Jørgen Kieler

Jørgen Kieler (23 August 1919 – 19 February 2017[1]) was a Danish physician, remembered primarily for his participation in resistance activities under the German occupation of Denmark in the early 1940s. Together with his sister, Elsebet Kieler, he published Frit Denmark or Free Denmark, an illegal newspaper. As a member of the Holger Danske resistance group, he helped hundreds of Danish Jews to escape to Sweden and avoid extermination.[2]

Jørgen Kieler during the occupation years

On 21 May 1944 Jørgen Kieler smuggled the last letter written by condemned resistance fighter Georg Quistgaard out of prison.[3]

Despite capture by the Germans and time in a concentration camp, he returned to Denmark after the war and then completed his studies in the United States. In 1980, he became director of research at Kræftens Bekæmpelse (the Danish Cancer Research Institute).

Kieler wrote a number of books about the German occupation and about concentration camp syndrome.

On 19 February 2017, Kieler died at age 97.[1]

Bibliography (selected)
  • Kieler, Jørgen (2001). Hvorfor gjorde I det? : personlige erindringer fra besættelsestiden i historisk belysning [Why did you do it? : Personal Memories from the Occupation in a Historical Light] (in Danish) (1st ed.). Gyldendal. 410 pages. ISBN 8700751480.

References
  1. "Modstandsmanden Jørgen Kieler er død" [Resistance member Jørgen Kieler dies]. Berlingske (in Danish). 19 February 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  2. Jørgen Kieler, M.D. and Elsebet Kieler from the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
  3. Kieler, Jørgen (2001). Hvorfor gjorde I det? : personlige erindringer fra besættelsestiden i historisk belysning [Why did you do it? : Personal Memories from the Occupation in a Historical Light] (in Danish) (1st ed.). Gyldendal. 410 pages. ISBN 8700751480.
  • Kieler, Jørgen: Resistance Fighter. Gefen Publishing House, 2007. ISBN 978-965-229-397-8.
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