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| BOPA | |
|---|---|
| Borgerlige Partisaner | |
 | |
| Part of | Danish resistance movement |
| Opponents |  German Occupying Forces |
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BOPA (Danish:Borgerlige Partisaner, Civil Partisans) was a group of theDanish resistance movement; it was affiliated with the communists and developed after theoccupation of Denmark byNazi Germany during theSecond World War.
In 1942, theCommunist Party of Denmark was banned by the German authorities. Communists organized smallsabotage cells across the country, formed mainly by veterans who had been part of the volunteer anti-Franco brigades of theSpanish Civil War. However, as arms were scarce, their weapons were oftengasoline andmatches, and only small-scale operations were carried out.
On January 25, 1943, a group of students—who had previously been refused membership in the communist resistance group due to its members' distrust of elitists (including students)—set fire to a stock of German listening devices atDansk Industrisyndikat inHellerup using a bottle ofspirit. The students were accepted into the group, which changed its name from the originalKOPA (Kommunistiske Partisaner, Communist Partisans) toBorgerlige Partisaner (Civil Partisans) orBOPA. The new name was at first used jokingly by old members, since "borgerlig" in Danish also means "conservative", but it soon became the most widely used name.
Operations grew in magnitude as individuals with inside knowledge of possible targets joined the group. Young apprentices from large factories proved especially useful in identifying targets that were supplying the German military. The cells attacked factories such asBurmeister & Wain andRiffelsyndikatet in 1943, Riffelsyndikatet (again) and Global in 1944, and Always in 1945.
(in Danish)
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