My name is Jens Frank Illemann, and that’s why some people think I’m Jewish – I’m not. The name Frank is of German origin, but why did I get this name as a baptismal gift when I was baptized in sct. Pederskirke in DK-Randers, when it was already in 1962 a name that the Jews already at that time almost had a monopoly on?
My godmother married a Danish policeman in 1938, she was my grandmother’s little sister. Her husband was deported in 1944 to the Buchenwald concentration camp during Operation Möwe, he returned home to Denmark in 1945 with a body weight of 35kg.
We can all be in the situation of being cleansed, regardless of whether you are a Jew or an ethnic Dane. And that’s why I’ve chosen to keep the name Frank.