Fogh Ellen ; Son: Fredrik

Fogh, Ellen Fogh, Frederik Ellen Fogh, in her fifties, lived with her 17-year-old son, Frederik, in Copenhagen at the time of the German invasion of Denmark in April 1940. With the occupation of the country, the Germans committed not to harm the Jews. In late August 1943, however, after the resignation of the Danish government, which refused new German demands, a state of emergency was created offering the Germans the opportunity to “cleanse” Denmark of its Jews. On September 28, 1943, with the increasing rumors that the Danish Jews were to be deported, Louise Hertz (née Fridericia), turned to her aunt, Ellen Fogh, asking for help for herself and for her husband Svend, both in their fifties. Ellen immediately agreed to take them in on the condition that her son Frederik would agree, which he did. This also triggered for Frederik the rescue of his Jewish friend Karl Somogyi, originally from Austria, whom he had befriended following his flight after the Anschluss on March 1938. Frederik immediately went to the Somogyi home, also in Copenhagen, and told Karl to come and hide in his home. As the three Jews did not look typically Danish, Ellen asked them to stay inside at all times and not to approach the windows. When, after a while, the presence of the three became known, they fled to a temporary hide-out. In the mean time, Ellen managed to get enough money together from donations “for the poor” to hire a boat for the Jews to be taken across to Sweden. In addition, Ellen went to find other members of the Fridericia family in Aarhus: Dr. Hilmar Fridericia, b.1876, a well-known pediatrician in Denmark and his wife Lissie (née Elsass), b.1905. They had already managed to go into hiding, but Ellen succeeded in locating them after two weeks of continual search. She convinced them to come to her home from where she could arrange their passage to Sweden. Frederik hired a boat, and all the Jews made it safely to Sweden. On November 26, 2003, Yad Vashem recognized EllenFogh and her son Frederik as Righteous Among the Nations