| 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. |
|