The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club

After a meeting of the Churchill Club, Knud reflects alone in his room, which is filled with art supplies and covered with his paintings and drawings. Tonight, Knud is too preoccupied with thoughts of the war to focus on art. He tries to picture what his life would be like if Germany wins the war and the Danes become part of the “master race, with defeated people forced to work as slaves to satisfy their masters” (72). Knud plans to keep resisting even after a German victory.

Knud has no one with whom he can share his worries. He and Jens are too competitive to confide in each other. Børge is too young and Knud is not close with the other boys of the club. Knud wants to “open [his] heart” (73) to a pretty girl from his school, Grethe. He fantasizes a scene in which he is fighting Nazis in Budolfi Square with the Churchill Club and sees Grethe trapped at the top floor of a burning building. He stops the fantasy there, however, because he has no experience talking to girls. At his former all-boys school, he used to fight to achieve status, but has found this does not impress girls at the Cathedral School.