Niels Skov

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Brief Overview

Niels Skov.

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Niels Aage Skov was born in the city of Ribe in 1919, but moved to Copenhagen as a boy. After finishing school he became an apprentice machinist with the B&W shipbuilding firm while studying for an advanced degree at night, and also completed his compulsory military service. Angered by Denmark’s rapid capitulation to the Germans in World War II, he immediately got involved in ‘private’ resistance acts and occasional attempts at sabotage. In the early years the Danish resistance movement was fairly unorganized, but later Niels Aage joined with others. After his name became known to the Germans he was forced to go underground. In 1944 he was arrested by the Gestapo, faced prospects of a death sentence, but was instead sent south to several German concentration camps. When the Russian army neared the camp he was in, the prisoners were dispatched on a death march. Niels Aage escaped with another young Dane and headed west until they met the American army. He joined the American forces and was involved in hunting down and arresting German war criminals. In 1947 he left Denmark for America, where he started his own engineering business, got a Ph.D. in economics, became a university professor, and eventually wrote a book about his life.