Editing Kaj Munk (section)

==Biography==
He was born Kaj Harald Leininger Petersen on the island of [[Lolland]], Denmark, and raised by a family named Munk after the death of his parents. From 1924 until his death, Munk was the vicar of [[Ulfborg-Vemb Municipality|Vedersø]] in Western [[Jutland]].<ref name="chronology">{{cite web|url=http://www.kajmunk.hum.aau.dk/en/?show=chronology|title=The Kaj Munk Research Center - Aalborg University|access-date=22 October 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718113424/http://www.kajmunk.hum.aau.dk/en/?show=chronology|archive-date=18 July 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> Munk's plays were mostly performed and made public during the 1930s, although many were written in the 1920s. Much of his other work concerns the "philosophy-on-life debate" (religion—[[Marxism]]—Darwinism) which marked much of Danish cultural life during this period.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

On one occasion, in the early 1930s, in a comment that came back to haunt him in later years, Munk expressed admiration for [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] (for uniting Germans) and wished a similar unifying figure for Danes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.information.dk/81242|title=Ingen Dansk kan ære Hitlers Daad mere end jeg|date=5 May 2003}}</ref> However, Munk's attitude towards Hitler (and [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]]) turned to outspoken criticism as he witnessed Hitler's [[Anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany|persecution of the German Jewish community]], and Mussolini's conduct of the [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War|war in Ethiopia]]. In 1938, the Danish newspaper ''[[Jyllands-Posten]]'' published on its front page an open letter to [[Benito Mussolini]] written by Kaj Munk criticising the persecutions against Jews.<ref name="chronology"/>

Early on, Munk was a strong opponent of the [[Occupation of Denmark|German Occupation of Denmark]] (1940–1945), although he continually opposed the idea of democracy as such, preferring the idea of a "[[Nordic countries|Nordic]] dictator" who should unite the Nordic countries and keep them [[political neutrality|neutral]] during periods of international crisis. His plays ''Han sidder ved Smeltediglen'' ("He sits by the melting pot") and ''Niels Ebbesen'' were direct attacks on [[Nazism]]. The latter, centering on the figure of [[Niels Ebbesen]], a medieval Danish squire considered a [[Folk hero|national hero]] for having assassinated an earlier German occupier of Denmark, [[Gerhard III|Count Gerhard III]], was a contemporary [[Analogue (literature)|analogue]] to World War II-era Denmark. Despite his friends urging Munk to go underground, he continued to preach against Danes who collaborated with the Nazis.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

The [[Gestapo]] arrested Munk on the night of 4 January 1944, a month after he had defied a Nazi ban and preached the first [[Advent]] sermon at the [[Church of Our Lady (Copenhagen)|national cathedral]] in Copenhagen. Munk's body was found in a roadside ditch in rural Hørbylunde near [[Silkeborg]] the next morning with a note stating, "Swine, you worked for Germany just the same."<ref>''Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', William L. Shirer, 1960. Retrieved 23.3.13</ref> 

Munk's body was returned to his parish church, Vedersø, where it is buried outside the choir.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ulfborg-turist.dk/idd63.asp|title=Ulfborg-Vemb Touristbureau – Churches|access-date=14 August 2013|archive-date=25 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225160352/http://www.ulfborg-turist.dk/idd63.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref> A simple stone cross was also erected on a small hill overlooking the site where Munk's body was dumped.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kulturarv.dk/1001fortaellinger/en_GB/hoerbylunde|title=Hørbylunde, The pastor of Vedersø - 1001 Stories of Denmark}}</ref>

Half of the January 1944 issue of the resistance newspaper ''[[De frie Danske]]'' was dedicated to Munk with his portrait filling the front page. The obituary ''Danmarks store Søn—Kaj Munk'' (The great son of Denmark—Kaj Munk) filled the next page, followed by excerpts from a new year's sermon he had given. Next came a description of his murder and a photo reportage from his funeral. Lastly the paper featured condemning reactions from influential Scandinavians, namely [[Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland]], [[Jarl Hemmer]], [[Johannes Jørgensen]], [[Sigrid Undset]], [[Erling Eidem]] and [[Harald Bohr]].<ref>{{cite news |title= KAJ MUNK IN MEMORIAM |url= http://www.illegalpresse.dk/papers/show/id/68 |newspaper=De frie Danske |date= January 1944 |access-date=18 November 2014 |language=da}}</ref>

The Danish government allowed his widow, Lise, to live at the parish house until she died in 1998. The church and parish house were restored as a memorial and opened to the public in 2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Kunst_og_kultur/Litteratur/Dansk_litteratur/1914-40/Kaj_Munk|title=Kaj Munk - Gyldendal - Den Store Danske|date=28 April 2023 }}</ref>