The wreath that Frank Nielsen lays down at the Bowen Island cenotaph usually has poppies as well as chrysanthemums the colours red and white represent the Danish flag. By presenting the wreath, he remembers his time with the Danish resistance and in the prison camps, as well as those whose lives have been lost.
He'll especially remember a Danish patriot named Hararld Svarer. Nielsen had shared a cell with Svarerr when they were both prisoners of war in Copenhagen.
"He had been working with a group in Jutland that was receiving weapons from England. {he was caught] and condemned to be executed."
Nielsen helped him fill out an application to be pardoned but it was turned down. "We didn't have anything; everything had been confiscated. Then I asked the guard, 'This man is condemned, can we get a bible?' And we did."
Nielsen learned later that there were three poles that patriots were tied to when they were executed. At chest height, the poles were riddled with bullet holes. After the war, the Danish government replaced the poles with bronze replicas that became part of the Ryvang Memorial Park.
Right after the war, Nielsen made a special trip to meet with Svarer's mother and brother. "It was pretty rough," Nielsen says with emotion. "I told them about [Harald's] last hours."
In the winter of 1942/43, Nielsen, then 20 years old, attended a meeting of district leaders of the Scout movement in Copenhagen. He was asked whether he would like to join the resistance. "I didn't hesitate [to say yes]. The Germans had already occupied Denmark, and there was a lot of animosity among the young people."
The Danish army, navy and police had been disbanded so the resistance was the only option left.
Nielsen learned about sabotage as well as how to avoid detection. "They started to instruct us in the use of weapons and explosives, and in self-defence. We were only told half and hour before the meetings where they would happen. We got phone calls and they used a code word they never said who they were."
There were six young men in Nielsen's group and eventually the instructors gave them weapons and explosives. It was their job to blow up train tracks to disrupt the supplies going from Germany to Norway. They did that four times.
"I was also picking up weapons where they were stored and taking them in the canoe. Then another canoe came alongside, someone said the password and the weapons were transferred. I didn't see anyone as this was at night."
Nielsen moved mostly handguns and small automatic weapons. For the group's safety, there was one rule" "Nothing got written down. Because if the Gestapo discovered it, they would get us all. But that was the problem. One wrote down the telephone numbers of all six of us. And the Gestapo found it."
The leader of Nielsen's group lived in the same building as a Danish officer who had joined the Gestapo. "He became suspicious and sent the Gestapo around. They arrested four of the group. I got a warning around 5 a.m. and left right away."
Nielsen was able to escape but his father was arrested in his stead. "I gave myself up the next day and they let my father go."
On June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy. Nielsen learned about it in the prison's exercise yard. But it would be another year until the war was over. That August 1944, he was shipped to Froslev, a camp near the border.
Nielsen had heard that a rescue mission was planned for the journey. "There was supposed to be an English U-boat that was going to stop the boat and get us to England. And a weapon had been hidden on the boat." But something went wrong. The half-day journey stretched to four days.
"We went all around the island," Nielsen recalls. "[The German guards] rushed down and found the weapon. And the German who had helped us was tortured and died." The camp was built for 3,000 people but sometimes held more than 5,000.
Of the six resistance fighters in Nielsen's group, one avoided capture. Of the five interned at Froslev, three stayed in the camp and two were taken to work in a factory in Holland to produce batteries for U-boats. "For that type of work, people usually wear masks because of the lead fumes. But they didn't get any masks. It is amazing that they survived."
The main work of Nielsen's group had been railroad sabotage to prevent the Germans from transporting war material to Norway. "In spring of 1945, the Germans tried to put a stop to the sabotage in Jutland," Nielsen says. "They put 10 people from the camp on the train. I was on that trip twice."
It was announced on the radio that prisoners would be riding on the train. "There were 10 of us in the caboose. They had thrown some straw on floor and we had packets of food from the camp. Once we came by a train that was blown to pieces and the Germans said, 'Look out, this could happen to you.' The Danish resistance blew up [the tracks] anyway. One of the trips took us four days."
The prisoners were told that if anyone escaped, the rest of them would be executed. "On the last transport, we went to a northern city. One of us, he was from there. When we came close, he asked if he could open the door so he could pee. The guard said, 'Yea okay,' and sat back down. The prisoner shoved the door open and jumped out. When the German looked out, he was long gone. But they stopped the train to search. We decided that if he started shooting, we would all run. We were all sitting there, ready to jump, but he never fired a shot."
It was at the prison camp that Nielsen heard that the Danish officer who had told the Gestapo about their group, was dead, executed by a sniper.
In March 1945, the Swedish government sent Red Cross buses to pick up Scandinavian prisoners. "We were transported to Sweden and got treatment in hospitals." Their war was over.
Danish railroad saboteurs are credited with giving tactical support to the Allies by delaying transports of German troops to the front.
And for Frank Nielsen and his family, it is important to remember.
