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.
Biography
During the later stage of the occupation the Fiil family and other locals formed a resistance group, the Hvidsten group. With the group, she helped the British
Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...
parachute weapons and supplies into Denmark for distribution to the resistance.
In March 1944, the
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
made an "incredible number of arrests" including in the region of
Randers
Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is List of cities and towns in Denmark, Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 64,511 ().Niels Fiil, her oldest sister Kirstine and her brother-in-law Peter Sørensen.
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.
In June 1944, a
court martial
A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the mili ...
sentenced Fiil to two years in a juvenile prison.
On 29 June 1944, her father, brother and brother-in-law and five other members of the Hvidsten group were executed in Ryvangen.
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
Niels Ebbesen (1308 – 21 November 1340) was a Denmark, Danish squire and folk hero, national hero, known for assassinating Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg in 1340. From 1332 to 1340, Count Gerhard was the lord of both Jutland and Fune ...
.
Fiil and her sister were imprisoned separately in Germany, but she was soon after pardoned and returned to Denmark. 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.
On 10 July 1945 her executed family members and the five other executed group members were cremated at Bispebjerg Cemetery.
Gerda Fiil died in Hvidsten on 26 June 1994, survived by her husband Svend Jessen. They are both buried in Spentrup cemetery.
Portrayal in the media
* In the 2012 Danish drama film ''Hvidsten Gruppen'' ( This Life) Gerda Fiil is portrayed by .