Gyldendal will revise book after 112-year-old’s Nazi party membership emerges

Danish publisher Gyldendal will add information to a book about Kirsten Schwalbe after it emerged that she had been a member of the Danish National Socialist Workers’ Party, DR reported.

“The book’s authors and Gyldendal will make an addition in the next edition based on the information that has come to light,” the publisher’s communications chief, Niels Overgaard, said in a written statement to Kristeligt Dagblad.

The book, We Need Something to Laugh About, was published on October 8. On October 14, Schwalbe became the longest-lived person in Danish history, aged 112 years and 218 days.

Days later, it emerged that Schwalbe had belonged to the Danish National Socialist Workers’ Party, or DNSAP, during the German occupation. Founded in 1930, the party was inspired by Germany’s Nazi party, the NSDAP, led by Adolf Hitler.

The book’s authors, journalist Frederik Helms and TV cameraman Line Morell Holm, did not know about Schwalbe’s membership before Kristeligt Dagblad reported it, so it is not mentioned in the book. Gyldendal has not said where or how extensively the information will be added.

After the report, Schwalbe told TV Midtvest: “Yes, I was signed up. My husband asked me about it, and I said I didn’t care. I wasn’t interested in politics at all, so I just did what he thought I should do.”