My dad, Frants Erik Nielsen, was a member of the Danish resistance during WWII.
Dad was arrested in April 1944 and arrived at the prisoner of war camp in Froslev, South Denmark, close to the German border in August,1944, where he stayed until the war ended in May 1945.
Prisoners had restricted movement and barbed wire surrounding their barracks, with guard towers at regular intervals. They had little to eat and in spite of the cold winter they were allowed to wash, but only in cold water.
Shortly after he arrived in the camp, the prisoners were asked if there was anyone who could fix the broken potato-peeling machine in the kitchen. Since dad was apprenticed as a machinist, he said that he could probably fix it. Because dad was successful at fixing the peeler, was allowed to work in the kitchen barrack. The kitchen had food and heat.
Because everything in the kitchen was done by hand, all the people who worked in the kitchen lived in the same barrack. This barrack was located near the kitchen barrack, but accessed through a guarded gate in a wire fence which surrounded their barrack.
The kitchen workers had to wash every day and were given warm water from the kitchen with which to wash as opposed to the other barracks that only had cold water.
Dad decided to start carrying the hot water from the kitchen to their barrack. It was a regular sight for the guards;-- dad going back and forth with the water containers.
Normally no food was allowed in the barracks but because dad worked in the kitchen and had access to food they decided to have a party for his birthday, in their barrack.
Every once in a while the camp received shipments of hvitol, a dark, non alcoholic beer and Dad kept a few bottles hidden from the last shipment. Borge managed to get some pure alcohol from the Danish doctors who were also prisoners and they mixed it with the hvitol.
Every day the kitchen received containers of fresh milk from outside the camp, the milk was allowed to settle overnight and in the morning Dad skimmed the cream from the top and filled a container that went to the German soldiers mess. If there was a bit of extra cream he would give it to the Danish prisoners for their coffee but the container for the German soldiers always had to be filled first.
Dad would be having his birthday in the prison camp so he planned to make the most of a bad situation. He planned a party.
On the day of the party dad skimmed extra cream from the German’s portion and added milk to it. He also managed to steal some bread and a bit of butter and cheese. Another prisoner who worked in the kitchen was a chef who owed restaurants in Copenhagen.
The chef showed the other men how to make ice cream by using snow mixed with salt in a bucket. He then put the container of cream in that bucket and it froze into ice cream.
They smuggled the food and spiked hvitol into their barrack room later in the day in the containers of wash water, made the ice cream and had what Dad’s described as a very nice birthday party in their barrack room.
Knud Borge Andreson, (Eagle,) who was the leader of the resistance group that my father was with. Borge had been an architect, but was also an artist.
For dad’s birthday present he did a painting of the view from their prison. He gave it to Dad as during the birthday party in Froslev Prison Camp, Denmark on February 3, 1945, on his 23rd birthday.
The painting is of the view from their room in barrack H5, looking across the compound towards one of the guard towers.
