Remembering The Hvidsten Resistance Group

Discussion in 'Others' started by Jakob Kjaersgaard, Jul 4, 2009.

  1. Jakob Kjaersgaard

    Jakob Kjaersgaard Senior Member

    Hello lads

    I would like to share a few photos from the remembrance ceremony of the resistance group, The Hvidsten group. The ceremony was held the 29th June, which makes it 65 years since these 8 men were executed.
    An old resistance member from the Holger Danske group, Jorgen Kieler held a great speech, describing what these men did during the occupation and why we must never forget their deeds.
    As something somewhat new, Soren Gade who represented the ministry of defense also attended the ceremony, which I think was a good thing since it brought a lot of cameras along with him. So hopefully it will bring out the message about what these men did even more.


    The Hvidsten group’s mission during the occupation was to receive and distribute weapons, ammunition and explosives dropped by the RAF. The home base of the group was the Hvidsten Inn which was owned by Marius Fiil, who also entered the group after a good talk with Flemming Juncker.
    The group often received notice of a drop from the BBC. Codes like “Listen” or “Listen again” was frequently used and meant one or multiple Halifax planes would fly over the area that night and drop the supplies.
    Their first mission was on the night of the 12 march 1943 at Trinderup east of Mariager, where approximately 12-14 containers were hidden by the group. Doctor Thorup Pedersen arrived at the Hvidsten Inn the next day and was invited to dine along with Marius Fiil. While they sat there, Ole Geisler arrived and turned to the doctor and said “Elias says hello”. This was the codeword which confirmed that a huge drop would be made that night containing weapons which should be distributed to the resistance groups in Jutland. Marius Fiil then drove to Trinderup in his horse carriage to pick up the weapons which was transported to the Stenz Farm and picked up again by doctor Thorup Pedersen and driven to Randers and hidden.
    In order to find a fitting drop zone closer to Hvidsten Inn, maps were thoroughly looked through and the area around Allestrup’s Farm was chosen. This place contained a swamp which was perfect for hiding the empty containers afterwards. This area was known as Mustard Point by the RAF. From now on when the Hvidsten Group heard the code on the radio at 18.15, they would standby and expect the containers to be dropped around midnight. When the men arrived at the field and could hear the Halifax approaching, they would turn on four signal lamps – three white and one red. These lamps helped the pilot estimate the direction of the wind, so it was possible to determine where to make the drop in the dark. The entire group had to work fast to empty and hide the containers as quick as possible. At first the weapons were brought to the Hvidsten Inn and the delivered to smaller depots in Randers so they thereafter could be distributed to various resistance groups in Jutland. The weapons and explosives were primarily use to blow railroad tracks, bridges and factories.
    The Gestapo however received information about the group by a captured RAF pilot who was tortured. From the period December 1943 to 11th march 1944, the Hvidsten Inn was under surveillance by the Gestapo, and early in the morning of the 11th march the Inn was surrounded by wehrmacht soldiers and the entire Hvidsten group was arrested. Eight of them was arrested and sentenced to death. The eight men were executed at Ryvangen on the 29th June 1944.


    The members of the Hvidsten group who were executed:
    • Owner of the Inn Marius Pedersen Fiil
    • Marius’ son, Niels Fiil
    • Peder Bergenhammer Sørensen
    • Johan Kjær Hansen
    • Niels Nielsen Kjær
    • Søren Peter Kristensen
    • Henning Andersen
    • Albert Carlo Iversen
    The members from the group were the first in Denmark to be sentenced to death and executed due to their resistancework. All of the eight members who were executed were found in the summer of 1945, where they were brought home to Hvidsten and buried approximately 100 meters north of the Hvidsten Inn. At the memorial there it is written:

    "Deed for Denmark brought this day.
    Bravely acted, true until death.

    Let light shine in the red of morning,
    They gave their lives for Denmark's cause.




    Jakob
     

    Attached Files:

    Smudger Jnr likes this.
  2. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Good stuff Jakob.

    :poppy:

    ~A
     
  3. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Jakob,
    A good informative post.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  4. ADM199

    ADM199 Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the photos Jakob.

    I have a statement made by Adolph Theodor Larson,a Danish National who appears to have been working for S.O.E.
    He was sent to Denmark to instruct the Danish Underground Personnel in sabotage techniques. After 6 weeks he was caught by the Police and handed over to the Gestapo.
    He finished up in Flossenberg and later made a statement regarding 15 British Officers who were thought to have been killed in the Concentration Camp while he was there.

    Brian
     
  5. Jakob Kjaersgaard

    Jakob Kjaersgaard Senior Member

    A few weeks ago it was announced that a movie about the heroic deeds concerning The Hvidsten reistance movement will be made. Some of you might know the movie, Flame & Citron, a movie about two freedom fighters (trailer for Flame & Citron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJnfNAEwQ8U), which was produced by the same man who is going to produce the Hvidsten movie.
    The production is to begin around may 2011. The filming is to take place at the locations where the actual dropzones are and at the original inn. I live closeby to all of these locations so hopefully I can snap a few photos of the filming when it starts.

    I will update this thread when there is something new about the movie...



    Jakob
     
    Jedburgh22 likes this.
  6. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    There was a documentary series on the SOE made by the BBC in the early 1980s which covered all the various SOE Sections.If you can get hold of it you will find it extremely informative.The story of the tragedy of the Marius Fiil family is covered well.

    For a very good insight to the invasion of Denmark and Norway,April 1940-May 1945 refer to The Bitter Years by Richard Petrow.Gives good coverage to those years.

    Incidentally,I have a Danish friend whose father was conscripted into the Danish Army and whose first job was to guard Dr Werner Best,a leading Nazi Party functionary and who had acted as the German plenipotentiary in Denmark.A shadow of his previous self in captivity,my friend's father used to tell his daughters that they could not scrub the floors as well as Best had done.

    Best was lucky to survive his service to National Socialism when he was tried in Denmark in 1948.His sentence of death was commuted to a prison term and he was released in 1951.

    Some,certainly not British,have viewed the role of Denmark in the war in a different light.In 1995,Professor Henning Poulsen of Aarhus University claimed Denmark's resistance to the Nazis "was a myth" at a conference on "The Second World War as Myth and History" held in the Swedish Houses of Parliament.His submission was based on Germany's accomodation of Denmark in not treating Denmark as a conquered nation.(In fact, as the the rest of Europe,the Germans took out the best of what Denmark possessed and looked on its farming industry as the German larder.)

    The Danes ensured that 95% of its Jewish population of 7000 escaped to neutral Sweden in September 1943 and Poulsen's paper should have provoked a deal of argument to counter his submissions.
     
  7. Jakob Kjaersgaard

    Jakob Kjaersgaard Senior Member

    There was a documentary series on the SOE made by the BBC in the early 1980s which covered all the various SOE Sections.If you can get hold of it you will find it extremely informative.The story of the tragedy of the Marius Fiil family is covered well.

    For a very good insight to the invasion of Denmark and Norway,April 1940-May 1945 refer to The Bitter Years by Richard Petrow.Gives good coverage to those years.

    Incidentally,I have a Danish friend whose father was conscripted into the

    Thanks for the info, Harry. Will look into it :)


    Cheers,
    Jakob
     
  8. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Hi Jakob,

    Glad to meet a fellow Sabbath fan by the way!:)

    I was just wondering, following on from this topic, if you had ever come across this man?

    Captain 221724 Willaim Borg Eric Petersen MC.

    He was a 'Free Dane' on the first Chindit operation in 1943 and had come from the East Kent regiment to be involved in the Burma Campaign.

    He led a platoon in column 7 on the operation and survived a severe head wound to escape via China as the unit dispersed.

    Somewhere I have his MC citation, which I found in amongst the WO373 series at Kew. At the same time I picked up the file for the Scandanavian personnel awards, which might be of interest to you, presuming you do not already have them.:)

    Any help with the above would be fantastic.

    Steve.
     
  9. Jakob Kjaersgaard

    Jakob Kjaersgaard Senior Member

    Hi Jakob,

    Glad to meet a fellow Sabbath fan by the way!:)

    I was just wondering, following on from this topic, if you had ever come across this man?

    Captain 221724 Willaim Borg Eric Petersen MC.

    He was a 'Free Dane' on the first Chindit operation in 1943 and had come from the East Kent regiment to be involved in the Burma Campaign.

    He led a platoon in column 7 on the operation and survived a severe head wound to escape via China as the unit dispersed.

    Somewhere I have his MC citation, which I found in amongst the WO373 series at Kew. At the same time I picked up the file for the Scandanavian personnel awards, which might be of interest to you, presuming you do not already have them.:)

    Any help with the above would be fantastic.

    Steve.

    Must have missed this. Never heard of this specific chap, but will certainly look into it. Could you possibly forward his file to me? Cheers.
     
  10. Jakob Kjaersgaard

    Jakob Kjaersgaard Senior Member

    Good news. A movie production about The Hvidsten Group will commence in august and will be semifunded by the danish government. It seems the government these days are getting more and more involved in funding historically related material, which is about time if you ask me. The movie will premiere in danish theatres march 2012.
     
  11. Jedburgh22

    Jedburgh22 Very Senior Member

    Jakob, thanks for an interesting post, later in the war Denmark was well covered by Eureka Beacons as an aid to locating DZs and droppoing stores and the reception committees made use of the S Phone.
     
  12. Jakob Kjaersgaard

    Jakob Kjaersgaard Senior Member

    Trailer for the movie up now: Trailer - Hvidstengruppen 2012 - YouTube

    My grandparents lived nearby the woods where the RAF dropped the parachutes along with weapons and demolitions. The inn where this movie was filmed has always been something special for my family. Almost every year we celebrated my grandfathers birthday at the Hvidsten Inn. They do serve a great steak if any forumites should be in the area some day!
     

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