Tove Warschaffsky Mortensen came from a working-class family in Copenhagen. Her mother Paula was of Jewish origin; her father Orla Mortensen was not. On September 29, 1943, Tove’s mother was warned of the imminent deportation of Danish Jews. She fled with Tove to Gilleleje on the coast, and hid there before she could escape to neutral Sweden.
During a raid on October 7, 1943, almost 80 hidden Jews were caught in Gilleleje and deported. The group with Tove and her mother went undiscovered, however. The municipal employee Svend Andreasen brought food for the persecuted Jews, and suggested Tove could stay with him and his wife. Her mother agreed, and continued her journey to Sweden alone. Three-year-old Tove missed her mother a great deal, but soon got used to her loving foster parents.
Several weeks after Denmark’s liberation on May 4, 1945, Paula Warschaffsky Mortensen brought the now five-year-old Tove back to live with her in Copenhagen. Because Tove missed her foster parents so much, her mother eventually agreed with a heavy heart that her daughter could stay with them in Gilleleje.