BORCHSENIUS, POUL°

BORCHSENIUS, POUL° (1897–1997), Danish pastor and author. During the Nazi occupation of Denmark in World War II, Borchsenius was an active member of the underground. He escaped to Sweden, where he engaged in welfare work among his Christian fellow-refugees. He kept in close touch with Jewish fugitives from Denmark and became an enthusiastic Zionist. Borchsenius wrote a series of five volumes on Jewish history after the destruction of the Second Temple: Stjernesønnen (1952; Son of a Star, 1960), based on the life of bar kokhba ; De tre ringe (1954; The Three Rings, 1963), a history of Spanish Jewry; Bag muren (1957; Behind the Wall, 1964), an account of the medieval ghetto; Løste lénker (1958; The Chains are Broken, 1964), the story of Jewish emancipation; and Og det blev morgen, historien om vor tids jøder (1960; And it was Morning, History of the Jews in our Time, 1962). In two other works, Sol stat stille ("Sun, Stand Thou Still," 1950) and Syv år for Rachel; Israel 1948–1955 ("Seven Years for Rachel," 1955), Borchsenius wrote about the State of Israel. He also published a biography of Israel's first premier, Ben Gurion: den moderne Israels skaber ("Ben Gurion, Creator of Modern Israel," 1956), and Two Ways to God (1968), a study of Judaism and Christianity. (Torben Meyer)