The Resistance

Jytte was a little girl when the Nazis invaded and occupied her country, Denmark. Her father and uncles were in the Resistance movement and her mother knew there was going to be trouble as VE day was announced.

People wanted to punish the Nazis and their sympathisers who had done horrible things during the occupation. Knowing this, her mum decided that to keep her safe. the best thing to do was to drug Jytte.

So, Jytte has no memories at all of VE day itself as she was fast asleep for the whole day!.

Jytte remembers during the war being told very sternly that she must never tell about the men who visited and stayed quietly for a day or so in the basement – they were RAF and other allied air men who were being taken by the Resistance to fishing boats that would journey to Scotland or Sweden.

Many things happened to her father and uncles in the Resistance but they didn’t want to talk about it.

Years after the war there was a family trip to Copenhagen, and Jytte’s British husband wanted to visit the Resistance Museum.

He saw some information about what happened in Jytte’s home town and came back asking questions. The family shared some stories, including how one of Jytte’s uncles, Elo, was going to be killed before VE day, by someone in the local Resistance movement as they suspected Elo was a traitor. Elo ended up being shot by the Nazis as they left the town, which mean that being shot turned out to save his life!.

Uncle Elo then married the woman he loved, who turned out to be a radio operator in the German army. No wonder some people were suspicious of him!