ISYV Magazine: Tales from a Danish Taxi Driver

By Rita Lunde

Now comfortable in her room at Solvang Lutheran Home, 100-year-old Najma Ostergaard looks back on harrowing days in World War II when she had to taxi Nazi soldiers around Denmark. Enjoying tales of their grandmother’s colorful history are Diane Ostergaard of Fresno and Susan Ostergaard of Redondo Beach.

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Frank Ostergaard decided his homeland of Denmark would be a better place than Fresno to raise a family in the late 1930s. So Frank, his wife Najma, and their two sons moved halfway around the world to Selde, Denmark, where his mother lived. Little did they know that World War II was to come and that dark days lay ahead.

When Hitler’s Nazi army invaded Denmark in the spring of 1940, all chances of leaving the country were closed. By that time, Najma was driving a taxi, and when three Nazi officers hired her cab for a day of shopping, she wasn’t sure she would make it home again. But refusing to drive wasn’t an option.

Najma Ostergaard was the only woman taxi driver in Selde, Denmark, when the Nazis over ran the country in World War II.

Frank had come up with the idea of turning their car into a taxi, but he didn’t have good enough eyesight to get the license. Najma’s eyes were excellent and the family needed an income, so Najma became the only woman taxi driver in Selde.

Today, sitting in her comfortable room at the Solvang Lutheran Home, it all seems so long ago. Najma was in her 30s at the time. Now, at “100 plus eight months,” she laughs about being the oldest of three residents more than 100.

Najma talks about those war years as if they happened yesterday, her eyes intense and sparkling. Some of the most dramatic moments in her life occurred during those war years.

On that long-ago day the Nazi officers in Najma’s taxi directed her toward a large city three hours away. “The officers had plenty of money to buy things” and, during the occupation, “the Germans just about bought all the clothes in Denmark,” she said.

Officers were often fluent in several languages and these spoke English to Najma, who was from America. “I had to be careful what I said.” She must have said the right thing because the soldiers treated her to dinner on the long drive back to town.

The day of Germany’s invasion of Denmark, Najma’s family was fortunate to have a radio. Soon, Hitler’s voice crackled over the airways, ordering Danes to put down their weapons so they would not get hurt. As troops rolled in by the truckload, the Nazis commandeered schools for their headquarters because no other buildings were large enough. It wasn’t long before attacks on Norway were launched from Denmark.

The presence of Hitler’s forces stressed Najma’s community severely. Not only did they have to put up with foreign rule, they were also targets for British bombing raids. “The sirens would warn us of an attack,” Najma said, and she and her family would race for the local shelter at the church.
“I wasn’t worried, though,” she said, shrugging. “What’s the use?” But she was worried. Her two sons, Kenneth, 13, and Edwin, almost 12, were nearing the age of recruitment into the German army. Something had to be done.

Najma had an advantage because she had been born in Rawlins, Wyoming, in 1904, which made her an American citizen. “I wrote to the American Consulate in Copenhagen and asked if there was any chance to leave Denmark. They sent a telegram back, which I got on Friday afternoon. They said I had to be ready to leave Sunday morning if I wanted to get out.”

It took only hours to sell everything they owned. Shortages were rampant and household items were a premium, even for the Germans stationed there. As a parting gift to her mother-in-law, who had provided food for their family for the year and a half they lived in Denmark, Najma gathered local berries of all kinds, blended them with her precious supply of sugar and made jars of jam.

The family traveled by bus through Denmark, by boat to Sweden and by train to the northern coast near the Finland border. There they boarded a ship that crept along the Norway coast, sailors clearing the mines ahead with long poles and keeping all lights on during the freezing night to avoid being strafed or bombed. “We had to stay on the deck so we could swim if we were attacked. And, we could hear the combat in Norway as we went by,” she said sadly.

Safely back in the United States, a series of moves brought the family to California. Najma developed a great love of the Santa Ynez Valley when she visited friends who had moved here.

Her family came to the area often through the years, becoming familiar with the community and people. While living in Santa Cruz, her husband Jack passed away. Najma decided she would save up her small income to move to Solvang. Who knew it would take another 20 years of housekeeping and cooking to reach her goal?

But at 86 she finally retired and settled in at the Solvang Lutheran Home, the place she had chosen many years earlier. “When I saw Solvang, I loved it. It was beautiful and I thought, this is the place I want to live.”