By John Reese
At the April 19 meeting of the Greenwich Retired Men’s Association Bob Meaney introduced the speaker, C. Flemming Heilmann. Heilmann recently completed his translation of Halfdan Lefevre’s book “The Men in Denmark’s Freedom Council,” which tells the story of Denmark’s resistance to Nazi occupation during WWII. Heilmann is an RMA member who last spoke to us in 2018 about his autobiography “Odyssey Uncharted: A World War II Childhood Adventure from Malaya to Australia to Cambridge.” After receiving his education at Cambridge in economics and law, he had a long and successful career as a business executive in South Africa, Europe, Canada and the United States. He also served as a director and for six years as chairman of the Jacob Riis neighborhood settlement in New York City’s inner city and he has been knighted by the Queen of Denmark. He lives with his wife Judy in Rowayton.
Heilmann, who was born to Danish parents living in Malaya, began by sharing thoughts on the lessons he believes that the West should have learned from WWII and the importance of defending democracy and avoiding complacency. “I’m taking the liberty of introducing some personal thoughts because 82 years ago the Japanese invaded Singapore and British colonial Malaya. I think there’s some lessons that we didn’t learn and that is that appeasement doesn’t work very well when democracy is threatened. Our democracy has to be defended and what works even worse is complacency. I think that the West’s response to Putin and what he has done in Eastern Europe to Ukraine is an illustration of what happens if you have too much respect for the appeasement gospel and an overdose of complacency despite what we had clearly seen in Crimea, Georgia, Chechen Republic and, you know, that list goes on. The excuse has always been fear of escalation. Well, the first step in any kind of escalation is to start the damn thing in the first place, and bear that in mind. I think we have blood on our hands. I think we should learn from history. We spend an awful lot of time these days trying to rewrite it.”
So, with that cheerful introduction, Heilmann continued, first describing his personal story. His family spent seven years in Malaya leading up to the invasion of that country in 1941, then evacuated, and then spent five years in Australia as refugees, “which was very easy and very pleasant. Australians were immensely generous, welcoming, helpful, so being a refugee with the Aussies was pretty easy living compared with thousands of others who had less luck.” His family returned home to Denmark literally within two months of its liberation in 1945.
April 9, 1940, was the day when the Germans had rolled in to Denmark. There was absolute shock in Denmark that this could happen. He said, “Did I mention complacency earlier on? We have, they said, a non-aggression pact with Hitler, how can this happen? What happened in Poland, what happened in Sudetenland, you know that’s there, that couldn’t possibly happen to us!” That was the attitude and that was the line taken by a compromising Danish government as the Germans took over. The Germans pretended that they wanted to collaborate and make Denmark better through the Nazi system.
Danes generally did not accept that approach and the resistance was spawned almost immediately across the country, resulting in the formation of an underground “freedom council.” Heilmann highlighted the Danish resistance’s activities, including snipers targeting key Nazis, sabotage, establishing links with the Allies, setting up illegal underground press to spread true news, and procurement of supplies. He also mentioned the resistance’s propaganda and communication efforts. He noted that the Danish government’s compromising approach and the world’s appeasement and complacency contributed to the rise of the Nazis and the grave consequences of WWII.
To see the full presentation, go to https://greenwichrma.org, cursor to “Speakers” and click on “Speaker Videos.”
The RMA’s upcoming presentation, “The WW II Art and Letters of John Cullen Murphy, an American Soldier-Artist in the Pacific Theatre” by Andrew Woelflein is scheduled for 11 AM on Wednesday, May 3rd. John Cullen Murphy entered the US Army as a private before the Americans entered WW II; he ended the war as a major serving as a General’s Aide de Camp. Trained as an anti-aircraft (AA) specialist, his artistic talent was recognized by many including Douglas MacArthur who made him the effective headquarters staff artist in the Pacific. Mentored by Norman Rockwell before the war, Murphy went on to illustrate the nationally syndicated Prince Valiant comic strip for more than 30 years after the war from his home studio in Cos Cob, CT.
Over five years from 1941 to 1945 Murphy wrote approximately 1,000 letters home to his mother on his wartime experience in both the US and the Pacific, including Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines, and Japan. The Murphy family generously donated his wartime art to the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University in 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII and donated the letters in 2013. Andrew Woelflein will discuss this unique primary-source collection and its wartime perspective.
Mr. Woelflein has been a trustee of Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University since 1996 and served as the presiding trustee from 2013 to 2022. One of the world’s foremost collections of military iconography, it uses its vast material of over 28,000 military art images to promote knowledge of military history through lectures, museum exhibitions, supporting research, and publications. Mr. Woelflein has lectured widely on the collection and is the author of “Herbert Knotel’s German Armies in Color” (2007), featuring depictions of German army units from the 17th to the 20th century.
He is a financial services executive, serving as the chief strategy officer of Monex, a global FinTech provider of corporate foreign exchange and international payment services. He holds a BA from Brown University in European history and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
To stream the presentation by Mr. Woelflein at 11 AM on Wednesday, May 3rd, click on https://bit.ly/30IBj21. This presentation will also be available on local public access TV Channels, Verizon FIOS channel 24 and Optimum (Cablevision) channel 79.
Note: The views expressed in these presentations are those of the speakers. They are not intended to represent the views of the RMA or its members.
RMA speaker presentations are presented as a community service at no cost to in-person or Zoom attendees, regardless of gender. The RMA urges all eligible individuals to consider becoming a member of our great organization, and thereby enjoy all the available fellowship, volunteer, and community service opportunities which the RMA offers to its members. For further information, go to https://greenwichrma.org/, or contact our membership chairman (mailto:members@greenwichrma.org).
