Portrait photograph by Judy Glickman of Danish resistance leader and intelligence officer
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 24.000 inches (60.96 cm) | Width: 18.120 inches (46.025 cm)
pictorial area: Height: 13.380 inches (33.985 cm) | Width: 8.750 inches (22.225 cm)
Creator(s)
- Otto Blixenkrone-Moller (Subject)
- Judy E. Glickman (Subject)
- Judy E. Glickman (Photographer)
Biographical History
Judy Ellis Glickman is a photographer and the daughter of Dr. Irving Bennett and Louise Ellis. Her father was a noted CAlifornia pictorialist photographer in the 1930s and 1940s. She pursued photography at a young age and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1959 from the University of California at Los Angeles. She studied photography at UCLA from 1978-1985, the Maine Photographic Workshop from 1978-87, and the Portland School of Art from 1984-1985. Her grandparents emigrated to the United States at the turn of the 20th century, and her mother and grandmother in 1914. Though not a child of a Holocaust survivor, it was while visiting concentration camps in Poland in 1988 that she began to wonder how many unknown family members perished. During this trip, the work became more personal, real, and meaningful to her. She returns to Europe every year to visit and photograph Holocaust sites. She was asked by the Thanks to Scandinavia Foundation to create a photographic narrative documenting the Danish rescue effort. She has exhibited extensively and won numerous awards. Both her sons are rabbis. She is on the board of the Portland Museum of Art in Maine and is a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in England.
Otto Blixenkrone-Moller was born on April 27, 1912, in Agerso, Denmark, to Johan Herman Wessel Blixenkrone-Moller and Marie Katherine Hansen. Otto attended the Royal Military Academy from 1936-1938. He married Grethe Fenger on December 3, 1938, in Copenhagen. The Germans occupied Denmark on April 9, 1940, but allowed the Danish government to control domestic affairs. Otto studied and worked at the Geodetic Institute from 1940-1945. In August 1943, he started working in military intelligence, reporting to the Special Operations Executive, a British group that conducted espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance, and assisted local resistance movements. On October 16, 1944, he was wounded in a German action against the intelligence service. On May 2, 1945, Berlin fell to the Soviet army. Germany surrendered and withdrew its forces from Denmark. Otto taught topography at the Royal Military Academy in 1946 and, after completing a General Staff course, worked in the War Department. He served at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquarters in Oslo, Norway from 1951-1953, and as a military ambassador in the United States and Canada, from 1953-1956. Otto returned to Denmark and achieved the rank of General. He was the Chief of Defense from December 1972 until his retirement on January 4, 1977. He was the recipient of both foreign and domestic military awards. After retirement, he started the shipping company, AP Moller, and died on January 26, 2006, at the age of 93.
Archival History
The photograph was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2010 by Judith Ellis Glickman.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Judith Ellis Glickman
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Black and white photographic print taken by Judy Glickman in 1992 of Otto Blixenkrone-Moller, a leader in the Danish resistance and a member of the Danish Military Intelligence Service. Otto reported to the Allies and the Special Operations Executive and sustained a leg and hip wound in an attempted arrest by the Gestapo in 1945. Germany occupied Denmark on April 9, 1940, but allowed the Danish government to retain control of domestic affairs. Jews were not molested and the German presence was limited. After the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 and began to face military setbacks, a Danish resistance movement developed. On August 29, 1943, the Germans declared martial law and began to address the Jewish problem. A mass deportation was scheduled for October 1. The plan was leaked and Danish citizens organized a large scale rescue effort to hide the Jews and, by the eve of the deportation, had ferried 7000 people, nearly all the Jews in Denmark, to neutral Sweden.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use. Donor retains copyright for this collection.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Black and white gelatin silver photographic print, portrait orientation, medium shot, lit from the left, depicting an older, white male with short white hair worn in a side part, standing in front of a paneled wall. He gazes directly at the viewer and is smiling. There are deep lines around his nose, mouth, and between his brows. He is wearing a single breasted 3 piece suit, collared shirt, patterned tie, and glasses. The print is attached to a top hinged mat board with photo corners on the backboard. Pencil stop lines and illegible text are on the reverse of the window mat.
window mat, reverse, left, pencil : illegible text
Subjects
- Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust--Denmark--Pictorial works.
- World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Denmark.
- Anti-Nazi movement--Denmark.
- World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue--Denmark--Pictorial works.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Denmark.
- Denmark--History--German occupation, 1940-1945.
Genre
- Object
- Photographs