Aksel Larsen - World War II and Sachsenhausen

World War II and Sachsenhausen

The popular front policy crumbled with the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact on 23 August 1939. Despite being confused about the pact Larsen defended Stalin’s decision. The German invasion of Poland on 1 September and Stalin’s invasion of Poland on 17 September and the following partition of Poland between Hitler and Stalin caused more confusion in the communist movement as the former image of the Soviet Union as a bulwark against fascism now fell.

The situation was difficult but Larsen did his best to defend the Soviet Union. This put Larsen under a lot of stress and in September he asked the party secretariat and later the Comintern for permission to resign as chairman. However his requests were denied as it was feared that a change in leadership would increase the strain on the party. Larsen raised the issue again when the Soviet Union laid pressure on Finland to evacuate Karelia but was turned down once more.

The Soviet attack on Finland on 30 November 1939 and the Winter War created great public sympathy for Finland in the Danish public. Contrary the communists were despised for their support of the Soviet Union and Aksel Larsen became the target of public disdain. Shortly after the beginning of the war the entire Folketing walked out in protest when Larsen mounted the podium.

The peace between Finland and the Soviet Union removed some of the stress on the party but on 9 April 1940 Denmark was occupied by Germany. At the time Larsen were in Moscow but on 22 April he managed to get back to Copenhagen with instructions for how to deal with the situation. At that time the Communist Party of Denmark was still legal but the Comintern as well as Danish party leadership was expecting that the party would soon be banned. The communists were to try to remain a legal party for as long as possible and use the time to prepare to go underground. In spite of these expectations the Danish police took the communists by surprise when leading communists were arrested on 22 June 1941 and the party as well as the communist ideology was banned.

Larsen managed to avoid capture and went into hiding. He and the party continued the political work with an illegal publication against the ban on communism and an open letter to prime minister Thorvald Stauning on 20 August 1941. In January 1942 Larsen was a co-founder of the resistance organisation “Frit Danmark” (lit. “A Free Denmark”) which circulated an illegal publication of the same name.

The month later Larsen chaired a party leadership meeting where it was decided that the communists were to take part in sabotage against the German occupiers. However Larsen did not get the possibility to be a part of the sabotage work as he was arrested by Danish police on 5 November 1942 and incarcerated at Vestre Fængsel. There he was given over to the Germans who transferred him to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on 28 August 1943. There he was confined to a solitary cell isolated from the rest of the camp by a high wall with electrified barbed wire.