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

This account of a little-known resistance movement in which Danish adolescents stood up to their Nazi occupiers is an outstanding addition to the WWII canon. In 1940, Germany invaded Denmark under the guise of friendship. While nearby Norway fought back against the Nazis, the Danish government let Hitler set up shop. Enter teenaged Knud Pedersen, who -- along with his brother Jens -- decided that “if the adults would not act, we would.” Knud and Jens joined up with some mates to form the Churchill Club (so named for the British prime minister). The group used civil disobedience to pester the Nazis, creating disturbances ranging from relatively restrained (switching German signs around, cutting enemy telephone lines) to positively dangerous (arson, stealing German firearms). These actions fired up “Hitler’s tame canary” -- as Winston Churchill himself described Denmark -- leading to a larger-scale Danish revolt against the Germans, but Knud and his friends missed much of the excitement due to imprisonment (many for just a few months, Knud for over two years). To research the project, Hoose visited Pedersen in Copenhagen, conducting nearly twenty-five hours of interviews; the two men then exchanged some one thousand email messages. Hoose brilliantly weaves Pedersen’s own words into the larger narrative of Denmark’s stormy social and political wartime climate, showing how the astonishing bravery of otherwise ordinary Danish teens started something extraordinary. A bibliography, notes, illustration credits, and index round out this essential title. sam bloom

When Hitler invaded Denmark, teenaged Knud Pedersen (with his brother and some mates) engaged in civil disobedience, inspiring a larger-scale Danish revolt. Hoose brilliantly weaves Pedersen's own words into the larger narrative of wartime Denmark, showing how the astonishing bravery of ordinary Danish teens started something extraordinary. An outstanding addition to the WWII canon. Bib., ind.