Danish resistance veteran recalls Nazi occupation
Sunday 25th October 2026 on 19:01 in
Iceland
A 100-year-old Danish resistance veteran who joined the fight against Nazi occupation at 19 has recalled his wartime experiences during his first visit to Iceland, mbl.is reports.
Ejler Borch travelled to Iceland recently to promote Den sidste sabotør, a book about the occupation of Denmark and the resistance movement. Journalist Anders Hauch Fenger wrote the book based on Borch’s account, and Þorvaldur Þorvaldsson translated it into Icelandic. It was published in Denmark in November 2024.
Borch said his age had not made the trip difficult, noting that he was in good health. Fenger said Borch exercises three times a week and still lives independently at home. Borch has also travelled extensively in recent years, including to Thailand and the United States.
Borch was 19 when he joined the Danish resistance. He said he had found the work exciting and had not thought much about the consequences. Before long, he was handling a machine gun despite having received little training. Young men were often involved, as people were reluctant to put family men and fathers at risk.
Asked whether Icelanders living in Denmark had taken part in the resistance, Borch said he did not know of any. Fenger said the movement had about 4,000 members, divided into groups that knew little about one another to limit the damage if someone was tortured by the Nazis.
Borch said he did not know Egon Alfred Højland, a resistance member who shot Icelandic writer Guðmundur Kamban at his home in Copenhagen after the war. Fenger said the resistance’s numbers rose from about 4,000 to more than 50,000 after the Nazi surrender, as others joined what was then called the resistance movement. Some of those who had led the movement were unhappy with how events unfolded.
Borch said some Allied countries had viewed Denmark during the war as a kind of Nazi puppet state. In his view, the Danish resistance changed that perception; without it, Denmark might have been seen as one of the nations that lost the war. Borch worked for many years as an engineer aboard ferries.