Ragnhild Nikoline Andersen

Ragnhild Nikoline Andersen (1907–1990) was a Danish trade unionist, politician, and a member of the Communist Party of Denmark (DKP). During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, she was sent by the Gestapo to the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdańsk in Poland, where she spent 20 months in dreadful conditions before being rescued. After the war, she was elected to the Folketing, becoming a member of DKP's central committee and one of the most prominent members of the party. She promoted wider access to abortions and improvements to women's rights.

Biography Born on 18 August 1907 in Yderby on the tip of Sjællands Odde, Ragnhild Nikoline Andersen was the daughter of the harbour master Nikolaj Andreas Andersen (1875–1954) and Gertrud Birgitte née Hansen (1881–1964). In 1937, she married Finn Johannes Salemonsson but the marriage was dissolved in 1949. In 1952, she married fellow communist politician Peter Alfred Jensen (1903–1988). In October 1943, together with six other communist women and 143 men, she was transferred by the Gestapo to Stutthof Concertation Camp near Gdańsk. After 20 dreadful months of captivity, six of the seven returned to Denmark in 1945 after the country's liberation at the end of the war. Andersen tells of her experiences in great detail in Vi blev reddet denne Gang (We were saved that time) published in 1945.

In the autumn of 1945, together with 17 other communists, she was elected to the Folketing and was re-elected in 1947. After first representing the Frederiksborg constituency, in 1950 she was elected as a representative of Copenhagen, becoming a prominent member of the Communist Party. She was particularly active on social issues, calling for improvements in conditions for the disadvantaged, for the establishment of sex clinics, for more extensive access to abortion and for a woman's right to part-time employment.