Gerda Fiil

Gerda Søvang Fiil (30 January 1927 - 26 June 1994) was a convicted member of the Danish resistance, whose father and brother were executed by the German occupying power.

Gerda Fiil
Born
Gerda Søvang Fiil[1][2]

(1927-01-30)30 January 1927[1][2][3][4][5]
Hvidsten, Denmark[1][2][3][5]
Died26 June 1994(1994-06-26) (aged 67)[5]
Hvidsten, Denmark[5]
Resting placeSpentrup cemetery[5]
Other namesGerda Søvang Jessen
OccupationWaitress[4]
Known forConvicted member of the Danish resistance movement[4]
Spouse(s)Svend Jessen (married until 1994)[5]
Parent(s)
Relatives
Website"Modstandsdatabasen" [Resistance Database]. Gerda Fiil (in Danish). Copenhagen: Nationalmuseet. Retrieved 23 May 2015.

Biography

Gerda Søvang Fiil was born in Hvidsten on 30 January 1927 as the fourth of five children to proprietor Marius Fiil and wife Gudrun Fiil and baptized 28 March in Gassum church with her grandfather inn keeper in Hvidsten Niels Pedersen as godfather.[1][2]

That year she lived in Hvidsten Inn with her 72-year-old grandfather as inn keeper, her parents, brother and three sisters and a farm hand, a maid and a manager.[3]

She was confirmed Palm Sunday in Gassum church in 1941, while living in Hvidsten with her family.[2]

During the later stage of the occupation the family and other locals formed a resistance group, the Hvidsten group.[4]

With the group she helped the British Special Operations Executive parachute weapons and supplies into Denmark for distribution to the resistance.[4]

In March 1944 the Gestapo made an "incredible number of arrests" including in the region of Randers herself, her father the "nationally known folklore collector and keeper of Hvidsten inn Marius Fiil", her brother Niels Fiil, her oldest sister Kirstine and her brother-in-law Peter Sørensen.[6]

The following month De frie Danske reported on her father again, that he along with other arrestees from Hvidsten had been transferred from Randers to Vestre Fængsel.[7]

In June 1944 a court martial sentenced Fiil to two years in a juvenile prison.[8]

On 29 June 1944 her father, brother and brother-in-law and five other members of the Hvidsten group were executed in Ryvangen.[9][10][11][12][13]

On 15 July 1944 De frie Danske reported on the executions, her two-year prison sentence and the life sentence of her sister Kirstine and compared her father to Svend Gønge and Niels Ebbesen.[11]

Fiil and her sister were imprisoned separately in Germany, but she was soon after pardoned and returned to Denmark.[8]

In April 1945 Fiil was therefore able to join her mother in receiving her older sister in the Danish border town Padborg, to which Kirstine had been evacuated with the White Buses after also receiving a pardon.[8]

On 2 July 1945 the remains of her father and brother were found in Ryvangen and transferred to the Department of Forensic Medicine of the university of Copenhagen.[12][9] The remains of her brother-in-law and the five other executed members of the group were found in the same area three days later.[12][9] The following inquests showed that they had been executed with gunshot wounds to the chest.[10][13]

On 10 July 1945 her executed family members and the five other executed group members were cremated at Bispebjerg Cemetery.[9][10][12][13]

Gerda Fiil died in Hvidsten on 26 June 1994, survived by her husband Svend Jessen.[5] They are both buried in Spentrup cemetery.[5]

Portrayal in the media
  • In the 2012 Danish drama film Hvidsten Gruppen (This Life) Gerda Fiil is portrayed by Laura Winther Møller.[14]
gollark: While the original code is lost to time, you can see evidence of this in the "diputs si aloirarreT" sometimes printed on startup.
gollark: It was originally designed in 2018 to mildly annoy Terrariola.
gollark: Not that LOC is a good metric, but still.
gollark: That's 0.05 potatOSes. Nobody ever paid me for that.
gollark: If they want that they can use my LMS; unencrypted, zero security, basically trivial to implement, decentralised.

References
  1. "Fødte Kvindekøn" [Born Females]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1920-1934 (in Danish). Gassum. 1927. p. 82.
  2. "Konfirmerede Piger" [Confirmed Girls]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1935-1949 (in Danish). Gassum. 1941. p. 145.
  3. Folketælling [Census] (in Danish). Gassum. 5 November 1930. Hvidsten.
  4. "Modstandsdatabasen" [Resistance Database]. Gerda Fiil (in Danish). Copenhagen: Nationalmuseet. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  5. "Gerda Fiil". gravsted.dk. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  6. "Utrolig mange Arrestationer" [Incredibly many arrests]. De frie Danske (in Danish). 18 March 1944. p. 10. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  7. "ARRESTEREDE" [ARRESTED]. De frie Danske (in Danish). 23 April 1944. p. 10. Retrieved 24 November 2014. Kroejer Marius Fiil med flere fra Hvidsten er blevet overført fra Randers til Vestre
  8. Warring, Anette (2003). "Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon - Kirstine Fiil" (in Danish). KVINFO. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  9. "Døde Mandkøn" [Deceased Males]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1930-1946 (in Danish). Sankt Johannes Sogn. 1945. p. 354.
  10. "Døde Mandkøn" [Deceased Males]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1942-1949 (in Danish). Bispebjerg Sogn. 1945. p. 63. Ligsyn Retsmedicinsk Institut. Dødsaarsag: Skudsaar i Brystet Dødsmaaden: Henrettet ved Skydning
  11. "29. Juni - 8 Frihedskæmpere henrettet" [29 June - 8 freedom fighters executed]. Frit Danmark (in Danish). January 1945. p. 9. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  12. "Døde Mandkøn" [Deceased Males]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1930-1946 (in Danish). Sankt Johannes Sogn. 1945. p. 352. Død 29 Juni 1944 Ryvangen Fundet 2 Juli 1945. Skudt. Begravet 10 Juli 1945 Bispebjerg Krematorium. Kroejer, 51 Aar
  13. "Døde Mandkøn" [Deceased Males]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1942-1949 (in Danish). Bispebjerg Sogn. 1945. p. 64. Ligsyn Retsmedicinsk Institut. Dødsaarsag: Skudsaar i Brystet Dødsmaaden: Henrettet ved Skydning
  14. "This life / Hvidsten Gruppen - nogle må dø for at andre kan leve". dfi.dk. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
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