The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club

“As Hitler put it, ‘He alone who gains the youth, owns the future.’”

This quote by Hitler reveals why he thought the Churchill Club in Denmark—a country that he thought would rule alongside Germany once he conquered the world—was particularly concerning to him. Hitler wanted Danish youth to grow into adult Nazis. The Churchill Club stands in opposition to him, threatening his future domination by swaying young people to the Allied side.

“Both Eigil and Helge panicked once we got close. Please turn around, they begged me. Let’s leave the wires for another day. So we did. I could understand—sabotage takes some getting used to. On the way out we pedaled past four German solders flirting with a Danish woman, and Eigil and Helge shouted an insult as they sped by—they called her a “field mattress,” a slur for a woman who sleeps around with soldiers.”

On their first sabotage missions, Eigil and Helge panic despite their earlier enthusiasm. The incident shows the significant fear that the boys must overcome to accomplish their increasingly dangerous resistance work. Embarrassed by their failure to cut the phone wires to the German barracks, Helge and Eigil express their frustration by insulting the woman talking with the soldiers, an example of how insecurity makes people bully others and also of the way the frustration of the occupation made Danes turn against each other.

“Here was the discussion I had longed for! I was thrilled to be with Cathedral students who felt as my brother and I did. These were guys who stayed up like us for the nightly radio broadcasts from England. The more we talked, the angrier we became. It was absurd: if you accidentally bumped into a German on the street, you were expected to strip the hat from your head, lower your eyes, and apologize profusely for disturbing a solider of the master race.”

This passage points to the subdued anger brewing among Danish society. Openly addressing their feelings intensifies them for the boys and leads to a united caused: the Churchill Club. Eventually, the actions of the Churchill Club will bring rebellious sentiment out into the open in Denmark, a larger parallel of the scene here.

“Sometimes we smashed signs to the ground with hammers. The Germans would put them back up, and we would take them back down again. These exercises weren’t winning the war, but we were getting practice and our actions were noticed by people in the streets. Someone was not giving in.”

The members of the Churchill Club are aware that their small-scale sabotage activities are not a major military factor in World War II. The power of their sign-smashing is symbolic rather than physical. While merely a nuisance to the Germans, the small acts of rebelliousness have the potential to make an important psychological impact on the complacent Danish population.

“You had to learn to breathe around armed soldiers. Your body works differently in an atmosphere of danger and excitement. Even the smallest of missions can send your diaphragm into spasms when you have no experience. You start to breathe too fast. Some people laugh uncontrollably. The tongue loosens. Some say things they regret. Ours was a war without fronts, meaning the enemy was 360 degrees around us at all times. Even with our parents, teachers, and classmates, we had to be careful what we said and whom we said it to.”

“Learning to breathe” is a metaphor for overcoming fear. Knud and the other boys gradually train themselves by committing larger and larger acts of sabotage, starting with graffiti and working their way up to grenade explosions.

“Winston Churchill referred to Denmark on the radio as ‘Hitler’s tame canary.’”

The English BBC radio inspires Knud’s struggle against the Nazis throughout the war. The remarks of Winston Churchill especially carry significance for the Churchill Club named in his honor. His reference to Denmark as Hitler’s pet is humiliating for Knud and the other boys, who are deeply ashamed of the non-resistance of their fellow Danish citizens, especially compared to Norway’s and England’s fierce fighting against Hitler.

“Back when we started the club, we all vowed that we could, and would, kill. But when the time came we were woefully unprepared. We were middle-class kids—sons of professionals, boys who had never shot a gun or wielded a club or slit a throat. We had no military training—we were too young to enlist in the army, and our army barely existed now anyway. We had no experience with the feelings involved in taking a life.[…]For us—young patriots having to invent and train ourselves as we went along—it would take more time and preparation to kill.”

When they start the Churchill Club, the boys of Aalborg are relatively innocent. Not much older than children, they are also the sons of well-off families who are removed from dangerous, physical work such as fighting in the war requires. Killing a German solider is too brutal for them at this point, but they plan to prepare themselves for the act of taking a life. This discussion about killing indicates the gradual loss of childish innocence among the boys, a theme that builds throughout the book. Here Knud Pedersen also addresses the challenge of their amateur self-training, highlighting the club’s improvisational and self-directed nature.

“We made up our operations as we went along, sometimes taking chances that we shouldn’t have taken, but we had no formal command structure. We were too jealous of each other to name or elect a leader. We belittled each other. […]The sarcasm was as thick as the monastery walls, but we had faith in each other and our mission held us together. We were out to install ‘Norwegian conditions’—the courage to resist—in our country.”

Here Knud reveals a negative side of the Churchill Club in the boys’ petty jealousies and competition. Lacking a disciplined military structure, the still-immature boys are somewhat uncooperative. Their belief in the importance of their fight against Hitler, however, is powerful enough to keep the club unified.

“As much as we hated the Germans, it was hard not have a little feeling for the common soldiers heading off to battle. Many of them didn’t seem much older than us.”

Knud and his friends are empathetic towards the enemy they are fighting. They can relate to the soldiers they see heading toward possible death, showing that even though their nations are at war, the sentiments of ordinary citizens toward each other can still be humane.

“But tonight I didn’t even feel like painting. There was too much to think about. War shadowed everything.”

This chapter, composed of Knud’s solitary reflections, illustrates how thoroughly World War II has affected his thoughts and feelings. Before as well as after the Nazi occupation, art is the primary focus of Knud’s life. His diminished drive to paint on this evening is an example of war’s ability to dramatically shift priories and destroy passion.

“My mind drifted: What would my life be like if Germany won? If Hitler had his way we’d be part of an Überreich, held up to the world as a master race, with defeated people forced to work as slaves to satisfy their masters. If the bloody Nazis won, the Churchill Club, or something like us, would have to move even further underground. Someone would have to keep hope alive. We would be forced to continue resisting in an occupied country after the war.”

Alone in his room, Knud worries about the future. His concerns reveal that the prospect of ruling the world as a part of “master race” (72), according to Hitler’s vision for the Germans and Danes, does not appeal to him. Knud strongly values peace, freedom, and equality, and is not tempted by this grandiose vision of power. His determination is so strong that he plans to keep fighting even if the Germans officially win the war. Knud bravely chooses hardship and resistance to the complacent subjugation of others.

“My shyness didn’t stop me from having heroic fantasies starring the two of us. One was set in Budolfi Square. The Churchill Club had climbed to the top of the church tower and we were hurling mortar shells and bombs onto the square below […] And suddenly, over the whine of lead, I heard a scream from the top floor of a building on the square. I looked up and there was Grethe, standing, eyes wide, her sweet hands pressed to her mouth, her slender form illuminated by the fire. We locked eyes meaningfully, and then I lost sight of her.”

Knud’s fantasies reveal a romantic motive behind his resistance work as well as a childish sense of fantasy. Although he is undeniably brave and engaged in serious, dangerous resistance work against the Nazis, his experience of the war before he goes to prison is still colored by the fanciful imagination of a young boy. The battle scene he envisions here is more cinematic than realistic. This passage also indicates that Knud is not devoid of ego or concern for his self-image; a part of him wishes to be admired, particularly by girls, for his fight against the Nazis.

“Stop now, Eigil’s sister pleaded; lie low. She and her brother had a very strong personal interest at stake: theirs was the only Jewish family among the Churchill Club members. Eigil feared that his arrest could lead to capture by the Nazis and death for his entire family. Overnight, Eigil had suddenly gone from pushing us to go out on missions every day to begging us to close down. His nerves were raw and his emotions very turbulent. Lying low was the last thing I wanted.”

Eigil proves himself to be as brave as the other boys of the Churchill Club, even joining the official resistance after his release from prison, yet he struggles with particularly strong fears throughout the war because he is Jewish. His sabotage activities place not only himself but also his entire family in danger. The Nazis want to exterminate Jews, unlike the Danes, whom Hitler wants to rule alongside Germans as part of the “master race” (72). It is possible that Knud, who is not Jewish, finds bravery easier than Eigil does for this reason.

“Why kill these three grandfathers? Is that really the war he wanted to fight? But they were on a mission to take out these particular German guards. They’d been authorized to do it, and now they were duty-bound. A mission was a mission.”

Børge and the other two boys encounter a conflict between their mission to sabotage Nazis and their humanity. Even though they have planned to kill the three Germans guards, they are essentially innocent and have no prior experience killing. In addition, they have also just had a friendly conversation with the three guards about their grandchildren, which has made it more difficult for the boys to objectify them as mere targets. In the end, the “Nibe Offensive” is unsuccessful due to the Germans’ spread-out position, although the boys’ reluctance to kill may also account for the failure. Afterwards, they are ashamed and angry; they have preserved their humanity by not killing, but they have failed in their patriotic duty to the Churchill Club.

“Danish firemen started rolling out their hoses, but they moved very slowly, sometimes standing on the hoses once water began to flow. Brandishing their pistols, the Germans shouted at them to move, but it was obvious the firemen were stalling to let the fire take hold and damage the Third Reich’s treasure. This moment was significant to us: Danish authorities—the firemen—were standing up to German orders. For the first time in a long while we felt a stirring of pride in our countrymen.”

For the Churchill Club, the damage to German military equipment has always been a lesser aim behind inspiring Danes to fight against the occupation. In this triumphant moment, the club finally witnesses an act of resistance by Danes. Although the Danish firemen arrive dutifully to put out the fire, they clearly work with deliberate slowness, causing more extensive damage. Knud and the other boys see the primary goal of the club coming to fruition as their sabotage work—in this case, the explosion of rail cars of German equipment— starts to have a bolstering psychological effect on Danes.

“The key to it all was the weapons; that’s what they cared about. Why had we stolen them? What were we going to do with them? Our defender, and surely our government, wanted us to testify that we collected them to keep as toys or souvenirs, to off of for our friends, or just to see if we could get away with it. We were just kids looking for an adventure—that’s what they wanted us to say. […] When my turn came I told the court that the weapons were not playthings to us. We planned to support the British when they came to liberate us.”

In court, Knud refuses to lie about the Churchill Club’s intentions to lessen his prison sentence. He and the other boys mean to inspire other Danes to fight, and it is important to him that the official records show the truth about their intentions. To him, the motives of the club are more important than the physical damage the boys have done to the German army. To the judge and lawyer, Knud’s obstinacy about the point of the weapons seems like childish spite. It is, rather, patriotic self-sacrifice; Knud gives up his freedom to avoid weakening the club’s message of resistance. Ironically, he must go against his government’s wishes for the sake of his country.

“Eigil struggled to stave off feelings of despair. ‘I missed my mates,’ he later wrote. ‘The loneliness was very great. In my thoughts I convinced myself that I had done the right thing by taking part in the fight against the Germans. But in the many lonely hours came the doubt anyway, often very insidious. There was no one to talk to besides myself. The light in the cell was turned off at 9 p.m. Many times I lay in my bed and struggled with the temptation to give up, to take a razor blade and slit my wrists to stop the beat of my heart. It would not be discovered until 4 a.m., I told myself.’”

Once the boys enter prison, the story of the Churchill Club takes a darker tone. Nyborg State Prison represents a significant stage in the boys’ departure from innocence. Eigil’s thoughts of suicide are the most violent scene yet in The Boys Who Challenged Hitler. Hoose was able to find this detailed quote because, as an adult, Eigil wrote a book about his experiences in the war. Eigil, more than any of the other members of the Churchill Club, visibly struggles with despair and fear during the resistance. He bravely overcomes it, however, and joins the official resistance movement after his release from prison.

“Thune was the worst kind of Nazi collaborator. He said our work had been useless because the British did not want Danes committing acts of sabotage against the Germans. But we knew it was a lie […] He made me sick.”

Although Thune Jacobsen, the Danish secretary of justice, speaks to the boys kindly when he visits them in prison, they find him cowardly and lacking integrity, a representative of the authorities who handed Denmark over to the Germans. Thune does not openly collaborate with the Germans (such as by selling weapons, as some Danish citizens do). Nevertheless, to Knud he is the “worst kind” (130) of collaborator. The judge professes not to be a Nazi but, by discouraging the boys’ work, he is essentially supporting the Germans. He makes the more expedient, safer choice rather than the honorable one.

“For the first time in years I was lying in a room whose windows had no bars. It was like a new life. Perhaps the adults who kindly gathered around us that evening to celebrate our release from prison wanted to give us the impression that there was peace in the world, so that for a short while at least, we could taste freedom. But in the minutes before I fell asleep, I could only think about my brothers. Where was Hans Jøergen tonight? Where was Alf? Were they alive? I fell sleep freshly reminded that we were still on the road to an uncertain future and that there was still so much work to do.”

Even though he is free from prison, Knud knows that he is not really free while Denmark is occupied by the Nazi regime. With the party, his parents try to create the semblance of peace. The festive atmosphere resembles the idyllic familial gatherings of Knud’s childhood but Knud sees through the pretense. He is unable to return to the sense of comfort of his childhood. His tension and worries on his first night out of prison show how the war has forced him to grow up.

“Father allowed the monastery to become a safe house for resisters, but every week he put us all in danger. He damned the bloody Germans in his Sunday sermons, almost taunting them […] His parishioners warned him to back off. […] Father ignored them.”

Like his sons Knud and Jens, Edvard Pedersen stands up for his convictions, putting himself and those around him in danger. He is similarly brave, reckless, and determined. Significantly, he risks the lives of his family and parishioners with his anti-German sermons. Clearly, for him, preaching truthfully is more important than immediate safety. While the boys rely on the means available to them—vandalism and arson committed from their bikes—the reverend Edvard uses the medium of the church to resist.

“I was totally lost at first. I didn’t know what to do. I was as lonely as ever for a soul mate, maybe even more so because just after I got back I met Grethe again and I instantly realized I wasn’t in love anymore. She was riding down the street on her bicycle and stopped to greet me. I had spent more than two years obsessed with this person and now, strangely, all the feelings had vanished. Where did that leave me?”

Like a soldier returning from war, it is difficult for Knud to integrate himself back into society. After his traumatic experiences in prison, he finds himself feeling lonely and burdened. He cannot talk openly with his parents or with Jens, with whom he has a relationship characterized by jealous rivalry. In prison, he relied on fantasies of Grethe for psychological support, but his romantic notions fall apart when confronted by reality. This scene reveals that his obsession with Grethe was based on his imaginings of her.

“‘I was not mature enough at seventeen to sense that he was in trouble, that prison had left him deeply shaken. He talked about jail through amusing stories, like the one about the guard who told him to polish his latrine until it shone “like your mother’s best vase.” I laughed, but I couldn’t feel his pain. Not yet.’”

As he did in King Hans Gades Jail, Knud uses irreverent humor to cope with desperate situations. Underneath his jaunty demeanor, however, the trauma of prison and war have left him with deep pain. The Epilogue reveals that the other boys were intensely affected as well.

“It was a simple business card. Below my name was my title. It was the same title that had landed me in two Danish prisons. It had inspired robotic guards to try to reduce me to a number. My title had been cursed and lauded in thousands of living rooms and kitchens and workplaces during Denmark’s bleakest hours. It was a title I had taken on as a boy and would wear with pride for the rest of my life. The card read:

Knud Pedersen

Member of the Churchill Club”

Hoose ends the book with the significant moment in which Knud is seated in the VIP section for Churchill’s speech. This scene emphasizes the dramatic arc of the many events to which the courage and determination of a young boy led. The changing circumstances Knud describes in this passage highlight his steadfast conviction in the Churchill Club. He stuck by his title of member whether it was beneficial or harmful to him, allowing him to feel proud of himself for it after the war is over.