The Institut Jeanne d'Arc, also Den Franske Skole, was a French-language Roman Catholic school at 74

Frederiksberg Allé Frederiksberg Allé is a tree-lined avenue which runs through the southernmost part of the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It connects Vesterbrogade at Værnedamsvej to Frederiksberg Runddel in front of the main entrance to Frede ...

in the

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the region of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of less tha ...

district of central

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, Denmark. Established in 1924, it was bombed by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

on 21 March 1945, during

Operation Carthage Operation Carthage, on 1945 in Denmark, 21 March 1945, was a British air raid on Copenhagen, Denmark in World War II, Denmark during the Second World War which caused significant collateral damage. The target of the raid was the ''Shellhus'', ...

, when pilots mistook the school for their actual target, which was roughly to the east-northeast. The bombing killed 86 children and 19 adults.

History

Designed by the Danish architect Christian Mandrup-Poulsen (1865–1952), the school was established on 1 August 1924 by the Danish

Sisters of St. Joseph The Sisters of St. Joseph, also known as the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, abbreviated CSJ or SSJ, is a Catholic religious congregation of women founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, in 1650. This congregation, named for Saint Jo ...

who arrived in Denmark in 1856. They had already established another school, the Institut Sankt Joseph in the

Østerbro Østerbro () is one of the 10 official districts of Copenhagen Municipality, Denmark. It is located just north of the city centre, outside the old city gate Østerport which, after it was moved around 1700, used to be located close to present-day ...

district of Copenhagen in 1858. The three-winged red-brick building, consisting of four stories and a

mansard A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

, housed 29 classrooms.

Mistaken bombing

On 21 March 1945, in response to a request by the

Danish resistance The Danish resistance movements () were an underground insurgency to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the initially lenient arrangements, in which the Nazi occupation authority allowed the democratic governm ...

that the Copenhagen

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

headquarters should be destroyed, 20 RAF

Mosquitos Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a family of small flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by '' mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mosquitoes have a slender segmented body, ...

left for Copenhagen on a mission designated

. The target was ''Shellhuset'' (The Shell House) on Kampmannsgade in the city centre, which housed the Gestapo. One of the Mosquitos in the first of three waves hit a tall lamppost, causing it to crash into a garage close to the school, roughly to the west-southwest of the ''Shellhuset''. Two of the Mosquitos in the second wave mistook the burning structure as having been successfully bombed by the first wave, and dropped their bombs on the French School, killing 86 children and 19 adults and wounding 67 children and 35 adults.

Aftermath

The school was destroyed by the bombing and the remaining buildings were demolished. Today, six apartment buildings stand on the site. The remaining pupils were transferred to the Institut Sankt Joseph which was subsequently expanded. In 1953, a monument created by Max Andersen was erected on the site.

In popular culture

The Danish movie ''

The Shadow in My Eye ''The Shadow in My Eye'' ( Danish: ''Skyggen i mit øje)'', also known as ''The Bombardment'', is a 2021 Danish war drama film written and directed by Ole Bornedal. The film deals with, among other things, Operation Carthage carried out by the Ro ...

'' (''Skyggen i mit øje'' in Danish), telling the story of the raid and the school's destruction, was released in October 2021 in Denmark.

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

released the movie on its streaming service in March 2022, as ''The Bombardment''.

References

{{coord, 55.6747, N, 12.5368, E, source:wikidata, display=title 1924 establishments in Denmark Buildings and structures in Denmark destroyed during World War II Catholic schools in Copenhagen Disasters in Copenhagen Educational institutions established in 1924 Explosions in Denmark Former buildings and structures in Frederiksberg Municipality World War II sites in Denmark