Jørgen Diemer

born on 10 September 1916 in Faborg Sogn, DK, 
died on 23 September 2002 in Roskilde, DK

Jørgen Diemer was secretary of the "Dansk Samling" party and part of the resistance in Denmark. After his arrest, he was sent to Porta Westfalica as a concentration camp prisoner in September 1944. He was unable to continue his political work in the long term after the war due to the health consequences of his imprisonment.

"And yet the most terrible aspect was not the physical pain. Despite everything, there is a limit to how much you can feel physically. It was far worse with the psychological burden that was placed on you. read moreYou can get used to a lot of things; once you've seen the first dozen corpses, it doesn't make that much of an impression. The first few times a comrade fell over from exhaustion, it made a deep impression, but as time went on, you only moved to help when it was the one standing right next to you."  read less

Jørgen Diemer, Porta in Westfalen, translated by Rainer Fröbe, in Joachim Meyert / Arno Klönne (eds.): Verdrängte Geschichte - Verfolgung und Vernichtung in Ostwestfalen 1933-1945, Bielefeld 1986. Quote translated from German.

Photo of Jørgen Diemer's identity card, issued in July 1941.

Source: Picture collection of the Frihedsmuseet Copenhagen

Biography

Jørgen Diemer was born on 10 September 1916 in Faborg Sogn, a small municipality on the island of Funen. He grew up in the south of Jutland and trained as a commercial clerk. In 1939, he joined the nationalist party movement Dansk Samling. He took over the management of the party office in October 1941. From 1942, he became increasingly involved in the resistance and supported the contacts of British agents in Jutland. He gave up his party function in 1943, but supported the illegal production and distribution of Dansk Samling literature.

read more

The road to Porta Westfalica
Jørgen Diemer was arrested in March 1944. Like many other Danish resistance fighters, he spent the following six months in the Danish prisons and camps of Vestre, Horserød and Frøslev before being taken to Neuengamme on 15 September 1944 and a few days later to the Barkhausen satellite camp with a group of 99 Danish prisoners.

Forced labourer
Like many other prisoners, Jørgen Diemer went through several stages of forced labour at Porta Westfalica. Among other things, he had to carry out heavy physical transport work when digging tunnels and move machines for Philips in the upper tunnels in Jakobsberg. He tried to sabotage the complex equipment as invisibly as possible. The accompanying circumstances always changed with the respective labour unit and the chances of survival could deteriorate or improve within a day.

Liberation
While most of the surviving Danish prisoners did not leave Porta Westfalica for Neuengamme until mid-March 1945, Diemer had already arrived there a short time earlier on a return transport with prisoners who were no longer able to work. He left Neuengamme in April together with over 4,000 Scandinavian prisoners bound for Sweden.

After the war
Jørgen Diemer resumed his work for Dansk Samling after the war, but did not remain in the position for long due to the health consequences of his imprisonment in a concentration camp. The party subsequently lost its political significance. Diemer founded his own company in the wood processing industry. In 1972, he became politically active again and joined the left-wing and at that time eurosceptic Socialistisk Folkeparti, of which he also later became chairman for the Roskilde area. Jørgen Diemer died in Roskilde on 23 September 2002 at the age of 88.

  read less

"I weighed 85 kilos when I came to Germany and 55 when I arrived in Sweden on the second patient transport. And I was still one of those who managed relatively well in Porta."

Jørgen Diemer, Porta in Westfalen, translated by Rainer Fröbe, in Joachim Meyert / Arno Klönne (eds.): Verdrängte Geschichte - Verfolgung und Vernichtung in Ostwestfalen 1933-1945, Bielefeld 1986. Quote translated from German. Quote translated from German.