“BEFORE OUR BREAK, we were talking about Grethe and Lukas,” Catherine says.
Britta nods. “Throughout the spring and summer of 1941, Grethe’s absences became more frequent, and her stays were for longer durations. She would send me postcards from Aarhus, Odense, Svendborg and towns I’d never heard of, many of them hundreds of miles away. Always the same upbeat messages. ‘Hal was brilliant tonight.’ ‘Hal was spellbinding.’ ‘Large and enthusiastic crowd today.’”
“I don’t understand why the German administration permitted him to hold these lectures,” Catherine says. “He was clearly preaching resistance against the Nazis.”
“Remember, the Cooperation Agreement allowed Denmark domestic control. The Nazis weren’t censoring. If anyone was calling for insurrection or open rebellion, that would have been contrary to the Cooperation Agreement and also Danish law. As such, it would have been illegal, and the Danish courts would have prohibited such a movement. Koch never urged anyone to break the law; he was a nonviolent man preaching passive resistance. That said, many of Koch’s followers had formed resistance groups; they called them clubs. At one point, there were seven hundred clubs in Denmark. Not all were nonviolent.”
“Was Grethe a member of a resistance club?”
Britta answered with her eyes and a slight nod of her head. “Not at first, but Danish pride flowed through her veins. It was just a matter of time until she and Lukas joined a club. It was risky business. The Germans monitored Koch’s lectures and even sent spies to attend. They kept notes on what was said and who attended. No doubt they made note of Grethe and Lukas.
“In 1940 and 1941, Germany was complying with the Cooperation Agreement, not because they felt it was a contractual obligation or because they had given their word. We’d seen what Hitler’s word was worth. They complied because the arrangement was working for them and they didn’t want to disturb it. Denmark was a staging area where German troops were garrisoned. They were there to protect their shipping channels and prevent Britain from gaining a foothold in northern Europe.
“From time to time, Koch’s lectures riled up his followers and inspired local protests, which on occasion blossomed into acts of sabotage. In those cases, the German authorities would demand that the Danish police quell the disturbance and arrest the protagonists. That was the established chain of command. If it was necessary to conduct a trial, the offenders would be tried in Danish courts. All in all, it was an uneasy collaborative process, but it was working for both sides.
“In mid-November 1941, Grethe and Lukas were in the village of Kolding, where Professor Koch gave one of his most inspiring messages. ‘You are in the Kimbric Peninsula,’ he shouted, ‘the cradle of Teutons; the Grotons. We are the Danes!’ His speech was hitting home. As with many of his lectures, it was grounded in biblical morality. ‘Can we look at ourselves today and say that we are practicing civic virtue? Are we following the Golden Rule? Are we our brother’s keeper? If we answer affirmatively, are we not required to reject tyranny?’ As it so often occurred, hundreds stood and shouted. Many were moved to tears.
“That night in Kolding, a group of young people, fired up by the lecture, left the program intent on damaging German vehicles and installations. Foolishly, Grethe and Lukas were swept up in the excitement and followed along. They made their way to a German communications center where several of the young men attempted to set a fire. Grethe would later concede that although she and Lukas did not participate in the arson, their presence was a mistake, a gross error in judgment. She said she had no prior indications of such destructive plans. As the fire began to blaze, the group was quickly surrounded by Danish police and taken off to jail. According to Grethe, the arrest scene was a contentious affair and some of the police became abusive. One of the officers grabbed Grethe and was roughly handling her. Lukas was alerted by her cries. You must understand how deeply Lukas loved Grethe. He rushed to her aid, ready to take on the entire police force. Two of the officers rebuffed him and pushed him down. Lukas didn’t go down without a fight. He threw a number of punches but was quickly subdued. As he was being held in restraints, the officer who had accosted Grethe walked over, pulled out his club and slammed it on Lukas’s wrist, breaking the bone.
“My father was working in his parliamentary office when he received a phone call. The caller identified himself as the precinct commander at the Kolding police station. With that sixth sense that fathers have, before another word was uttered, he said, ‘Is she all right?’ The commander said she was physically well, but she was in custody. There had been an incident at a communications facility and several young people were being detained. Kolding officials were trying to placate the Germans over minor fire damage. Given that Grethe was the daughter of a member of Parliament, the commander was inclined to offer special treatment. He would let her go, but only if my father would personally come and pick her up.
“Naturally, my father dropped everything, and one hundred fifty miles, two ocean causeways and three hours later, he pulled up to the police station in Kolding. The commander took him aside and said, ‘If you wouldn’t mind my passing along a word of caution, your daughter has involved herself with a dangerous crowd. They’re a raucous bunch. They get all heated up by this professor character and they run off to cause mischief, some of it serious. I’m not one to say that your daughter’s heart is in the wrong place, I’m sympathetic, but we must take care not to upset the current state of affairs, if you know what I mean. The Germans are losing patience with these rebellious youngsters. They are pressuring us to do something.’
“A few minutes later, he brought Grethe out. She was contrite, in that she regretted her actions of the previous night, but she was not sorry for being a member of Koch’s inner circle. She was proud to be a self-professed resister. My father begged her to come home, and reattend her classes.
“‘You’re throwing away your gifts,’ he said, ‘don’t you see that? You’re going to be a brilliant physician, but a conviction for arson or criminal damage to property could very well kill your chances of getting a medical license. Don’t jeopardize your future. As a doctor, you’ll be helping Danes for the rest of your life.’
“Grethe was a hard sell. She was devoted to her cause. ‘From where I stand, I can’t see the rest of my life,’ she replied. ‘It’s too far away and Nazi flags are in the way. Denmark is my future, but only if Danes unite to reject Nazi ideology. That is what Hal preaches; a united Danish spirit, undiluted by Germany’s racism.’
“‘Does Professor Koch preach rioting? Is that his method for achieving Danish unity?’
“Grethe shook her head. ‘I was foolish tonight, I told you that. I shouldn’t have gone off with that crowd. It won’t happen again.’
“My father started to walk Grethe to the car when she stopped short. ‘I can’t leave without Lukas. He’s still in the lockup, and he’s only there because of me. You have to get him released. Please, talk to the police commander.’
“They met with the commander in his office. He told them that releasing Lukas presented a more serious problem; Lukas struck one of his officers. He was facing charges of resisting arrest and assault of a policeman. ‘He’s only in trouble because he was protecting me from one of your abusive officers,’ Grethe said. ‘The fat one with the mustache and the greasy hair. He thought the arrests gave him permission to grope a woman. He had his hands all over me. That’s when Lukas came to my aid. He pushed the officer away, but others came and they threw Lukas to the ground. I think they broke his wrist. I want to file a complaint.’
“The commander took a deep breath. He didn’t like what he was hearing. Apparently, there was a history with this particular officer, and the commander didn’t want to process another complaint. An imbroglio connected to his precinct was the last thing he wanted. Especially involving the daughter of a member of Parliament. He asked Grethe and my father to wait while he checked the story with the other officers.
“A few minutes later the commander came out with Lukas, and my father drove him to a clinic.”
“Grethe was lucky,” Catherine says. “The commander might have faced discipline because of favorable treatment.”
“Generally speaking, the Danish police resented the German presence, especially the Gestapo, and they were prone to bend the rules and look the other way if they could. Before he left Kolding, the commander took my father aside and advised him that the Gestapo had agents at all of the Koch lectures.
“According to Grethe, the ride home was more of the same. Did she understand that if this rebellious attitude spread, if there was general civil rebellion in Denmark, then Hitler would immediately disavow the agreement, overrun the country and impose his Nazi rule? ‘Imagine the consequences to Jews and other minorities,’ he said. And in that regard, my father saw the future.
“Once back home, my father wrote to Professor Koch on official Parliament stationery. ‘Please be mindful of the delicate and precarious situation in which Denmark finds itself. The children who follow you and later commit acts of sabotage or property damage are placing themselves and their country at risk.’ The professor replied promptly. He assured my father that he was counseling passive resistance, not criminal activities, and he would talk to Grethe as well as the other students he knew to be leaders of the movement.”
“And did he talk to Grethe? Was she embarrassed by what your father did? I know if my father wrote a letter to my law professors, telling them what to teach and what not to teach, I would have been devastated,” Catherine says with a grin.
“After receiving the letter from my father, Professor Koch made it a point to talk to Grethe about the delicate balance between the unity of the Danish people, the universal embodiment of Danish honor, and outright civil disobedience which would have the effect of encouraging the Nazis to police the state. I could tell she was mildly put off, but she respected my father and what he did.”
Catherine squints one eye. “Why do I think that Grethe and Lukas didn’t follow their advice? They continued their involvement in the resistance movement, didn’t they?”
“Oh, yes they did, and the result was tragic.”