Holger Danske (resistance group)
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Holger Danske was a Danish resistance group during World War II . It was founded by veterans from the Winter War who had fought on the Finnish side against the Soviet Union . Holger Danske was one of the largest resistance groups and at the end of the war consisted of around 350 volunteers. The group carried out over 100 acts of sabotage and was responsible for around 200 executions of informants who had revealed the identity or whereabouts of members of the resistance. The group was named after the legendary Danish hero Holger Danske .
history
The group was founded in Copenhagen in 1942 by five men who fought on the Finnish side in the Winter War. During the time of the occupation , resistance was a great risk because the public was largely only willing to sabotage and the government continued its policy of cooperation with the Nazis in order to avoid German interference in Danish affairs as much as possible. Holger Danske, like the rest of the Danish resistance movement, opposed this collaboration. They were of the opinion that the occupation should have been met with more resistance. Gunnar Dyrberg remembers in his memoirs how he saw that Danes had friendly conversations with Germans and cited this as one of the reasons why he later decided to join Holger Danske and to give himself the code name Bob Herman. He describes his work as a member of the group in the autobiographical book De ensomme Ulve (The Lonely Wolves), which was published in 2009.
The group was infiltrated twice by the Gestapo , but due to its loose structure (in contrast to the BOPA ) not all members could be identified. A total of 64 members were executed by the Gestapo during the occupation.
Its largest acts of sabotage included the blowing up of the Forum Arena in 1943 and the attack on Burmeister & Wain in 1944.
The members Jørgen Haagen Schmith and Bent Faurschou-Hviid became famous under their aliases Citronen ("the lemon") and Flammen ("the flame"). Both carried out numerous acts of sabotage in 1943 and 1944. They were portrayed in the 2008 film Days of Wrath by Thure Lindhardt and Mads Mikkelsen .
On July 19, 1945, the organization dissolved.
Web links
literature
- Bob Herman: De illegale: To Holger Danske sabotører fortæller. 1985, ISBN 87-7466-080-2 .
- Gunnar Dyrberg: En dreng alt vel from Dannebrogsgade 60 to Nobel's Explosive no. 808 - from Holger Danske sabotørs dagbog. 2006, ISBN 87-91660-12-2 .
- Gunnar Dyrberg: De ensomme Ulve. Gyldendal, Copenhagen, 2009, ISBN 9788702074048 .
- Sofie-Amalie Høgsbro Østergaard: Vegetables fortæller. Ingress of vegetables and at least flames and lemons. ISBN 87-85211-58-3 .
- Jørgen Kieler: Danish resistance against National Socialism. A contemporary witness reports on the history of the Danish resistance movement from 1940 to 1945. Offizin-Verlag, Hannover, 2011, pp. 137–158, ISBN 3-930345-70-6 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Matthias Bath: Danebrog against the swastika, The Resistance in Denmark 1940-1945 . Wachholtz 2011, ISBN 978-3-529-02817-5 , p. 336