on to Copenhagen, where 3 of the Brigade’s privates were murdered and 13 wounded by Hipo-snipers in the amateurish and irresponsible entry.
The Brigade on Its Way |
The Homecoming of the Brigade in Elsinore |
The Mayor in Elsinore Receives Them |
Elsinore May 5th 1945. |
Happy end
The arrival of the Brigade resulted in cheers and the following days the town was dominated by the people of the Brigade and the resistance movement. At the same time there were confrontations between the Danes, the Germans and their Danish henchmen. The judicial reckoning began on liberation day.
You might say that the liberation day in Elsinore ended happily, although there were strong feeling against German refugees, German soldiers and the Danes, who had collaborated with the Germans. In Scania the liberation was greeted with joy, even though it was a great organisational challenge to the authorities and the many civilian helpers.
The Svea Column | 
The Four Inscriptions on the Svea Column |
The Liberation - Sweden
| | ”Kommer der ikke snart en Tuborg til mig” is a popular Danish drinking song, which the Helsingborg Dagblad quoted on the front page. The atmosphere was festive. |
The liberation message created enthusiasm in Helsingborg. The arrival of the Danish Brigade and departure for Elsinore and the joy of the many refugees marked Helsingborg.
The Liberation Seen From Helsingborg
The Stream of Refugees
In the last period of the war the stream of refugees increased considerably. This was among other things due to the negotiations of Folke Bernadotte, which made it possible for many prisoners from the concentration camps to be released and sent to Sweden. The majority of these transports passed through Copenhagen and Malmo and the released prisoners were placed in different camps in Scania. Malmo and Helsingborg were middle stations and in Helsingborg, Ramlösa was used as a transition camp. The health spa was not sufficient and therefore they had to use anything, like schools, industrial premises and hotels. 16.000 refugees arrived in Scania in less than a month. This required a comprehensive organisation to take care of all the refugees. Everybody had to go through a health and security control. Everybody had to be clothed and fed.
The Flag Hoisted for Denmark
“The news that Denmark is free again is celebrated, especially by all citizens of Helsingborg with utmost joy. To show our joy and as a tribute to a free Denmark, the flag will be hoisted all over Helsingborg”.
These words could be read on the editorial page in Helsingborg´s Dagblad on May 5th 1945. The night before the news of Denmark’s freedom had reached Elsinore. When the last ferry sailed to Helsingborg on the evening of May 4th, the citizens of Elsinore stood on the quay and shouted: Give them our regards!”
The Peace Message | 
Helsingborg Dagblad, May 6th 1945 |
Thousands of Helsingborg Citizens at Freedom Bonfire
On the evening of May 5th thousands of people had gathered at “Fria bad”, north of the town centre. A torchlight procession lit a gigantic freedom bonfire on the beach. They wanted to send freedom greetings to Denmark. Several times during the war bonfires had been lit to send greetings to the occupied Danes. Now they want to greet peace in the same way.
Earlier that day the whole town had followed the newspaper’s call for the hoisting of the flag and everywhere there were Swedish and Danish flags. Thousands of people had gathered in the harbour to say goodbye to the first returning Danish troops that had been trained in Sweden. This was the starting signal to a long row of returning Danes. A thanksgiving served was held in the Gustav Adolf Church. The church was full.
Peace Service |
Norway´s Freedom Celebrated Too in Ramlösa
With the joy of Denmark´s liberation people now awaited the liberation of Norway. When it came, happiness was complete, not least in the Ramlösa camp, where many Norwegians had been accommodated. In the camp they also showed their gratitude to the policemen in Helsingborg, who had supported the refugees all the way.
This time too, a peace service was held in the Gustav Adolf Church with the dynamic and popular vicar Gunnar Stenberg.
Celebration in Ramlösa |
Gigantic Transport Task
By the end of the war more than 100.000 non-Swedes were in Sweden. Some stayed, but most of them had to be transported home. A minute planning was implemented. Everybody could not leave at the same time, or form the same harbour. Many thousand returning refugees passed Helsingborg, Malmo and Trelleborg. Among others, Bruno Kreisky returned to Austria and Willy Brandt to West Germany.
But not only refugees returned home. German soldiers and Russian prisoners of war in Norway were also transported via Sweden. In the course of 1945 122.000 soldiers were transported and many of the Germans soldiers passed through Scania. Detailed planning was also required here, not least for security reasons. One tragic chapter was the Balts, who where forced out of Sweden, when the Soviet Union demanded that those, who had participated in the war against Soviet, were to be extradited. Dramatic and tragic scenes took place in Trelleborg, when the Balts were forced on board the ferry to a dark and insecure future.
Göte Friberg Acclaimed
Social minister Gustaf Möller came to Helsingborg a few weeks after the liberation. He was there to unveil a memorial stone and at the dinner afterwards in Grand Hotel he paid tribute superintendent Friberg as a man you could trust. Möller and Friberg both received a distinction from the Danish freedom movement for their efforts during the war. When Denmark needed help trustworthy persons were in demand.
During the dinner Möller said that Sweden during the war had decided to sende one million cartridges to Denmark. When the people in Stockholm considered how this could be done without the Germans finding out, the answer in minister level was: ”That´s very simple, we´ll just let Friberg in Helsingborg handle it”. The transport was a success, of course. Möller also stated that the government, now ought to sanction “everything that had happened in Helsingborg concerning hidden transports to and from Denmark”.
You may ask if the solidarity had ever been greater in the Sound region than it was in May 1945
Göte Friberg | !["Stormcentrum Öresund"](../billeder/1900-1940/09-06-tn.jpg ""Stormcentrum Öresund"")
"Stormcentrum Öresund" |
Judicial Reckoning
| | The girls, who dated Germans or the fieldmatresses, as they were called, was easy to spot and some of the first to experience the anger. In many towns they were taken through the streets and were publicly humilitated. However, there was not any legal basis for punishing them, just because they had been fascinated by German soldiers. |
The girls, who dated Germans or the fieldmatresses, as they were called, was easy to spot and some of the first to experience the anger. In many towns they were taken through the streets and were publicly humilitated. However, there was not any legal basis for punishing them, just because they had been fascinated by German soldiers.
On the morning of liberation, Saturday May 5th at 8 AM people, who had collaborated with the Germans were hunted. I every town the resistance movement established local arrest groups, which in the course of a couple of weeks handed over the prisoners to the returning ordinary police. In the county of Frederiksborg the resistance movement arrested more than 800 people:
Hillerød: 115
Helsinge: 28
Hørsholm: 300
Frederiksværk: 70
Gilleleje: 32
Elsinore: 228
The fieldmatresses publicly humilated | 
Undignified Behaviour |
The Fight Against Vigilantism
The Liberation Council had warned against vigilantism from the revengeful population, which is why a great deal of the arrests was to protect the accused. In Elsinore 68 people had been arrested on the evening of the 5th May. They were taken to the former Gestapo headquarters, Wisborg, Sveahus and Libanon. In the excited atmosphere many mistakes were made and the way these arrests took place and the subsequent internment have been discussed ever since.
Road Control | 
Road Control | 
The Henchmen for the Germans in Wisborg |
The Judicial Reckoning in Elsinore
Of the 228 arrested in Elsinore from May 5th to May13th 96 were released, while 136 were to be prosecuted. The local newspapers had a lot to write about in these dramatic days and in Helsingør Dagblad there was also room for the personal views of the journalists.
Dropped Charges, But Also Severe Sentences
Most of the arrested had their charges dropped in the course of the coming year. Others were given severe sentences, however they almost never served the full time.
One general tendency was that the earlier the sentences were handed out, the more severe they were. Simple and uncomplicated cases, which could be dealt with quickly, were punished harder than financial cases, which drew out for years. In other words: It was more often than not the small fish, which were handed the toughest sentences, while the “big fish” were let off.
The four main categories
The arrested can roughly be divided into four main categories:
- “Field mattresses”, i.e. girls/women, who had kept company with the Germans
- Informers: People, who had denounced resisters to the police
- Collaborationists: People, who had traded with or manufactured for the Germans
- Collaborators: Danish members of terror gangs, or others, who collaborated of sympathized with the occupation power.
The Field Mattresses
The category “Field Mattresses” constituted around two thirds of the arrested and examples of interrogations provides a picture of the judicial treatment of these women. The legal point of reference was that it was not illegal in itself to keep company with the Germans. The government and its officials did that too!
Informer Activities
Informing was a very serious charge, which in many cases, proved to be doubtful or without foundation. The resistance movement had gotten rid of many of the worst informers during the war, but here were some left. Some of these were executed, but not al of them, among them the informer Grethe Bartram from Århus (born 1924), who had been sentenced to death on September 4th 1947 for having informed on his father and brother.
Informer | 
Informer |
Collaborationists
Collaborationism mainly includes people, who cooperated with the Germans for economic reasons. These cases were very complicated. The collaborationists law from August 1945 complicated the cases further by legalizing the economic transactions, which had taken place by “order or direction” from the authorities or the big trade organisations.
This resulted in paradoxical situation like the one with a washerwoman in Esbjerg was sentenced for having washed for the Germans, while the large firm of contractors, Wright, Thomsen and Kjær, who had built airfields for the Germans, went unpunished. Of the total collaborationist turnover of 3.396 million kroner only 318 were confiscated.
The Collaborators
Collaborator is a vague term, which includes people with a political and ideological sympathy for the Germans and Nazism, who for instance served the Germans. Examples of local cases in Frederiksborg County range from banal cases to first-rate collaborators.
The hateful atmosphere perhaps mostly affected “the small fish”, but also more prominent people. In Elsinore for instance, the town´s pride, an internationally well-known woman swimmer, who went to Sweden after the charges against her were dropped.
The Schalburg Corps had stayed in Hellebækgård and Count Schimmelmann had entered German service immediately. He died in 1942, but after the war the estate was confiscated.
Terror Gangs and Death Sentences
In the course of 1944 the Germans established a number of terror gangs, which also were active in Frederiksborg County with killings and bombings against houses and trains.
The terror gangs consisted of both Germans and Danes. Many Danes from these gangs were sentenced to death and executed, but it was not possible to sentence the German gang members to death.
In the Supreme Court sentences relating to the Elsinore area some of the member of the Brøndum gang was sentenced to death and executed for having murdered the chairman of the houseowners´ association, Snog Kristensen, in Skotterup and the sculptor Otto Bülow in Elsinore. In a transcript from the Supreme Court sentence you can read their confessions and the result of the psychiatric assessment of the mental condition.
Henning Brøndum |
The Brøndum Gang | 
The Brøndum Gang | 
The Brøndum Gang |
| |
| | Large | The Brøndum Gang takes a coffee break between interrogations |
| Small | Large | Henning Brøndum is interrogated in July 1945 |
| Small | Large | Kaj Bothilsen Nielsen is interrogated in July 1945 |
The Engagement in Asserbo
Another infamous group, the Lorentzen group, who had tortured and killed a number of Danes, were defeated after a shoot out in a summer cottage area in Asserbo. Three of them were killed in this action and a large number of them were sentenced to death in the following trial. Denmark had abolished the death penalty several years prior to the occupation. This has raised moral and judicial issues: Is it possible to introduce the retrospective death penalty in a democracy?
Armoured Car Attack in Asserbo | 
The Result of the Attack | 
The Car Returns |
The Lorentzen Gang | 
The Lorentzen Gang |
“The Angel of Mercy” |
Links
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