Mankind's enemy defeated -- the Danish Resistance Museum and other places related to WWII

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The Museum of Danish Resistance

A modest building, standing near the entrance of the lawns that lead to the Little Mermaid.

As you watch the exhibits, you essentially trace the outline of a square. A small square, and so an hour’s trip is sufficient not only to have a quick look at most of the showpieces but also to contemplate.

Denmark was officially a neutral country for most of the WWII period. German forces occupied it in the latter years of the war; an underground ‘Danish Resistance’ movement resisted it.

The Museum talked of two types of people...

..Of the decorated Danish officers who sided with the Germans, their arms and their badges of honour on display. Also a note that cited how some of them met their death: executed after the war for war crimes.

..And of those who served the Danish Resistance, risking their lives to fight their enemy (the Nazis) when they could have conveniently chosen to turn a blind eye to the inhuman atrocities perpetrated by it.

If the German secret police got wind of any activist of the Danish Resistance, it meant certain death to the patriot.

A letter by one such brave heart written to his family a few hours before he became a martyr touched me deeply. The letter was placed on an altar on a stage so that one could kneel down and read it. But before long my vision was blurred for my eyes were wet with tears.

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Henning Hansen (1925 – 1945)
Civil defence deputy group leader
Vestre Prison, 28th March, 1945.

To all of you at home,

The unspeakable has happened. I was sentenced to death by a German court-martial today. But you must be calm and sensible. It was God’s will that I should tread this path so early, so it must be right.

I want to thank you for everything you’ve been to me – especially you, dearest Mother, no one would ever hope to have a better mother here on earth. It pains me to bid farewell, but I am giving my life for Denmark, so in that sense it’s not bad.

I give my things to little Olga and the little one. Be good to her always, for she will surely take it just as hard as you. Promise me you will comfort her all that you can.

Please remember me to everyone I know, including my father in Odense.

I can think of no more to write, so I will end this my last letter to you with countless thoughts and thanks for all your goodness.

Good-bye

God be with you,
Henning

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Photos

The Reichstag, the German Parliament building.
When the soviet flag flew over the building on April 30th 1945 the war was practically over. Our cycle tour guide Kiiran taking us back to those days.

A “stumbling stone” on the streets of Berlin
The stones remember the thousands who were forcibly taken away from the home by the Nazis and deported to the concentration camps, never to return.

"Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also"
"Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." ("That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also.") Among the thousands of books burned on Berlin's Opernplatz in 1933, following the Nazi raid on the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, were works by Heinrich Heine. To mark the terrible event, the above lines from one of the most famous lines of Heine's 1821 play Almansor have been engraved in the ground at the site at Berlin.

Comments

[Abhijit Sardesai]

I am impressed
A very interesring account of your travels, Aditya. I am proud of you