The two-room village school Chris attended housed students of all ages. Grades one through seven, Chris remembered were all in the same room. Chris stayed at school until 1944, when he began work as a farm-labourer full-time. His brother Sigvard was a particularly bright child who, with the help of state scholarships, went to university in Copenhagen.
Students at Spandet school, ca 1939. Chris Bennedsen is in the third row from the top, fourth child from the left. His brother Sigvard is in the top row, third from the right. (Private Collection)
Sigvard and Chris Bennedsen at Chris’s confirmation, 1944. (Private Collection)
A Childhood in Spandet
A page from Chris’s confirmation booklet with entry by vicar Sigurd Jensen. (CMC, Christian Bennedsen Collection, P45-1.2.5)
Chris Bennedsen's identification-card photo, ca 1946. (Private Collection)
Chris Bennedsen (left) and his friends Nis and Kresten at the summit of Mount Himmelbjerget, in South Jutland, ca 1948. (Private Collection)