Perhaps one of the most active resistance leaders in all of Denmark, Citronen who was really Jorgen Haagen Schmidt, became an expert and instructor for BOPA and Holger Danske in sabotage techniques. Citronen began his career as a saboteur at the Citroen factory where he sabotaged lorries and cars headed toward the Russian front. After blowing up two workshop trucks, he was forced to go underground (Thomas 213). While underground he became acquainted with Josef Sondergaard and worked in both the BOPA and Holger Danske. Citronen was known for his energy and around the clock work ethic. He performed numerous single-handed sabotage actions, particularly wrecking the workshops and destroying six cars and two military lorries at the Citroen factory for which he gained his code name. Citronen’s work spread across Denmark in every illegal paper and he became one of the two most wanted men by the Gestapo for his severe damage and planning of multiple actions against German/Danish factories. Citronen set up a pathway to smuggle refugees, couriers, and shot-down Allied airmen out of Denmark (Thomas 214). Despite his fame as a first class saboteur, Citronen would always be known in Denmark as a hero when he gave his life fighting German soldiers in order to buy time for wanted women and children to escape from a resistance safe-house (Thomas 224-225).
Collage of Resistance Leaders.
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