I thank Peggy Akers for helping me locate translators of Danish text to English. Her greatest find was her mother, Gertrude Tuxen, who at the age of ninety-six wrote out translations of dozens of pages. Thanks, too, for the fine translation work of Linda Tuxen.
Thanks to Carol Shanesy for typing dictated passages and to Kathren Greenlaw for transcribing more than twenty-five hours of recorded interviews between Knud Pedersen and me.
I extend my gratitude to Phebe Tice and Samuel Kemmerer, students at Breakwater School in Portland, Maine, for carefully reading the book in manuscript form and commenting extensively. Thanks to their teacher Cheryl Hart for finding them for me. I thank Dean Harrison for superb tech support, keeping me and my laptop going through several generations of change. Thanks to Mark Mattos of Curious City for emergency Web support when I was most baffled.
I thank my wife, Sandi Ste. George, for sharing every aspect of this project. She let me read aloud to her chapter after chapter, commenting along the way, and then listened to the entire book several times. She shared my excitement as this book came to life. I am a lucky man.
At Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, I thank Roberta Pressel for yet another fine design and Simon Boughton for his faith in and support of this project. Special appreciation goes to my editor, Wesley Adams. Creative, insightful, and responsive, Wes had an intuitive sense for the content of this book and a talent for solving problems.
I thank Patricia Bibby Heath for kindly and thoughtfully sharing with me in a rather hastily arranged telephone interview the dramatic events and personal experiences of seventy years ago.
In Denmark, the staff of the Museum of Danish Resistance steered me to Knud Pedersen and thus can stake a claim on the origin of this book. Niels Gyrsting kindly provided many of the images that enliven these pages and document the story. Karen Nielsen helped me find Aalborg resources. Knud’s daughter Kristine Riskaer Povlsen helped keep the project going, especially when her father was ill. His son Rasmus Riskaer Smith also contributed timely technical assistance. Knud’s wife, Bodil Riskaer, provided unwavering support of this book in countless ways. Val and B. Bach Kristiansen kindly assisted with research and translation.
When one contacts the Art Library in Copenhagen, one reaches Mette Stegelmann. Mette shared with Knud and me the day-to-day work of this project. She was the go-to person when we needed help with photographs, contract work, or rushing a message across the Atlantic. She is a joy to work with.
Knud Pedersen was one of the most remarkable and inspiring people I’ve ever met. The chance to work daily with Knud to tell this important but too-obscure story of World War II was a lifetime thrill. We concluded each of the hundreds of e-mail messages we exchanged with the word “love.” At least on my part, I surely came to mean it.