Hoose, Phillip The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Petersen
and the Churchill Club, 192 pages. NON-FICTION. Farrar, Straus, Giroux (Macmillan),
2015. $20. Content: G.
When Denmark was occupied by the Nazis during WWII, the
citizens seemed to roll up and allow them to take over everything. Knud Petersen and his friends, however, would
not stand for it and started a small group of saboteurs in his city of Odense
and then continued in Aalborg when his family moved. Except for his brother, who also helped, no
others in his family knew until the day they were betrayed and arrested. Knud and his brother served the longest
sentences, but all of the arrested conspirators survived their prison time. While they were serving their time, others
in the country finally picked up the torch of harassing the Germans, the boys’
courage inspiring them and shaming them into action.
Philip Hoose was inspired to tell this story when he read a
small exhibit at the Resistance Museum in Copenhagen. At the time, Knud was till alive, so he could
hear his entire story in person and exchange 100’s of email of questions and
answers. It s a great look at the power
of these teens to inspire an entire country.
MS, HS – ESSENTIAL.
Cindy, Library Teacher
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1 comment:
When the Germans walked into Denmark, taking over the country with no resistance, a group of teenagers take the resistance movement into their own hands, sabotaging German vehicles, crippling factories and stealing weapons. A gripping WWII story, this true account of the beginnings of the Danish Resistance movement is a must have in every middle or high school library.
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