Skæring Hede
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Skæring Hede (Skæring Heath) or Skæring Mindelund (Skæring Memorial) is a forest and memorial park in Skæring, the northernmost suburb of
Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...
,
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
. Skæring Hede was originally a large
heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...
but today only a fraction of it remains as encroaching suburbs and areas with
summer house A summer house or summerhouse is a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather. This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden or park, often designed t ...
s have gradually taken over much of the natural land in the area, through the 70s and 80s. The remaining area of are mainly forest, although some heath do remain, and is managed as a public forest park by
Aarhus Municipality Aarhus Municipality (), known as Århus Municipality () until 2011, is a ''Municipalities of Denmark, kommune'' in the Central Denmark Region, on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. The municipality covers an area of , and ...
. Today Skæring Hede is one of only a few public forests in Skæring and the northernmost park in Aarhus. The forest is mainly mixed
pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...
and
birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...
forest with a number of walking paths crossing through it and it is home to a
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
memorial. Skæring Hede is well known as the place where five Danish resistance fighters were executed during the Second World War in one of the first mass executions during the war. Parking facilities on ''Åstrup Strandvej''. The forest has a ''Grejbase'' (Equipment base), an equipment locker which can be rented by teachers and other educators on excursions. The base in Skæring Hede is focused on
marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and ...
due to the proximity to the coast and shallow, rocky beach. The forest today is a recreational space in Skæring and an important local landmark.


History

The heath at Skæring was a relatively remote and unused area up to the 1940s when it was still some 10–15 km. outside the city. When the German army occupied Denmark it also eventually took possession of the heath and by 1943 had turned it into a shooting range. On 17 November 1943 the Danish resistance blew up 3 bridges at Langå, severing the railroad between Aarhus and
Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is List of cities and towns in Denmark, Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 64,511 ().Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
had to be stopped or redirected. However, the
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 ...
quickly started tracking down the resistance members and 4 men from
Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is List of cities and towns in Denmark, Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 64,511 ().Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
. Kai Hannibal Hoff, the leader of the operation, was arrested on 30 November and moved to Randers Barracks where he was killed trying to escape. Seven people were arrested in all, 5 were sentenced to death and two were given life in prison. On 2 December 1943 early in the morning in Skæring Hede, the five death sentences were carried out by shooting. The bodies of the five executed men and the body of another resistance fighter were subsequently buried in secret at ''Husbjerg Klit'', a remote military training ground in south-west Jutland. The memorial on Skæring Hede has a connection to another Danish World War II memorial in Allerstrupgård Skov. It is located at the meadow codenamed "Mustard Point" where the Hvidsten Group received supplies from the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
during the war. The 8 members of the group were arrested March 1944 and executed 9 June 1944 in Ryvangen. After the war the bodies were exhumed and brought back to the village ''Hvidsten'' where the "Mustard Point" meadow was donated by the town as a cemetery and memorial which was inaugurated 18 July 1945. It was the Hvidsten Group that supplied the explosives that made it possible to bomb the Langå bridges.


Memorial

The memorial is in a clearing close to the water and in view of the Bay of Aarhus and Helgenæs. The main component is a massive granite boulder with text inscriptions listing the men who were executed there and a short poem by
Kaj Munk Kaj Harald Leininger Munk (commonly called Kaj Munk; 13 January 1898 – 4 January 1944) was a Danish playwright and Lutheran pastor, known for his cultural engagement and his martyrdom during the Occupation of Denmark of World War II. He i ...
. The memorial is dedicated to the five men who were executed there and Kaj Munk. In addition there is one
oak tree An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the Fagaceae, beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northe ...
which was planted for each of the five men killed there.


Executed resistance fighters

* Anders W. Andersen (from
Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is List of cities and towns in Denmark, Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 64,511 ().Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality (''Municipalities of De ...
14 September 1921) * Otto Manley Christiansen (from
Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is List of cities and towns in Denmark, Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 64,511 ().Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (after Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2025, the city proper had a population of 185,480 while Odense Municipality had a population of 210, ...
10 June 1923) * Oluf Kroer, Oluf Akselbo Kroer (from
Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is List of cities and towns in Denmark, Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 64,511 ().Parks in Aarhus World War II sites in Denmark