When Nazi Germany invaded Denmark in 1940, the Danish government offered no resistance. This greatly upset Knud Pedersen and his friends. After much discussion, they formed the Churchill Club to offer resistance. Hoosier author Phillip Hoose chronicles their resistance and its effects in his new book, The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club.
Ashamed of their country’s passivity in the face of the occupation, Knud, his brother and friends considered what they could do. They resolved to take matters into their own hands. Their efforts to sabotage the Nazi occupiers started small and steadily grew, climaxing in the fiery destruction of the Aalborg rail yards, a hub of Nazi activity. The Nazis were infuriated. They tracked the boys down and jailed them. The second half of the book covers their time in prison. The nation quietly rallied around them and Danes began to more actively resist the occupiers. Knud Pedersen’s burial in a Copenhagen cemetery for national heroes indicates the effect he and his friends had.
Years after the end of the war, Hoose met Pedersen and they developed quite a friendship while collaborating on this book. Their friendship glows throughout the writing. Although nonfiction, it reads like a thrilling novel. This book is a 2015 Robert F. Siebert Honor Book, a prestigious award for young adult nonfiction works. Despite the serious subject, it is not horrifying. It would be an excellent introduction to the issues of World War II for young people. It is also engaging for adult readers.
The book is available at Bookmamas, 9 Johnson Ave. in Irvington.
