We received the sad news that Mogens Henrik Nielsen passed away on 1 November 2021. He was born in 1927 in Odense, Fyn, and moved to West Jutland with his parents and sister in 1935. His father was active in the resistance, and in June 1944 the Gestapo arrested him and imprisoned him in the Hoserød camp. In August 1944, Mogens Henrik was also arrested on charges of sabotage and taken to Neuengamme concentration camp via the Frøslev police detention camp. He was 17 years old.

The first of the "White Buses" of the Swedish Red Cross brought him liberation. On 9 April 1945 he was taken from Neuengamme concentration camp via Padborg to Sweden for convalescence. It took two years for him to recover from the suffering of imprisonment and start a new life.

Mogens Henrik Nielsen visited the Neuengamme concentration camp memorial several times and gave interviews about his experiences in prison and the circumstances of his liberation. Most recently, he accompanied the commemoration ceremony for the liberation of the concentration camps on 3rd May in Neuengamme in 2013. We now mourn the loss of a courageous and lovable man. For many of his fellow prisoners who also survived, he was a long-time companion and important partner in the fight against forgetting.

This year he sent us a copy of a letter to home he had written from Neuengamme concentration camp. His partner told us that Mogens Henrik had often spoken German in his last days. "Are you back in Neuengamme?" - his relatives then asked. This news shows how deeply the camp experience marks a person and how memories still come back in old age.

We at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial keep the memory of Mogens Henrik Nielsen alive. Our thoughts are with his family and his friends.

Interview with Mogens Henrik Nielsen (danish): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGiFc_dYqtE (RoskildeTV 2014)

Contribution by Mogens Henrik Nielsen on our website „Objects carry memories“ Objects carry memories (pageflow.io)