INTERNATIONAL RAOUL WALLENBERG FOUNDATION
RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS – FEMALE SAVIORS
HTTP://WWW.RAOULWALLENBERG.NET/SAVIORS/WOMEN/LIST-WOMEN-SAVIORS
CHRIS MCDONOUGH, EDITOR [THE FOUNDATION ASKED ME TO REDUCE LONG BIOGRAPHIES TO BIO-NOTES.]
Ellen Nielsen, Denmark
In 1941, Ellen Nielsen, a widowed fishmonger on the Copenhagen docks, hid two Jewish brothers in her home with her six children while she arranged for the brothers to escape with local fishermen.
Mrs. Nielsen was ideally situated to link fishermen with the Danish Underground. She helped over a hundred refugees escape to Sweden. At one point, she hid over thirty in her house. She also hid Underground saboteurs.
Mrs. Nielsen was ideally situated to link fishermen with the Danish Underground. She helped over a hundred refugees escape to Sweden. At one point, she hid over thirty in her house. She also hid Underground saboteurs.
In December 1944, the Gestapo arrested Mrs. Nielsen. For three months in Vestre Prison, she refused to name her contacts. She was moved to Frøslev and then to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp.
The commandant told her that, since she was so good at transporting Jewish children, she would transport Jewish children in the camp to the gas chambers and then to the crematorium.
When she refused to continue, she was put in line for the gas chamber.
Twice she saved herself by bribing a guard with items from a Red Cross parcel. The third time she had no bribe to offer.
It was while she waited in line, naked and resigned to death, that German soldiers told her that she was now saved, because Heinrich Himmler had just agreed with Count Folke Bernadotte to ship Danish concentration camp prisoners to Sweden for internment.
It was while she waited in line, naked and resigned to death, that German soldiers told her that she was now saved, because Heinrich Himmler had just agreed with Count Folke Bernadotte to ship Danish concentration camp prisoners to Sweden for internment.