OLDS — An author on a speaking engagement at the Mountain View Museum and Archives says the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are ominously reminiscent of the Second World War.
Bodil Jelhof Jensen spoke at the Mountain View Museum in June. She wrote a history book about Mountain View County back in the late 1960s and early 1970s while a student at the University of Alberta. It was published in 1983.
Jensen, who now lives near Montreal, was promoting her new book, published in March. It’s called Denmark’s Forgotten Holocaust: My Family History in Letters. Her mother was Jewish, her father Lutheran.
It’s a story about how her Jewish grandparents were among many Danish Jews who ended up in Theresienstadt, a Nazi transit stop for death camps during the war. Only her grandfather survived it. Luckily, their seven children and ended up safe in Sweden.
During an interview with the Albertan, Jensen was asked if she sees a connection between the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and the recent one between Israel and Iran.
“I would say there's a lot of connection between the Second World War and that,” she said.
“There's just no excuse for Gaza. Nobody, nobody can excuse Gaza,” she said. “Who's looking out for the children of Gaza?
“And there's no excuse for Ukraine, what's going on there. like, it's bullies that are stealing the agenda, and we know better, and we can do better. So that's where I see the connection.
“There was no excuse for the Nazi regime, either. The interesting thing is, Denmark rescued its Jews. They sent 7,000 of them, which was almost all of them, to Sweden.”
Jensen said her grandmother was a pacifist.
“She would not even sow the emblems on my uncle's uniform,” she said.
“I think anybody who's been through the Second World War, I don't think it matters whether you were on the home front or where you were,” Jensen said.
“It was not a fun time and it took a lot of courage to carry on, just to carry on day to day.”
During the war, Jensen’s grandparents learned a lot about who they could trust.
“In Denmark, my grandparents were shipped to transport it to there, because my grandfather, who was then 76 could not believe that the Danish police would not protect him against the Nazis,” Jensen said.
“Well, he was mistaken. But you know, you can forgive a 76-year-old man for believing that his native land would protect him. But that native land did protect his children by helping them get across to Sweden.”
Jensen has set up a GoFundMe page regarding her latest book. The goal is $10,000. As of July 11, $2,963 had been raised.
Jensen was impressed with the Mountain View Museum. She said she plans to donate her archives to it.
