A research side-quest

On the way back from the UK this summer, we took a slight detour via Copenhagen (thanks to the airlines charging ridiculous prices between Britain and Sweden), and my husband kindly agreed to come with me to the Museum of Danish Resistance. Because he’s good enough to indulge my strange requests in the service of research. (Don’t worry, we didn’t go to Copenhagen just to visit a museum; I’m not that dictatorial.)

And I learned so much, including…

• Listening to BBC radio broadcasts (with a Danish-language broadcast once a day) was not an illegal activity during the country’s occupation (but making radio broadcasts was).

• Microfilms and documents were smuggled out of the country in hollowed-out books, pencils, and even coins.

Hollow coins for transporting microfilm. The Museum of Danish Resistance 1940-1945

• Providing information on individuals wanted by the Nazis could be rewarded with up to 25,000 Danish kroner (equivalent to around 600,000 Danish kroner in today’s money, or almost £70,000 / $90,000).

• Young people wore knitted caps in the colours of the RAF as a form of silent resistance. Although made illegal, the punishment for this was mild.

Knitted caps in RAF colours. The Museum of Danish Resistance 1940-1945

• A Danish scientist invented a powder that dulled tracker dogs’ sense of smell.

• Seven members of the Nazi-backed paramilitary counter-sabotage Petergruppen were executed after the war for their part in the assassination of leading resistance fighters and acts of terrorism.

Spending a few hours at the museum has provided me with all the lovely little details that I can weave into my story to help make it feel more realistic. And you won’t be surprised to learn that I took nearly one hundred photos as we went round.