Bent Faurschou Hviid

On 18 October 1944, Faurschou Hviid was having dinner with his landlady and some guests when someone knocked at the door and a German officer demanded entry. Faurschou Hviid, who was unarmed that evening, quickly went upstairs seeking to escape across the roof. He soon realised that the house was completely surrounded. With no escape possible, he chewed a cyanide capsule and was dead a few seconds later.

According to several colleagues from the Holger Danske, no other resistance member was as hated or sought by the Germans as was Faurschou Hviid. Gunnar Dyrberg, leader of the Holger Danske from 1943 through 1945, said in the 2003 Danish documentary film, With a Right to Kill (Med ret til at dræbe), that no one knows exactly how many executions The Flame performed, but he was rumoured to have killed 22 persons. The film explored the issues of the estimated 400 executions performed by the Resistance agents.

According to Gunnar Dyrberg, leader of the Holger Danske from 1943 to 1945, who spoke in the Danish documentary film With a Right to Kill (Med ret til at dræbe, 2003), Flammen was believed to have executed 22 persons. The film was based on the book Efter drabet (Following the Death, 2001) by journalist Peter Øvig Knudsen [da; de; no], who also co-wrote the screenplay.

Bent Faurschou Hviid (7 January 1921 – 18 October 1944) was a member of the Danish resistance group Holger Danske during World War II. He was quickly named "Flammen" (meaning "The Flame"), for his red hair. In 1951, he and his Resistance partner Jørgen Haagen Schmith (Citron, or Citronen in Danish), were posthumously awarded the United States Medal of Freedom by President Harry Truman.

Bent Faurschou Hviid was born in 1921 in Asserbo [da], Denmark, on the island of Zealand to Marie Louise Larsen and Wilhelm Faurschou Hviid. His father was the owner of Asserbo's Birkegården Hotel. He also had a sister, Marie-Louise Swanstrøm and a brother Jan Faurschou Hviid.