The Danish Peace Academy

GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES

Edited by E. S. Reddy - ereddy@aol.com and Holger Terp

           Cathinca Olsen. Unsourced.
           In the files of Holger Terp.
(Gretor, Esther: Emigrantbørn. In: Fred og Frihed, 1936 no. 5 pp 39-40 and Carl von Ossietzky løsladelse. In: Fred og Frihed, 1936 no. 6 pp. 43). Also from 1938 to 1940 the Danish women led by Mélanie Oppenhejm and Else Zeuthen helped Jewish children to escape from Germany to Denmark. Steffensen, Steffen: På flugt fra nazismen : Tysksprogede emigranter i Danmark efter 1933. pp. 4.

5A possible answer is not available.

In the files of Holger Terp.

POSTCARD BY MAHADEV DESAI, SECRETARY TO GANDHI TO CATHINCA OLSEN, JULY 2ND, 1936

Miss Cathinka Olsen1
Gammeltaftlgade [Gammeltoftegade] 24 IV
Kollienmavn [København] K,
Denmark.

Maganwadi
Wardha,  C. P.
2nd July 1936

Dear friend,

I am to thank you for your kind letter to Gandhiji along with the little flags2. The celebration of our peace days3 sounds like a grim joke when we think of the feverish race in armaments that is going on all over Europe. Is the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom doing any concrete work?4 Mr. Gandhi will be grateful to have details if any5.

Yours sincerely,

Mahadev Desai

Before July 1937, the Danish chapter of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom wrote to Gandhi.

Danish text:

Til Mahatma Gandhi

Ligaen udtrykker gennem Henvendelse til Dem dens dybe Sympati for det indiske Folk, som gennemgaar denne svære Krise i Kampen for sin Genopbygning og Frihed.

Vi har fulgt den Kamp og Smerte, der har været lidt de sidste Aar, og glæder os over den Enighed, De har fremkaldt fra et fælles Ideal.

Vi haaber, der gennem denne enighed maa findes Kræfter til at naa frem til Sejr, og vi tror, at Vejen vil blive funden - gennem direkte personlig Kontakt - til Forstaaelse og Fred.

Source: Fred og Frihed, June 1937 no 6, p. 49.

Notes:

1Read: Cathinca Vilhelmine Olsen. She was born 1868. Dead 1947. Weilbach / Danish Art Encyclopedia, 3rd. ed. vol. 6, pp. 260.

2The letter is not available.

3The peace day of 1936 was the first common Nordic peace day on May 18.

4At the time of the writing the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom protested against the armament in Germany and demanded the release of the pacifist editor Carl von Ossietzky fron concentration camp.

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