Kirstine Fiil

Kirstine Fiil (23 August 1918 – 25 August 1983) was a convicted member of the Danish resistance as part of the Hvidsten Group, whose husband, father and brother were executed by the German occupying power.

Kirstine Fiil
Born
Kirstine Nicoline Søvang Fiil[1][2]

(1918-08-23)23 August 1918[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
Hvidsten, Denmark[1][2][3][7]
Died25 August 1983(1983-08-25) (aged 65)[7]
Hvidsten, Denmark[7]
Resting placeGassum cemetery
OccupationHouse wife, inn keeper[7]
Known forConvicted member of the Danish resistance movement[6]
Spouse(s)
Children
Parent(s)
Relatives
Website"Modstandsdatabasen" [Resistance Database]. Kirstine Fiil (in Danish). Copenhagen: Nationalmuseet. Retrieved 23 May 2015.

Biography

Early life

Kirstine Fiil was born in Hvidsten on 23 August 1918 as the first of five children to proprietor Marius Fiil and 27-year-old wife Gudrun Fiil and baptized Kirstine Nicoline Søvang Fiil in Gassum church on the 17th Sunday after Trinity with her grandfather inn keeper in Hvidsten Niels Pedersen as godfather.[1][2]

In 1930 she lived in Hvidsten Inn with her 72-year-old grandfather as inn keeper, her parents, younger brother and three sisters and a farm hand, a maid and a manager.[3] She was confirmed in Gassum church in 1932 on the 19th Sunday after Trinity, while living in Hvidsten with her parents who at that time had taken over the inn[2] where her father was born. On 25 April 1939 in Gassum church she married the four years older Peder Bergenhammer Sørensen as housekeeper in Gassum with her father as best man.[8]

World War II

In 1942 on her birthday she gave birth in Hvidsten to a girl, who on the 19th Sunday after Trinity was baptized Gudrun Fiil Sørensen Møller in Gassum church.[9] Later after her parents had taken over the inn, she worked there and became part of the resistance group named after it.[6][7] With the group she helped the British Special Operations Executive parachute weapons and supplies into Denmark for distribution to the resistance.[6]

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 husband Peter Sørensen, her brother Niels Fiil and her 17-year-old sister Gerda,[14] and Fiil's infant daughter was thus separated from both parents. 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.[15] In June 1944 a court martial gave Fiil a death sentence but then commuted it to life imprisonment.[7] On 29 June 1944 her father, husband and brother and five other members of the Hvidsten group were executed in Ryvangen.[16][11][12][17][18]

On 15 July 1944 De frie Danske reported on the executions, her life sentence and the two-year sentence of her sister Gerda and compared her father to Svend Gønge and Niels Ebbesen.[12] Fiil and her sister were imprisoned separately in Germany, but for some time she was imprisoned there together with Monica Wichfeld.[7] In April 1945 Fiil's mother succeed after several attempts to get a pardon for her and she was evacuated with the White Buses. Upon reaching the Danish border town Padborg she was set free and met by her mother and the sister Gerda, who had previously been pardoned.[7] 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.[17][10] The remains of her husband and the five other executed members of the group were found in the same area three days later.[17][10] The following inquests showed that they had been executed with gunshot wounds to the chest.[11][18] On 10 July 1945 her executed family members and the five other executed group members were cremated at Bispebjerg Cemetery.[10][11][17][18]

In 1946 in Finderup on the day she turned 28 she married again, to divorced first lieutenant and concentration camp survivor Olaf Møller [5] and she took up the work at Hvidsten Inn again.[7] On 27 February 1949 she gave birth to a girl that died the same day, after the midwife baptized her Kirstine Fiil Møller.[4][13] The newborn girl was buried Ash Wednesday in Gassum.[13] Kirstine Fiil died in Hvidsten on 25 August 1983, survived by her husband by then a retired colonel.[7]

Portrayal in the media
  • In the 2012 Danish drama film Hvidsten Gruppen (This Life) Kirstine Fiil is portrayed by Marie Bach Hansen.[19]

References
  1. "Fødte Kvindekøn" [Born Females]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1909-1920 (in Danish). Gassum. 1918. p. 70.
  2. "Konfirmerede Piger" [Confirmed Girls]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1920-1934 (in Danish). Gassum. 1932. p. 155.
  3. Folketælling [Census] (in Danish). Gassum. 5 November 1930. Hvidsten.
  4. "Fødte Kvindekøn" [Born Females]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1947-1950 (in Danish). Randers Sct. Peder. 1949. p. 250.
  5. "Ægteviede" [Married]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1930-1960 (in Danish). Finderup. 1946. p. 232.
  6. "Modstandsdatabasen" [Resistance Database]. Kirstine Fiil (in Danish). Copenhagen: Nationalmuseet. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  7. Warring, Anette (2003). "Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon - Kirstine Fiil" (in Danish). KVINFO. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  8. "Ægteviede" [Married]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1935-1949 (in Danish). Gassum. 1939. p. 172.
  9. "Fødte Kvindekøn" [Born Females]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1935-1949 (in Danish). Gassum. 1942. p. 71.
  10. "Døde Mandkøn" [Deceased Males]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1930-1946 (in Danish). Sankt Johannes Sogn. 1945. p. 354. Død 29 Juni 1944 Ryvangen Fundet 5 Juli 1945. Skudt. Begravet 10 Juli 1945 Bispebjerg Krematorium. Brygggeriarbejder, 30 Aar
  11. "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
  12. "29. Juni - 8 Frihedskæmpere henrettet" [29 June - 8 freedom fighters executed]. Frit Danmark (in Danish). January 1945. p. 9. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  13. "Døde Kvindekøn" [Deceased Females]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1935-1949 (in Danish). Gassum. 1949. p. 257.
  14. "Utrolig mange Arrestationer" [Incredibly many arrests]. De frie Danske (in Danish). 18 March 1944. p. 10. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  15. "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
  16. "Døde Mandkøn" [Deceased Males]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1930-1946 (in Danish). Sankt Johannes Sogn. 1945. p. 354.
  17. "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
  18. "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
  19. "This life / Hvidsten Gruppen - nogle må dø for at andre kan leve". dfi.dk. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
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