Editor Leif B. Hendil
A varied career
From Skive Venstreblad to Ekstra Bladet
Leif Bøving Hendil (December 7, 1898 – June 20, 1961) was born in Skive as the son of postal inspector H.P.V. Hendil. He graduated from Sorø Academy and became an employee at Aalborg Amtstidende 1918-19. For the next three years he traveled as a foreign correspondent and was an employee at several Copenhagen newspapers. In 1922, he was employed as a journalist/editorial secretary at Skive Venstreblad, where his uncle Carl Hendil was editor-in-chief, and from 1923 to 1925 he was co-editor of Venstrebladet.
Leif B. Hendil left Venstrebladet on April 1, 1925 to travel to England as a newspaper correspondent for Ekstra Bladet, where he became commercial editor in 1933, and from 1948-1958 he was one of Ekstra Bladet’s three editors-in-chief. On his death, editor Elin Hansen, Skive Folkeblad, described Hendil as a journalist: “He took up many “affairs” with a journalistic energy that in its form was reminiscent of the American press.” After leaving Ekstra Bladet, he worked as a freelance journalist until his death in 1961.
The museum case in Skive has Hendil’s interest
Although Hendil left Skive in 1925, he was very interested in the city and the region. He was particularly interested in the museum cause. Since 1908, the Historical Society for Skive and the surrounding area had been working to establish a museum in Skive. In 1910, the society started a “Historical Collection”, which for several decades led a quiet life in modest rented premises.
In 1931, Hendil arranged for Greenland researcher Dr. Lauge Koch to donate a Greenland collection to a future museum in Skive. Hendil arranged for a new donation from Lauge Koch in 1934, which helped boost plans to build a museum in Skive.
A building plot and a “magnificent” gift
Hendil becomes an honorary member and receives the Knight’s Cross
In 1935, a special museum committee was set up, headed by Mayor Woldhardt Madsen, and Skive City Council decided to make a building plot available for the museum.
Hendil was still on the hunt for items for the museum. In 1937, he arranged for Tuborg to donate the sets and props from A.W. Sandberg’s “Viking film”, which the brewery had financed, to the future Skive Museum. It was a magnificent gift that included a Viking hall, an Iron Age house and a Viking ship. The plan was to build the Iron Age house in the museum park and construct a small lake in the park for the Viking ship – but it turned out that the materials for the house and ship were of such poor quality that they had to be discarded.
Things went better when Hendil arranged for the floor of the hall where the Greenland collection was to be displayed to be covered with Greenlandic marble in 1941. As a thank you for his great efforts for the museum, Hendil was made an honorary member at the founding general meeting of Skive Museumsforening on September 9, 1941, and the museum committee nominated him for a Knight’s Cross, which he received in 1943.
Illegal transportation across Øresund
In the fall of 1943, Hendil became involved in illegal transport work from Denmark to Sweden across the Øresund. He had a summer house near Snekkersten, and together with innkeeper H.C. Thomsen, Snekkersten Kro, he established an escape route that transported around 50 people to Sweden. During the German action against the Danish Jews in early October 1943, Hendil traveled to Sweden, where he managed to convince Jewish circles in Sweden that he could set up routes across Øresund that could help Danish Jews to Sweden.
He established a head office in Malmö, where he gathered the scattered initiatives underway in the organization Dansk-Svensk Flygtningetjeneste. By mid-October, the first nine passengers were transferred to Sweden. The organization initially consisted of three vessels and six paid employees, but it grew and its route across the Øresund became one of the most stable, transferring 1888 people and illegal mail to and from Sweden until the liberation in May 1945.
Scherfig caricatures and Hendil makes his film debut
Leif B. Hendil was caricatured as “editor Charles D. Stencil” in author Hans Scherfig’s key novel ‘The Scorpion’ (1953), and in 1954 he made his film debut in the family movie ‘Father of Four in the Snow’, where he played himself.
The mayoral chain
Hendil maintained his lifelong interest in Skive, he was the driving force behind a collection among “expatriate skibonites” to purchase a mayoral chain for the mayors of Skive. Although he was ill, he was presenting the chain to Mayor Woldhardt Madsen at his 25th anniversary as mayor of Skive on May 4, 1961.
Memorial stone at Skive Cemetery
Hendil’s connection to Skive meant that he chose to be buried in Skive Cemetery. A group of his friends from the press and the resistance movement collected money for a memorial stone for him on his grave in Skive. A granite stone weighing approximately five tons and measuring almost two meters in height was found. The stone was found in North Zealand, not far from where Hendil helped hundreds of refugees to Sweden during the war. The memorial stone was unveiled by Mayor Woldhardt Madsen on October 28, 1961 at Skive Cemetery.
Sources:
- Rud Kjems: Viking dreams. In: Skiveegnens Jul 2005, p. 53-57
- Peter Birkelund: Leif B. Hendil. Gads encyclopedia Who’s Who 1940-1945. 2005
- J.S. (Jens Stubkjær): Hendil as “pirate”. Skive Folkeblad June 29, 1945
- E.H. (Elin Hansen): Leif B. Hendil dead today. Skive Folkeblad June 20, 1961