Naming a Brother

Honoring the Resistance

"... hundreds of friends."

"[My father didn't talk about his time in the resistance, but] the top of his group in the resistance fighting was named Kim Malthe-Bruun, so of course my brother was named Kim. So...that’s how he honored him. Because Kim Malthe-Bruun was shot by the Nazis in April 1945, out on the waters. He was fleeing to Sweden. But they got him.

As a young couple, my parents moved to the suburbs, which was just four miles from downtown Copenhagen, and it was just like you see in the Anne Frank movie with apartment houses, very well planned, green spaces, and play grounds, schools, kindergartens... It was all planned, the library was right there .And of course that meant it was all young families, so we had lots of friends—I mean hundreds of friends—and we all went to the same school and we would, you know, play games. And one way of knowing that I was called home was my dad could whistle. His whistle was so loud, and I can’t even do it, but I knew that was his. 'Better come home now."

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