Last living member of famous Danish WWII resistance group dies

Svend Egon Andersen managed to escape the Gestapo by fleeing to Sweden

Christian Wenande

Aug 17, 2017

The final remaining member of the Hvidsten Group, Denmark’s most famous WWII resistance outfit, has passed away aged 97 in Jutland.

Svend Egon Andersen worked in Randers in his early life before joining up with the Hvidsten Group to resist the German occupation during WWII after witnessing the arrest of 300 Danish communists.

The story of the Hvidsten Group was adapted to film in 2012 in the popular ‘Hvidsten Gruppen’. With its centre of operations based in the village pub Hvidsten Kro, the group was the first Danish resistance group to receive weapons, munitions and explosives dropped by British aircraft.

READ MORE: The innkeeper, his family and their inspiring resistance

Grizzly end
But the Gestapo discovered the group on 11 March 1944 and 14 members were arrested, eight of whom were executed.

Andersen was not among those picked up as he had been warned and he succeeded in fleeing to Sweden, where he joined the ‘Den Danske Brigade’ – a military unit established in Sweden during WWII that consisted of Danish resistance fighters and military personnel who had come to Sweden as refugees.

When he heard about his executed resistance pals, he was so pained that he strongly considered returning to Denmark to continue the fight. Read more about the Hvidsten Group here.

Andersen will be laid to rest at Knebel Kirke on August 18.

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