Lorenzen Group
Encyclopedia
The Lorenzen group was an armed paramilitary
group of Danish
collaborator
s, subordinate to the HIPO Corps
, which was active during the period December 1944 - May 1945.
The group is named after its founder Jørgen Lorenzen, who in 1944 began service in the German
secret police and created the group as section 9c to the HIPO Corps. The group were ordered mainly to fight the Danish resistance movement
.
The group performed numerous murders and accounted for 600-800 arrests of suspected resistance fighters and often took advantage of torture.
Much of the Lorenzen group fled on May 4, 1945 to a cottage in Asserbo in Nordsjælland. Here they were planning to wait for daily life to return to normal in Denmark. A group of 19 men and women were discovered, however, and local freedom fighters with homemade armoured vehicles arrested the group after a heavy shelling of the cottage. Under fire, 2 were killed, 1 committed suicide, 5 were seriously wounded, while the remaining 11 survived with small injuries.
10 of its members were sentenced to death after the war, including the leader Jørgen Lorenzen who was executed May 10, 1949. Six of these death sentences were however reduced to life imprisonment. The last imprisoned members of the group were released in 1959.
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
group of Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
collaborator
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
s, subordinate to the HIPO Corps
HIPO Corps
The HIPO Corps was a Danish auxiliary police corps, established in 1944 by the German Gestapo when the Danish police was disbanded and most of the regular policemen on September 19, 1944 were arrested and sent to concentration camps in Germany. Most members were recruited among Danish collaborators...
, which was active during the period December 1944 - May 1945.
The group is named after its founder Jørgen Lorenzen, who in 1944 began service in the German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
secret police and created the group as section 9c to the HIPO Corps. The group were ordered mainly to fight the Danish resistance movement
Danish resistance movement
The Danish resistance movement was an underground insurgency movement to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the unusually lenient terms given to Danish people by the Nazi occupation authority, the movement was slower to develop effective tactics on a wide scale...
.
The group performed numerous murders and accounted for 600-800 arrests of suspected resistance fighters and often took advantage of torture.
Much of the Lorenzen group fled on May 4, 1945 to a cottage in Asserbo in Nordsjælland. Here they were planning to wait for daily life to return to normal in Denmark. A group of 19 men and women were discovered, however, and local freedom fighters with homemade armoured vehicles arrested the group after a heavy shelling of the cottage. Under fire, 2 were killed, 1 committed suicide, 5 were seriously wounded, while the remaining 11 survived with small injuries.
10 of its members were sentenced to death after the war, including the leader Jørgen Lorenzen who was executed May 10, 1949. Six of these death sentences were however reduced to life imprisonment. The last imprisoned members of the group were released in 1959.
See also
- Peter groupPeter groupThe Peter group was a terrorist group created in late 1943 during the occupation of Denmark by the German occupying power. The group inflicted so called counter-sabotage, also known as Schalburgtage, in response to the Danish resistance movement sabotage actions...
, pro–German, Danish terrorist group - Milice française, Vichy French, paramilitary group
- Security BattalionsSecurity BattalionsThe Security Battalions were Greek collaborationist military groups, formed during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II in order to support the German occupation troops.- History :...
, Greek pro-German paramilitary group
External links
- Webpage about the Lorenzen group (in Danish)