Henning Andersen


Henning Andersen was a member of the Danish resistance executed by the German occupying power.

Biography

Andersen was born in Linde on 16 July 1917 to coach builder Martin Andersen and 28-year-old wife Emilie Kirstine née Larsen and baptized in Linde church on the 19th Sunday after Trinity the same year.
In addition to being a member of the Hvidsten group, Andersen was also a miller.
The group helped the British Special Operations Executive parachute weapons and supplies into Denmark for distribution to the resistance.
In March 1944, the Gestapo made an "incredible number of arrests" including in the region of Randers where a number of members of the Hvidsten group were arrested.
The following month, De frie Danske reported that several arrestees from Hvidsten had been transferred from Randers to Vestre Fængsel.
On 29 June 1944, Andersen and seven other members of the Hvidsten group were executed in Ryvangen.

After his death

On 15 July 1944, De frie Danske reported on the execution of several members of the Hvidsten group. Six months later the January 1945 issue of the resistance newspaper Frit Danmark reported that on 29 June the previous year Andersen and seven other named members of the Hvidsten group had been executed.
On 5 July 1945 Andersen's remains and those of five others from the group were found in Ryvangen and transferred to the Department of Forensic Medicine of the University of Copenhagen. The remains of the two remaining executed members of the group, Marius Fiil and his son Niels, had been found in the same area three days before.
Alternatively, his remains were recovered on or before 3 July because on that day an inquest by the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Copenhagen showed that he was executed with gunshot wounds to the chest.
On 10 July he was, together with the seven other executed group members, cremated at Bispebjerg Cemetery.
In 1945 a memorial stone over the eight executed members of the Hvidsten group was raised near Hvidsten kro.
Similarly, a larger memorial stone for resistance members, including the eight executed members of the Hvidsten group, has been laid down in Ryvangen Memorial Park.

Portrayal in the media