Talk:Reed Edwin Peggram

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 03:02, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Who was Gerdh Hauptmann?

I would raise some doubt about the identity of Gerdh Hauptmann. The name does not appear Danish at all. 'Gerdh' is not a known Danish first name. The male name Gert and the female name Gerd are common; in addition there is the less common male name Gerdt, and rarely Gerd is used as a male name. However, in German Gerd is a common male name. Hauptmann means 'captain' and is a common German surname, but in Denmark there are only about 50 Hauptmanns. The only sources for Gerdh Hauptmann's being Danish appear to be newspaper articles from World War II. These may be founded on the man's own claims, or they may even have a propaganda purpose. Their escape story also is very unusual – and thus documentation would be desirable. So far, it appears unlikely that Gerdh Hauptmann was a Dane using his real name, but other possibilities exist:

• He was Danish, but used a pseudonym, for whatever reason
• He was German and trying to escape the war - or escaping his past - or emigrating under a false name
• Sources got it wrong, misspelled his name or carried on other misunderstandings
• Maybe details of their story were invented or exaggerated for allied propaganda purposes
• Their story may be largely correct, but they could have omitted the detail that they were a gay couple – which might explain why they chose to flee Denmark for France, and why they got arrested in Italy

This sentence also raises some doubt:

"Then, with the German occupation of Denmark during WWII, Peggram and Hauptmann had to flee to France and eventually settled in Italy."

Denmark had declared itself neutral, but was unexpectedly occupied by Germany on 9 April 1940. However, France would not be the obvious country to flee to. France had declared war on Germany already on 3 September 1939. France was not actually at war until Germany attacked on 10 May 1940. Paris was captured on 14 June, and France gave up on 25 June (although the southern part, Vichy France, was never occupied). Danes disapproved of the German occupation, but in 1940, people expected that Germany would not interfere with Danish politics, except for the military occupation. So people did not feel at risk for persecution, not even the Danish jews. The situation changed gradually, and Jews fleed Denmark in 1943. The United States were neutral, and they did not enter the war until December 1941. So an American citizen in Denmark would simply have no good reason to flee Denmark in 1940. Indeed, he would be safer in Denmark than in France. There must be another explanation for why they ended up in France and Italy. This article provides a more detailed history, however, there are dubioius details. It claims that:

"Hauptmann, as the subject of a conquered country, would be compelled to join the German army" [when in Italy]

But Germany never forced Danes to join the German army. Some did it voluntarily. However, it is correct that Gerdh Hauptmann published a book of 8 pages in English by a small Danish publishing house in 1971; a search at the Danish Royal Library renders: Hauptmann, G. (1971). Declaration. Kbh.: Strube. This does not exclude that the name could be a pseudonym, of course. --Sasper (talk) 10:34, 20 September 2018 (UTC)