denmark

I remember my Dad talking to me about this.

The Institut Jeanne d’Arc, also known as Den Franske Skole, was a French-language, private Roman Catholic school at Frederiksberg Allé 74 in the Frederiksberg district of central Copenhagen. 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, who arrived in Denmark in 1856. They had already established another school, the Institut Sankt Joseph in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen in 1858. The three-winged red-brick building, consisting of four storeys and a mansard, housed 29 classrooms. On 21 March 1945, in response to a request by the Danish resistance that the Copenhagen Gestapo headquarters should be destroyed, 20 RAF Mosquitos left for Copenhagen on a mission designated Operation Carthage. 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 electric pylon, causing it to crash into a garage close to the school. Two of the Mosquitos in the second wave mistook the ensuing fire as their target and dropped their bombs on the French School, killing 86 children and 16 adults and wounding 67 children and 35 adults. The school was destroyed by the bombing and the remaining buildings were demolished. Today, six apartment buildings stand on the site (Frederiksberg Allé in front of Frydendalsvej). The remaining pupils were transferred to the Institut Sankt Joseph which was subsequently expanded. In 1953, a monument created by Max Andersen (1892–1972) was erected on the site. The monument depicts nun comforting two terrified children. In 1954, a new French School was established in Copenhagen by the French government, in cooperation with the Danish government. This new school has no religious affiliation but reports to the Ministries of Education of France and Denmark (for the French and Danish portions of the curriculum respectively). Now known as the Lycée Français Prins Henrik, it is located at Frederiksberg Allé 22A and boasts 800 pupils.

What a great moment this was!

Gruesome but it was bound to happen this way.