The Churchill
Club and Students
The first signs of active resistance in Denmark against
Nazi occupation occurred in students and young people (Denmark History
372). The Churchill Club became the first sabotage group in the Spring
of 1942. It was started by Knud and Jens Dederson who brought together
many Aalborg school boys to deprive the Germans of weapons, vehicles, and
other military equipment through theft and sabotage. While the Churchill
boys did not do much real damage to German advancement, they showed others
that active resistance was possible and necessary (Thomas 262).
Their slogan "If the grownups wont do something, we will" became a
popular call to the country. This showed people that the younger
generation cared about their future and that future did not involve German
occupation. Most other resistance groups were created after the Churchill
Club showed the way. Another group called Student Information Services
was created by Arne Sejr. Student Services became involved in the illegal
press using Copenhagen Universities press, were involved in news
gathering, and military intelligence (Thomas 94). Most student
resisters went on to join larger groups such as BOPA and Holger Danske.
The ideas and feeling that the students had of their own country and the
Germans is summed up by one resistance student:
I can see what way it is going in our country, but
remember--and I want you all to remember that you must not dream
yourselves back to the times before the war, but the dream for you all,
young and old, must be to create an ideal of human decency, and not a
narrow-minded and prejudiced one. That is the great gift our country
hungers for, something every little peasant boy can look forward to, and
with pleasure feel he is a part of something he can work and fight for.
(Thomas 107)
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