Interviewer: Tell us a little bit about your childhood and the time you grow up in Denmark.
Frederik Hansen: Ah uh, well. Ehh, I'm born in Copenhagen. Eh, my father, he was a, eh, one of the first ehh.
With a, coffee, ehh, machine. That, that could, ehh, burn the, the, the, the, the beans so, so they could, could make coffee.
So we, we had quite a lot of coffee when I was eh, eh, eh, a boy.
I grew up eh, in, eh, in, in quite a nice district in Copenhagen.
And I went to school when I was six. And I finished the, the ordinary school when I was fifteen.
And then I was, eh, came into, eh, eh, eh, mach.., eh, machine factory. And was served as an apprentice for five years.
And I went to school at nights. The last two years I went to eh, school for sailing.
Eh, m.. m.. machinist on sea.
IV: Yeah.
FH: So, I finished that, in a... 19, yo yo yo yo yo, I, 19.. 19.. 30.. 34.. and I, then, then I, I went to the, engineering school. And eh, eh, eh, eh, stopped that in 1940.
And eh, I started to sail as an engineer, assistant, in the merchant navy. Eh, at, eh, eh, 1939 in July.
Eh, that was before the war broke out so, ehm, I sailed and then we came to America. And we got bananas on board which, eh, eh, we didn't succeed very well with.
But eh, but eh, because the war broke out when we were laying on Jamaica, putting them in.
So we couldn't just travel with them right across the Atlantic. So we had to lay and wait. So the bananas got rotten.
IV: Hahaha.
FH: So, eh, however, ehm, we sailed to, to, a, from, from, from Jamaica, to, to a, another, ehh island, and got some, some oranges.
And sailed them up to, to Great Britain and where we arrived in, in 1939 in, in October. In, nah, more or less, November.
And eh, eh, I didn't like that route, you know, on the Atlantic. Because there was a war coming on. There, on the first of September. Well, the second of September.
Ehhh, with Germany and eh, England. Ehh, about, eh, Poland, and things like that.
Eh, so, ehm, so, ehh, I, I, stopped sailing with the, with the, with the, with the ship there in, in, in, in, in there just at Christmas, and went home to Denmark.
Where I stayed for about 4 nights. And then I joined a ship, a merchant navy ship in a, in a, in Denmark, and sailed between England and eh, and ehh Denmark.
We, we brought, ehh, butter and bacon over and we took coal and that sort of things back.
Ehhh, we were, weren't participating in the war, so eh, until then, we, we, we, we had quite.. quite.. we sailed alone. Ehh. We didn't really sail alone.
But we had another ship besides us. We were two of us. One could help if something happens.
And eh, we sai.., we sailed there and eh, and on the, ehhh, in March we went to, to Norway, to join a convoy from Norway to eh, to eh, to, to, to Scotland, for, for coal.
So ehhm, off we, we went, and when we came to, to ehh, to Bergen, we were staying there waiting for a British naval ship to, tra.. to protect us across the North Sea.
And then after, eh, on the way over, ehh, Germany entered Denmark and Norway and all that so ehh, we further stayed in, in, in Scotland.
Where I met the nicest girl I ever ehh {unintelligible} And I married her, not at that time, but eh, but later. There you can hear about that.
Ehm, so, we, so were asked by the British government if we want to join the British navy, merchant navy. And eh, so we did.
And we sailed in convoys, ehhh, so ehhm, so, ehh, we could help one another if something happened.
Ehhh, in, on the 17th of October, in 1940, the ship was hit by a torpedo, from a German boat in, in the North Sea.
On the 17th of October and the temperature of the water was only about, eh, 7 de.. degrees.
So ehm, so and I, I came in the water and I was swimming for a while and then I could, could hardly swim anymore when an English fishing boat, came up beside me and eh, tried to pull me up.
But I couldn't ehh, have the power to come up, so they put a net, like they took a big cod up. Hahaha.
IV: Haha.
FH: So.
IV: Big Fish.
FH: So, yeayea. So. So, I, and then it's, I sailed with that up to, with that fishing boat, up to a British destroyer named Albanaise, and eh, it sailed in the North Sea.
And I sailed there for three weeks, and it had what they call wireless silence.
He wasn't to use his wireless at all. Because there were German submarines in the, in the district.
So ehm, so, ehhh, ehhh, we, we did that, and then on, on the 17th of October, after, after I had been pulled up, and come up in the, in the ship,
I sailed around with the, with that, ehh, destroyer for a, three weeks or so.
So everybody on the other, ehhh, ships, ehhhhh, crew of, of my old ship that was torpedoed.
Eh, they had saved ten of the, the, some of the, ehhh, crew, and that's, that's all I, all other have drowned.
And then I all of a sudden, one day, I turned up in Newcastle, because they made up eh, eh, eh, eh, eh some of the sailors in Newcastle. Of Danish, so they could take them from there and fill them up on the ship.
But, th.. there wasn't any ship these days, Torpedo too many in the beginning of the war. Eh, so, ehm, so, I was eh, ehhh, joining a Swedish boat, Sweden was neutral.
So I got, all of a sudden, I got an, yea, I am nearly swearing here, but I got an enormous amount, amount of money.
Eh, I got ehh, about, 400 percent of, of, of, what, what our folks got when, when they sailed.
But the Sweden was neutral.
IV: Ehmm.
FH: Uh, oh, and eh, so ehm, so ehhh, I sailed with them down on the Mediterranean, in, in, in, ehh, because they were neutrals.
They had, Sweden, written on the side of the, and Swedish flags. So, I sailed.
IV: They wouldn't get attacked.
FH: No, they, they, they, they can't, they wouldn't.
IV: Yea.
FH: Eh, And they didn't.
IV: Yea.
FH: Eh, and ehh, we eh, we sailed there for, for quite a while until ehh, one day, I needed a new pair of ehh... eh breeches, trousers.
Eh, to, to, because the other one I ha.. ha.. ha.. had had quite a while.
So I went up to a ship chandler and asked for a, a pair of trousers.
And he said: "Where do you come from"? and I said: "I come from Denmark". "Yea, but how do you come here?". "With a ship", I said. "I need a, the trousers to work with."
He said: "Listen, if you want to get back to Denmark, you can, we can take you, right away.
We, I have two German officers sitting in the back seat, in the back, eh, room here. And they can take you and send you up to Denmark."
So I said: "Well, I have to go down to the ship, and get my clothes and my money I, I, I have there."
So I went down to the ship and told the captain, and the captain he just banged and said: "We have to get out of here".
He banged on eh the, the, the th.., thing for the, for the sight and then he sailed off to Gibraltar.
And, and soon we sailed off to England. So, you know. So they didn't gave, gave me to come, to come brought back to Denmark, yea.
So ehm, eh, eh, when, eh, I came back to England... I, I, I, we left to Gibraltar.
And then I was been interrogated and there I told them {unintelligible} that keep on sailing with the ships eh up there.
And eh, he, they, they, did like that, and eh, when I came up to England, I got the Secret Service on board, they want to talk to me.
And then they ask me if I would join the British army, in the SOE.
You don't, you don't know what the SOE means. Special Operations Executive. That, that, that is what that means.
So I, so when I came up, I was payed off and I came in to British army.
And that's why you see me in British army uniform on pictures.
IV: Yea.
FH: Ah, end eh, I, I went for a, course, from ehh, for, for, for more than half a year, from, from ehhh, and then I was ready to be dropped in Denmark, as a parachute eh... As an, ehh, soldi.. an officer.
There was informing the Danish underground movement how to use explosives.
Because there is no use telling the, the, that we, that we take the, the, explosive over, if, if they only use a wee.. tiny thing for, for, for thing.
They have to learn how much it takes to take a.. through plates of different thickness and things like that.
And they take underneath, underneath the, the, the waterline.
And, and all that, I was trained in, in, in Britian, up in Scotland.
And eh, and eh, in eh, on the, first of August, or 31st of July, depends on, it was the 31st of July when I left England.
It was the first of August when they dropped me in Denmark, with parachute. I had, I had, trained, trained.. About eh, 15 Danes, to, to jump in parachute.
And to use explosive, and to calculate the amount of what is needed to.
I mean, it is no use if, if you can't blow the, the railway tracks, and so. The train gets derailed eh, if you don't know how much to use. {coughs}
So I had a couple of, ehhh, different folks there, that I was teaching, how much to use and what to do and what, how to bring them there.
And eh, then, unfortunately, our leader, he was killed, eh, by the, the, the Danish police.
And eh, that wasn't very nice for the Danish, you know. And eh, couple of other ones also.
So there was really only me and another one.
So we kept, kept the other one over in Denmark and I have to go to Sweden. And up to Stockholm.
And contact the British men sent from ehh, London, to Stockholm.
And ehh, we, we went, and how to do that, I mean, how to Skodsborg, that's a little town north of Copenhagen with sailors, and eh, bought a, ehh, ship, you know.
A rowing boat to row, to row across to Sweden.
And ehh, the men we can, I spoke to the man, who owns the, the, ehh, boat.
And he, he said it's ok. But he didn't tell me that the boat was hanging in chains about a half an inch chain, I can't break that.
IV: Yea.
FH: So, eh, I have to go back. And on the way back my, my, mate, that was with me.
He ran into, ehh, it isn't a policeman but it's a guy that goes 'round and sees that everything is ok in the factory.
What do you call them, a natvægter. A nightguard or something.
IV: A kind of watchman. Or.
FH: Yea...watchman.
IV: Security or.
FH: Security man, yea. And...
IV: Maybe I can ask you...
FH: Yea, no no. But I told...
IV: Just to lean back a little bit.
FH: Ah hah.
IV: If you lean back a little bit.
FH: Yea.
IV: It's better for...
FH: Ahhh. I, ah huh. And I told him how to do, what to do.
And then when we, when we couldn't get the boat for the, for the, we had to go back to the, to the room.
That was a room in, oh yea, so that was a room in there.
There eh, was, a sort of a keeping, some of us were there, under there. You know.
Under the earth. They were kept there. Until they could get out.
So, yes. So, ehh, so we went back there, on the way back we ran into a nightwatch man there. We call him that, a nightwatch man.
And eh, I was, he didn't see me, but he ehh, he, he saw the other one.
And he told him that we were going to Sweden, cause the Germans were after us.
And he said: "Ok, that's alright". And he went down to his office, then in the office they told him there has been a great big eh, stealing, in the {unintelligible} factory down here.
And of course it wasn't us, but he said, when he came back, he said:
"Well I met them, they say they were on the way to Sweden with a suitcases and things like that.
So that's {unintelligible}. So we went, we, sh, shhh, so, and when we said:
"Couldn't you get the boat”, we went back to the room and, we shouldn't have done that. Ehmm mistake but it happened.
And then, ehhh, about, {unintelligible} there was about 100 of policemen around the building where we were. And we were arrested.
And we were taken to the Danish police headquarters in Copenhagen.
And from there, from there we were put into the prisoner, in the bad prison in Copenhagen. And we were in there.
Then, after three or four days, all of a sudden, the door opened and a man, a guardsman from the prison came in and said:
"Well, you're gonna be released now, you're gonna get out" he said.
"I see, are you sure of that?" He said there: "Well, it stands here".
So I was sent down and then there sat an old policeman. And he said: "You go out through that door".
Then I went out through that door, and you know what happened? Six, six German soldiers stood with their guns.
And I was taken to the prison in Copenhagen. And put into the, what we call, the salad dish, eh, dish.
Ehhh, ehhh, it is a car you know where you put fellows in, when you bring them from one place to another.
IV: Yea.
FH: And then they took me to Germany. The, the, the Germans, they had taken me in, so, but they haven't given me up to the Germans.
They had their, their back.. Completely free, because they didn't know.. but, but you see, he, what else can you, so the Danes haven't given us, they have released us.
There stood German guards outside. And however, by that they took me down, first as I stopped at a stay in Northern Germany.
And we had, we had ehhh, a night there, and then we were taken to a place called, ehhh...
In, in, in Germany, where, where, where, where they were arrested. Is Agnes gone? {asks for his companion} Jo, ich kann ni.. Eh, but you see...
So, I was taken there and they brought me down to Berlin. In, in the prison of, of, of, of the, the, the, there.
IV: So maybe before we start, talking about Germany, I would ask you a little bit about the time you've been working for the underground.
FH: Oh, they, well, you see, the, the, the.
IV: Before you have been just a civilian, a, you've been a political person before?
FH: No.
IV: Or, how you get to the idea to go to the SOE, and later to work for the underground.
FH: Uh, well, the folk, the folk, the, the, there was, you see, the, the, the people they were staying there. From England.
They were, you know, helping the underground in England. And, eh, that's how we, we, we got connections, over there.
You understand what I mean?
IV: Yea, yea.
FH: Uh, and eh, we, we, and eh, they got into connection with the four or six, we had them as {unintelligible} just like school children.
I was teaching them how to use the explosives and how to calculate what, how much they have to and when and how to do it.
For the trains, for the ships, for the, for, for all, for the factories, you know, where we ehmm.. We sent, we sent one of the flying bombs over
To Sweden, and, and the, to, to, eh, a guy we had up in Sweden.
And he sent it to London. So, you see, we did ours, and we try to get folk {unintelligible} how to use the explosives.
IV: But what was your personal opinion? Why did you engage in the underground?
FH: What?
IV: Personally, why did you decide personally to go to the underground?
FH: I was asked by the secret service. Because I could speak the language in Denmark.
Ehhh, and eh, and ehhh, I had friends in Denmark, eh, and eh, that also helped, you know.
That's how, they did that to every ehhh, country in Europe. They flung SOE soldiers down in Holland, Belgium, France and sogar in Romania. And, and things like that.
But, but they have different schools over in England. Ehh, we were sent to a school, and then they try to get some more Danes.
And I was teaching them in the schools, together with some English, ehhhh so.. soldiers. Ehhh.
I was teaching them how to use the explosives, how to calculate for this and and that and the next thing. {speaks danish}
You couldn't help that, so. But we, we, we have, we started a whole line of a, all over Denmark.
And I had personally learned about 15 Danes, how to use them, and and.
So they were dropped here and there in Denmark to, to make sabotage.
IV: Hmm.
FH: And, and, the, we really succeeded in, in many ways, you know. But we didn't have all the luck.
Our leader got killed because he wasn't careful enough.
And, and his wireless operator eh, eh escaped to Sweden. So we didn't have a wireless.
But, but, we got some fellow, that, that was a wireless operator to work for us.
And we, we, we, gathered from the underground movement, some of those, they would, that was willing to do the {coughs} the extreme thing. You know.
We.. I mean, they have, eh, burned a lot of different things, that was dangerous.
They could say them, eh, as that, where they built the flying bombs, that went over London.
D.. down, in, in, where the factory was and things like that. So we had quite a lot to do.
But we couldn't go and tell everybody there, I am, I am, I am a British, ehh {unintelligible}
So we worked there for, from the, until the middle of December.
Then we were taken down, ehhh, from, with that boat out there, we didn't get to Sweden.
Danish police, and, and they handed us over to the Germans, you see.
IV: Okay, then let's try to go over how did, how you did get to Germany, then.
FH: What?
IV: Huh, so, now maybe you can tell us how you got to Germany. They arrested you.
FH: Yeah, and they put me, they put, they put me, in a police car, what we call a salad dish, you know.
Eh.. I was being put in a view room and I sat there for 24 hours.
Ehhhh, there was the, and ya, it's a police car, but it's for, for putting prisoners in.
IV: Yeah.
FH: You know.
And, and, and they, they went down to Germany and sailed across from Denmark.
To, to Germany, and to, right down to Berlin. And from Berlin we were taken up to the headquarters of the Gestapo.
And they wanted to know, who we had been, eh, who had helped us.
But eh, I managed to, to, to, to, to get away, really, because my mom, my mom and dad had a summer house, up in {unintelligible} .
That's a, ehhh, sea.. thing up at the coast. And it was in the winter, from there, from September, October, Novem..
So I told them, that, where, he, they wanted to know who helped me...
I said I lived up in, in, in my parents summer house.
And I have told the, I didn't tell them that, I told the Danish policemen to go and tell my mom and dad, eh, to tell them what to say.
That, they, they, they, they didn't know. They didn't know.
But they could see there has been somebody, but there was no stolen anything.
I lived up in that summer house. I never did. But eh.
They went up there [unintelligible} like you do here with photos of me.
And eh, eh, they, they, they went to the neighbors, and say, "do you know this man?" "Yes", he said, "That's the son of over there, from over there."
So you see. They thought that I had lived in my parents summer house.
And they.. They went to my parents and the.. She said, "well, we haven't seen him.
But we could see there has been somebody, but there was no stolen anything.
So that's why we haven't..." I mean, I wouldn't steal anything from them. You know.
So, that's how I got away to, those that helped me, there was a lot of folk helping me. Also some of the other ones.
And we have, after, after I was arrested, there has been, I can show you the, that, there is about, twenty or forty {unintelligible}
Because I was taken here down to here to Prinz Albrecht Straße.
I was interrogated in the Prinz Albrecht Straße. That wasn't just a lot of fun, to, to be. So..
IV: How did they treat you? Did they torture you?
FH: They, they.
IV: When they interrogated you?
FH: They haven't tortured me so much. Because I told them where I had lived {coughs} lived or so.
But eh, quite, for instance.. My friend, he's dead now, but he was also. He was burned with cigars.
And that it is not a thing folk do. So eh, after that, I have been three months in Gestapo's headquarter in Berlin...
Can you see the scar there? {points to his forehead}
IV: Yea.
FH: And you see there is another one there?
IV: Yea.
FH: That's a spade. Because whe.. whe.. when, when, when Himmler, was.
I can't remind his name now, when Himmler was the, the, the leader, of, of the German SS police he came into {unintelligible}
And then I couldn't hear, you see. I have ear, hearing aid.
Ehhh. I couldn't hear. So I went a step forward. And his guard {unintelligible} stood on, the guard that was, he had a spade...
And he hit me here. So they, it wasn't all, you know, sweets and good things we got there. And then after a while, three months. I was taken out to a place called Sachsenhausen.
It's a, ehhh, great big, it is one of the biggest one, in Berlin.
Eh, outside Berlin. And I was sitting there from the 10th ehh, no, from the, from the, yes, from the 10th of March to the third of August...
Or 4th of August. Things like that. I was sitting out there.
In, in, in the, in that cell. Then I was transferred to Sachsenhausen.
To, ehh, and in Sachsen... I had, was handcuffed all the time.
IV: In Sachsenhausen?
FH: What?
IV: In Sachsenhausen?
FH: Yea, how?
IV: In Sachsenhausen? You were.
FH: Yea. That was maybe. Ehhh, and I had to call them every time I needed.
Just to weewee or something, eh? Ah, if you needed to go to the toilet. You see?
IV: Yea.
FH: You, you couldn't do that, so {unintelligible} Ehhh.
I was sitting in Sach.. in Sachsenhausen, until February 1944. This was in 1943, all this happened.
IV: Ehmm.
FH: Ehhm. In 1944 ehh, I was sitting in Sachsenhausen, as they took my gold teeth.
They put my teeth out. Not them all. {takes his teeth out} But those.. {shows his denture}. This is made after the war.
About, about ehmm. So. Ehmm. Then I was transferred down to, nicht Flossenbürg...
IV: In Dachau.
FH: Dachau.
IV: In Dachau.
FH: And so I was sitting in Dachau together with several Germans.
And all those who had dug themselves out of a prison camp... of the royal airforce.
Had dug themselves out of a prison camp. In eh, in eh, you have heard about that eh?
IV: No, no.
FH: What?
IV: No, I didn't.
FH: Have you no?
IV: No.
FH: Yah, well, that was fif.. 85 that came out.
IV: From Dachau?
FH: Ehhh, no, from, from, from Sachsenhausen.
IV: From Sachsenhausen.
FH: The.. they dug themselves. In the barracks. They were prisoners of war. They were airforce men that were shot down.
And they were prisoners of war there was about a fifty of them or more.
They got away out through a tunnel they dug underneath.
IV: Ah jah.
FH: Ah huh. And they came, all of a sudden, they come there, down there, because the Russians were closing in.
Up in. in. We're in 1944 now. The Russians are closing in.
Coming, going across the Polish border, into Germany. And things like that.
So, so, we, eh... we tried hard and we couldn't help anything like that. But, but, then, after.. They came down to...
Another funny thing, when I was in Sachsenhausen. I was hungry. And then all of a sudden I heard a man go, somebody going outside whistling "God save the King".
Because there was a king in that time. And I whistled back. And then it stopped.
And he asked me who I was. If I was a British? I said "no, I am not British. But I am in the British Army."
I mean, that was the truth, eh. And eh, and eh, he said, "are you hungry"?
Because, eh, they grow some tomatoes here in front, where you know, the barrack stood there.
"That's not the word," I said. "We don't get very much food." The, the, the, window was covered by, by woods.
Ehh, also, there was windows. But they opened so much, and then there was wood.
Then if you hit the, the, the barrack room there, then it fall down, and then right in my cell.
So he was bombarding me with a, you know. When he was, he was, he was an ordinary prisoner of war.
He was, he wasn't like me, I was, you know, one of the, one of those, was, wouldn't get out of it again.
So, we went. I went down to, to, to Flossen.. nein, Sachsenhausen.
IV: Dachau.
FH: Dachau, yea. Down to Dachau. {speaks Danish?} I mean, down to Dachau.
And eh, after a while I was transferred there to Flossenbürg.
IV: Ehhmm. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about the time in Dachau?
FH: What?
IV: Can you tell a little bit about the time in Dachau?
FH: Yes. I Ca.. I...
IV: Where they put you, how the daily life was.
FH: N.. No, I was, I was, I was just ehh, in a cell, and I didn't get out of it. I didn't, I didn't get out of it.
But I, ehh, I, I had, ehh, a Jewish, ehh, a Jewish man that has been here.
Here, ehh, here, they have got away from one of those camps here.
They, they came down to, to me, and they were there for one night. Then they were killed.
IV: Ah huh.
FH: Taken out on it, you know. It's not a, I mean.
You're, you feel, you feel, ehh, right within many situations...
The worst thing was that after a while, you know, I came to, I was taken to Flossenbürg.
IV: Ehhm.
FH: Ah uh. And here I was from ehh, roughly about October-September 1944. And then we get on.
And, and, and I was in, in, in Sachs.. Sachsenhausen. Ehh. In a, for a while.
And then all, ehh, all of a sudden, we were gonna be transferred.
Eh in, in March, eh, 1944. Because the, the Allied came, you know, with the soldiers from Russia and from Poland, from, from Italy up.
IV: Ehmm.
FH: From France in, and from, from {unintelligible} in ehh, Holland, Belgium. So, so, we, we, we, we got down there.
And I've said: "I didn't come out, there was darkness all the time I was there."
And I didn't come out of, I had a pot if I needed.
So, to, to ah huh. And then, all of a sudden, I heard a morse, we have, morsing or something we have learned in, morsing on the wall.
IV: Yea.
FH: And that was a British sold.. sold.. it wasn't a British soldier. It was a Belgian sol.. soldier.
That was in the British army, had same as me. He was been dropped with a parachute in Belgium.
IV: Yea.
FH: Ehh, and there, there was 20 of them, that were arrested.
And there, and eh, one day, I was standing, listening to, to this morse, while he said.
"I hope it's only us from Belgium they kill. And that you Danes, eh, get away." We got away. But everyone of them was killed. 20 Belgian, down there, in, in, in Flossenbürg.
IV: Yea.
FH: Ah huh. They. You can control all of this, if you want to, because I was down at the Zellenbau. You know.
IV: You have been in the Arrestbau.
FH: What?
IV: You've been in the Arrestbau, where all the prisoners were in separated cells.
FH: Waha. Yea. But I said, so, this, they were, they were all killed.
And th.. then came a couple of, ehhh, vans, army vans, open..
And I was told to, to go, they opened up and I was told to go over.
And, and they have done that to the other ones too. From Denmark.
And a few, few other ones, from, here Léon Blum for instance and Schuschnigg and all those.
That you can see in that book.
IV: Yea.
FH: Yea, uh. And eh, they were, they have been putting on lorries. And I, they opened my cell and I could go to the lorry.
And, I got on board. Ehh, so then, then eh, then eh, when I had gone about, maybe 20 meters.
Then I felt {makes gesture for dizziness}, and I fell, and I laid, and then a man, a man.
After a while I woke up and a man he {unintelligible} flung water at me.
Ehh, and things like that. And then he, "are you English"? he says. "I hear you speak English. Who are you?". I said: "Eh, well, I am Danish".
He says: "Are you, are you the guy I flung tomatoes to up in Berlin."
What do you think of that? {laughs} It was him. It was wing commander Day, from eh, from, from Britain.
He was the greatest guy you ever knew. He even has a funny story {unintelligible}
And he finished {unintelligible} being a leader up in Schleswig Holstein. Ehh, for a while.
Ehhh, you know, until this peace was settled. But apart from that, ehh, he {unintelligible} got, he "yes, are you Fall Connor?". And then he H-U-G-H, Hugh Fall Connor.
He was eh, and eh, he took me to his car, and then he drove me, then we came down in eh, in eh, in eh, in in in, in Tirol.
More or less. At the border of Italy, and to.. That was the, the British were coming up from Spain.
And eh... and I got something, something to eat from him. And ehhh. I haven't had anything to eat for several days.
But I, we, a.. all we Danes, we ehh, we, we survived, also the Danish, that has given us up, up there.
He was there too, my, many of fellow. And eh, we, but, but, ehhh.
He was, ehhh, w-w-w-was you know, also there, he was the chief of the Danish military.
But he wouldn't, ehhh, work with the, with the Germans.
So, so he.. So we were put on, on a, on ehh... lorries.
And I came with a lorry by, by sheer chance because there was an SS man.
That, that came and said to, to Fall Connor: "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I am helping him. Can you not see that?". I said, he said: "Well, I'll fix him." "You don't fix anybody."
{unintelligible} "When you fix them, they say, they don't do a thing after. Because you kill them." That was, you know, he was, eh, I can show you, the, the, the.
So ehm, we came down to a, to a lovely big place in eh, in, at the border. Eh.
At the sea down there. And the most famous, one of the most famous hotels, eh, eh, {asks in Danish}.
Frau: Pragser Wildsee.
FH: What?
Frau: Pragser Wildsee.
FH: {unintelligible}
Frau: {unintelligible} Hotel Pragser Wildsee.
FH: Yeah, the Pragser Wildsee. That hotel. We were all put up there. {speaks in Danish}
Frau: {speaks in Danish}
FH: {speaks in Danish} That's your picture.
IV: Yea... I'll take it...
FH: {speaks in Danish}
Frau: {speaks in Danish}
FH: Ehmm. Well, that's ehhh a book, over. Ehhh, the international, ehh, Geisel- ehh, people, members. Eh, from Denmark.
IV: Ehmm...
FH: Ehhh, and from France.
IV: Yea.
FH: Léon Blum. And you see. They, they, they all came, came to, the, there was a lot more. Also of Germans.
Ehh, German, eeeh {studies book}. Germany, Germany, Germany... Don't you know any of these? Friedrich Leopold.
And I know, but, let me just finish. Ehh, these, we were, were, we've got a lovely big hotel, the Pragser Wildsee.
Eh, it was Ital', Italian there, did the service for us and things like that.
And eh, we stayed there, 'til the, 'til the Yankees swang down and took us, all on board and brought us safely home.
I ehh, me and my frien.. eh, three friends, went down to, to ehhh, Naples you know, Pompeii.
And, and we were sailed by a Norwegian boat up to Scotland. There I met my girl. {laughs}
IV: Hmm.
FH: But I was the only one, ehhh, one, that is alive now. Of all them.
IV: So there is one thing I didn't really get. So, you've been telling, they put you on the lorries, here in Flossenbürg.
They, they took you out of the barracks.
FH: Yes, yes, They too.. too.. took us out, took, took, took out, out of the, the, the, the prison.
IV: Yea.
FH: And eh, told us to go all to the lorries.
And all the others, German soldiers to be put, they put us on.
And they were gonna drive us further.
But then they were stopped by the Americans. They came the next day.
IV: Ah jah. So your transport was stopped by the Americans.
FH: Eh, yea, and then the Americans took us over in the cars. And we drove right down through Italy.
IV: Yea. So that was the moment where you were freed.
FH: Yea.
IV: They took you out of the lorries, they stopped.
FH: They, they, and took us down to the, to the river, that in Northen Italy, that was, the name of that one. Can you mind.
IV: The big one? The Po? Or, river?
FH: No, not the.. {speaks Danish}
Frau: {speaks Danish}
FH: Wha..?
Frau: {speaks Danish}
FH: Ehhm, ehm, but it was a big river. And they, ehhh, it was ehhh, tri.. ehhh, a trip of triumph.
To drive down with the Americans through Northern Italy.
And then they, they came down to the, the big town that is laying down there.
And they split them up. Germans, go that way. And someone here goes that way, and..
And we, we, we continued to the, we, we Danes and the..
With the soldiers and the airforce men were transferred down to, to, to, to, to Italy.
And from there the, the, the, the, the Aircraft men were flown home, we were to be flown home.
But we, we, we let them get first because they were wary in {unintelligible} you know.
Ehhh, they were Airforce mainly. So we co.. came in a Norwegian steamer.
Right up to Mediterranean and up to England and then off to Scotland.
And that's, that's, that's and from, from Scotland, eh, that's why I was flown back to Denmark after a few days.
And I, that was, you know, it was home to my mom and dad, eh?
So my mother and father and things like that.
Eh, I was eh, discharged from the, from the British army on, I think it was on the first of September.
I ca.. I can show you a send.. "Now, dear Mister Hansen, now that you have ended your service with the British army.
The council wants to thank you very much." and then, the.. the.. for, for the, my always willing cooperation" and, the, what we did, along the road.
That's eh, that's my, and then, ehhh, there was no more {unintelligible}
Except, except, ehh, having it not yet, I couldn't work for the first four months.
My weight was, was, was far below 100 kilo, yeah, I mean. I also {unintelligible}
Kein 100 kilos, but a little more, well. That was far below that... Ehmm.
IV: Can you tell me, eh, the exact date when you got released, you got freed by the Americans.
FH: Yes, the fourth of Jan.. nein, the fourth of May.
IV: '45?
FH: '45.
IV: Yeah.
FH: In, eh, they were sitting in there. Writing, eh, the, the piece, eh, the Germans and the Americans and things like that.
And the, on the third, and, and I was told that, and I said that to a, eh, to eh, a German soldier.
And ehh, then, there was sitting a lot of German soldiers, ehhh.
Ordinary soldiers, you know, from and eh, one of them got up, and, and took his gun.
And pointed it at me, and said, I shouldn't go and spread lies.
That's, that, so close it was, but then he, his, lieutenant, the German lieutenant said to him, "get down". {laughs}
So, so that was that. And then, then, then, then I haven't had very much more to do with the army.
I've got, got quite a number of medals, and I got quite, a, ehhh number of all things.
Ehmm, so ehhh, that was also a, ehhh, trip from, from, from the beginning of the war to the end.
IV: Yea. Long trip.
FH: Eh, To, what, to..
IV: Can I ask you a question? How many months exactly you spent in Flossenbürg?
FH: In Flossenbürg, I, have I stayed, from, eh, beginning of march, to ehh...
IV: '45? March '45?
FH: March, yea. March '45.
IV: Until May.
FH: Ehh, {speaks Danish}.
Frau: Dachau.
FH: Dachau. I was in Dachau for a while.
IV: Yea.
FH: Yea, I came from Dachau in, in, ehh, at the end of the, {unintelligible} at the end of, of, of Januar, beginning of February, or, or March.
IV: Ehhm.
FH: Ehm, and then I was in Flossenbürg from.. {speaks Danish}.
Frau: {unintelligible}
FH: Yeah.
Frau: {unintelligible}
FH: {speaks danish}
Frau: We had never seen this before... Here.
FH: Hmm. {unintelligible}
Frau: {unintelligible}
FH: Hmm... You see this? This, this is Sachsenhausen... You see the trip...
IV: That's the trip...
FH: From Skodsborg to eh, Prinz Albrecht Strasse. Sachsenhausen. Or, or, Dachau, or Flossenbürg.
That was finished down in, in, in Northern Italy. It's not so...
I had a, I got a room there, eh, and if I went down and lifted the thing, there was a beer eh, a wine cellar, underneath it.
I, I, I've never touch.. I never touched it. I wouldn't. Huh. {coughs} But I was, that was where the whole thing stopped.
IV: Hmmm.
FH: And then from here I was taken to, to, eh, Napoli and sailed to Scotland. And then f.. flown home.
IV: So maybe you can tell a little bit what happened in your life, after the war.
FH: Yes, at the beginning, eh, I couldn't, I wasn't able to work, really.
Eh, and I was, so I sta.. I started, I started then, I was an engineer. You know.
And then in Copenhagen they wanted to build a great big swimming pool. Eh, for, for the folks to use.
And they would give me a job as an engineer there. You know, down in the, where you clea.. clean the water, and you ehhh, and you have the pressure in the water and all that.
Ehhh, and, and so I was waiting for it. To, to start then. Oh, sorry, I didn't see that? {coughs}. That was not yours? That was not yours, was it? {points to the water glass}
IV: Sorry?
FH: That was not yours.
IV: No no, that's yours, mine is down here. In the ground.
FH: Uh ah. So, so that was, sto.. in, in, in. There were many things, that wasn't very nice, and many things that wasn't great.
And eh, when, when, when, you get a parcel from your family. And things like that. Then it's nice to get it. But you've never heard of it. And and the guards they took it.
There was some good stuff in. You know, chocolate. Anything else. And eh. All of that.
Ehmm. As I told you, ehh, I, I was hit, eeh here {points to his forehead}, and eh, I was lucky I wasn't sick. You know it.
IV: Yea.
FH: Ehmm. But none of the other ones are living. But of course, I was the youngest.
IV: The youngest of all.
FH: Yeah, I mean, in, down there. I mean, Knut was a six, seven years olders than me.
And the other one was eight years older then and.. So, so, but they are gone.
But eh, but eh, but we, we had a nice time there, because we, we, we made it, we made it, having a nice time.
IV: Maybe you can tell me, eh, something about this picture.
FH: Well, you see, this picture, eh, eh, you can see... Can you see, it's exactly the same.
IV: Yea. That's the same.
FH: That's the same.
IV: Yea.
FH: And, that's taken for this one. That, that, that came, that thing came with a, with a cooperative store. That's, that, they have that. {speaks Danish}
IV: Who, who took the picture, and when? This one.
FH: Here?
IV: Who took it?
FH: Yea, I don't know who, who...
IV: Eh, Who, who was the photographer, in what year?
FH: This one?
IV: Yea.
FH: 1945.
IV: 1945.
FH: 1945.
IV: After coming back to Denmark.
FH: Ah hah. It's taken in Denmark. You can see our, our wings.
IV: Yea, that's it. Uniform.
FH: Yea. Hmm. And, you, you can see we have, we have two papers.
He has only one .... He, he, he was arrested, he {unintelligible}, it was us three that were really the.. But he, we, we picked him out of the, of the Gestapo's headquarter in Prinz Albrecht Straße.
Because, we, we didn't want him to, to say anything.
About the building up of the, the resistance movement in, in Denmark...
IV: Yea, a lot of remembering. I think, for us it's ok...
{no audio} FH: Eh, russians, I think. {unintelligible} They are coming in, flung them in my cell. At 10 o'clock at night.
And the {unintelligible} at 4 o'clock. And then they were killed.
I mean that's, that's, you, you, you don't know when it's your turn, do you?
IV: Yeah.
FH: But however...