https://politiken.dk/incoming/img72...arkeres Dronning Margrethe Dronning Margrethe
Thanks, Iceflower.
Here is a photo of the traditional dress the flowergirl wore.
The staff serving at Hvidsten Inn, wear that dress as well.
Located in north-eastern Jutland, we have been there several times.
The Hvidsten group was basically the men in an extended family centered around the family who owned the inn.
It wasn't so much sabotage they were involved in, but picking up, hiding and distributing weapons and explosives dropped with parachute by SOE flying in from Britain.
Many areas in that part of DK is still pretty remote and undisturbed, even more so back in 1943, when it all started. Well suited for picking up weapons, and sometimes SOE-agents.
What happened was that at 18.15 the BBC radio would send "special announcements" during the Danish programme. Say: "Aunt Olga has polished the chandelier." That was a message that a flight would come in that night.
The group would head out to a drop-point, set up lights, indicating the direction of the wind and the aiming point.
Containers with weapons would be dropped and quickly dug down in the marshy ground. - It is still marshy today. And the group would head home to return a few days later, where the containers would be dug up and the weapons transported by anonymous people to other groups.
However, in early 1944 an SOE-agent was arrested and brought to the Gestapo-HQ in Aarhus (it was later bombed by RAF, witnessed firsthand by a relative of mine, who worked literally next door to the HQ.) where he was tortured and revealed what he knew about the Hvidsten-group. German agents put the inn under observation and in March 1944 the whole group was rounded up.
They were eventually brought to Copenhagen to the Gestapo HQ there for further interrogation and sentencing. Eight were sentenced to death and executed, the rest were sentenced to either life or long prison sentences.
When that fact emerged during the summer of 1944 it directly led to civil unrest and a general strike, which is significant in the sense that it was the first time the Occupiers backed down in the face of civilian protests.
There were several reasons for that. First and foremost the German governor saw it as his main objective to keep Denmark in good working order and keep his soldiers safe. So if a general uprising could be prevented by withdrawing a few draconian measures, reducing the number of executions and not least keep Danish HIPOs off the streets, especially in Copenhagen where they were a true menace to the population, so be it.
HIPO = HilffsPolizei =Auxiliary Police were Danish hardcore thugs and Nazis, a number of them disillusioned veterans from SS units on the Eastern Front, were initially tasked with terrorizing the population into submission. Like shooting indiscriminately in the streets. It had the exact opposite effect, incensing the population even more.
Not to mention that the German Wehrmacht, and the individual German soldiers hated their guts! Apart from their indiscriminate shooting was a real danger to German soldiers walking the streets (unarmed, when off duty) they also angered the Wehrmacht units who had a cozy time in DK, where they could walk the streets safely (due to a peculiar arrangement between the Wehrmacht and the Resistance) and as such sure had no interest in that to end!
Combined with the Allies breaking out from Normandy and a Russian advance through Poland and Hungary and Warsaw brewing up, no one were interested in the 200.000+ German soldiers being tied down in putting down yet another uprising in Denmark, which might lead to the Allies sending troops to Jutland. Aided by the population (and this is interesting) perhaps some Wehrmacht units as well. One old regiment stationed in the north central town of Viborg had an officer corps who was openly anti-Nazi - to the shock of a private German soldier serving there. Those officers and NCOs who did not agree, were "volunteered" to the Eastern front...
So the Germans backed off and the situation eventually calmed down even though the number of sabotage action rose massively during late 1944.
It's interesting to speculate what quiet agreements were made behind the scenes between the Resistance, the Wehrmacht and Danish civil servants to avoid the situation escalating. They knew perfectly well how to get in touch...
But some papers are still classified, if they even exist.
But far from all the new members of the Resistance were equally patriotic and by early 1945 the Danish Resistance was basically rolled up.
Until 1943 Resistance members were sentenced by Danish courts under Danish legislation and placed in Danish prisons.The Germans could be involved in the investigation and some arrests but otherwise it was handled by the Danish police.
By the late summer of 1943 the collaboration policy broke down. Among others due to German pressure of reintroducing the death penalty for major sabotage actions. The Danish government resigned and DK was now run directly by a German governor, via the civil servants and personified in Christian X. - Formally speaking all legislation in DK is authorized and carried out in the name of the Monarch.
So on a day to day basis, civil servants ran DK, and apart from a few modifications the legislation remained Danish. Since there was no government, the death penalty for sabotage was not reintroduced. It could not. There was no Danish Parliament to pass the necessary legislation, and as such no bill for the King to (no doubt refuse) to sign. Instead the Germans took over the investigation and sentencing and handling of saboteurs.
The Germans taking over, led to the attempted rounding up of the Danish Jews in October 1943 - where most were evacuated to Sweden.
The Wehrmacht showing a level of incompetence in those days that would have impressed the Keystone Cops!
But by mid 1944 even that "civil-service rule" was breaking down. The Danish police was rounded up and interned. (A member of my family avoided internment, because he was out of town on assignment on that particular day.) HIPO stepped in and tried in their most heavy handed manner to restore order - alienating everybody, as mentioned previously. - There were several cases of German patrols firing at HIPO, whom they believed to be saboteurs in German uniforms...
It was infuriating enough for the population that Danish citizens were charged and imprisoned, sometimes executed, under German legislation in Denmark but executing eight members of what was basically the same family and imprisoning basically all the rest of the adult males (and one daughter) of the same family, that was the final straw that culminated in the general strike in DK in the summer of 1944.
Which is why the Hvidsten-group is symbolically so significant and why QMII honored the 75th anniversary of their execution today.
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Interesting. Thanks for the background explanation, Muhler.
