Esther Carstensen

Esther Carstensen was born in Skodsborg, Denmark, on 10 August 1873. She was the daughter of Harald Andreas Hansen, a merchant and politician, and his wife Anna Georgiana Cécile de Jonquières. She graduated from the seminarieafdelingen at N. Zahle's School in 1889 and obtained a school principal diploma in 1891. She then co-managed Rosenvængets Privatskole with Elisabeth Gad for three years. ¹ Under the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, she worked as a nurse at Bispebjerg Hospital. She soon became a member of the resistance group Frit Danmark (Free Denmark) where she helped to produce and distribute illegal publications. She also participated in the rescue of the Danish Jews in October 1943, hiding them in the hospital until they could be transported to Sweden. She also collected information for the British intelligence, and helped to smuggle weapons and explosives for the resistance. She became the partner of the key resistance leader Jørgen Haagen Schmith, better known as Citronen (the Lemon). When he was wounded by the Germans in September 1944, she cared for him until he was killed in October. She managed to escape, but had to work underground for the rest of the war. ¹ After the war, she worked for the Red Cross in Greece and Israel, and later joined the Danish embassy in Washington, D.C. In 1947, she returned to Denmark and worked for the Defence Intelligence Service until her retirement in 1960. She was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1947 and the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1953 for her contributions to the resistance and intelligence. She died in Copenhagen on 12 December 1955, and was buried at the Assistens Cemetery. ¹²