Kieler, Jørgen (Oral history)

Danish student in Munich, Germany, Paris, France and Cambridge, GB 1937-1938; medical student with the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1939-1942; member of Free Denmark and Holger Danske II groups, Danish Resistance in Denmark, 1942-1944; inmate of Porta Westfalica Subcamp, Neuengamme Concentration Camp, Germany, 7/1944-4/1945

REEL 1 Background in Horsens, Denmark, 1919-1937: family; education. Recollections of period as student in Munich, Germany, Paris, France and Cambridge, GB, 1937-1938: attendance of Hitler-Mussolini meeting, Munich, Germany, 9/1937; character of anti-Semitic exhibition; Metro strike in Paris, 1937; friends he made at University of Cambridge, GB, 1938; his attitude to Nazi regime; learning of existence of Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany, 1937; attitude to German/Danish relations; neglect of Danish defences; reaction to outcome of Munich Crisis, 9/1938. Aspects of period as medical student with the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1939-1942: starting medical studies; volunteering for service in Finnish Winter War, 12/1939; appearance of German Air Force over Copenhagen, 9/4/1940; reaction to lack of resistance against Germans; question of what could be achieved by resistance; reaction to lack of anti-Jewish persecution after, 4/1940. Recollections of period as member of Free Denmark and Holger Danske II groups, Danish Resistance in Denmark, 1942-1944: decision to join Danish Resistance, 1942. REEL 2 Continues: resistance contacts; propaganda activities; controversy over collection of food aid for inland areas, 1943; origins of Aalborg Resistance, spring 1942; start of Communist Kommunistiske Partisaner (KOPA) resistance group, autumn 1942; reasons for change in Nazi policy towards Denmark, 9/1943; Special Operations Executives' contact with Danish Resistance, 1940-1943; arrival of Captain Flemming Muus, 1943; attitude towards sabotage by Danish Communists; collaboration between ex-Finland volunteers and Danish Communists in acts of sabotage; decision to start his own sabotage group Holger Danske II in Jutland, 1943; initial sabotage attempt at Horsens; German attitude towards Danish sabotage, 1943; attitude to Danish Government's aid to Germans. REEL 3 Continues: German take over of Denmark, 29/8/1943; start of persecution against Danish Jews, 1/10/1943; lack of German Army co-operation in anti-Semitic policy; role of group in the campaign to save Danish Jews by removing them to Sweden, 1943; orders to deny Royal Danish Navy to Germans; decision of Germans not to pursue boats taking Jews to Sweden; Danish motives for protecting Jewish civilians; methods of securing explosives, 1943; capture of resistance group leader Svend Nielsen; treatment of captured resisters by Germans; orders to stop sabotage, 12/1943; move to Jutland and sabotage carried out; return to Copenhagen to sabotage Varde Staalvaerk shipyard, 12/12/1943. REEL 4 Continues: Recollections of capture and imprisonment in Denmark, 1/1944-7/1944: capture in Aaberaa Harbour during sabotage operation, 1/1944; nature of interrogation; sentence for attempting to escape to Sweden, 15/1/1944; release and move to South Jutland; capture by Germans, 6/2/1944; nature of interrogation; meeting with former group leader Svend Nielson in Gestapo cell in Copenhagen; execution of Holger Danske II resistance group leader, Svend Nielsen, 27/4/1944; requirement for him to sign confession; German taking of reprisals, 1944. Recollections of period as inmate in Porta Westfalica Subcamp, Neugengamme Concentration Camp, Germany, 7/1944-4/1945: how general strike in Denmark led to his deportation to camp, 7/1944; mining work; stoning because of failure to work fast enough; how transfer to job in camp hospital saved his life; arrival of Red Cross parcels. REEL 5 Continues: memories of Nikolai a Danish inmate from South Jutland; how Nikolai stopped Soviet inmates attacking Danes over Red Cross parcels; death of Nikolai from starvation in infirmary; effects of starvation on inmates; story of how he was the last Danish inmate to leave camp, 20/4/1945; reunion with mother and colleague from University of Cambridge, GB, 5/1945; organisation of camp; nature of beatings; details of Nikolai; effects of experiences during Second World War; attitude towards Germans.