Eli Mariane Basballe Heilskov (née Sørensen)
(1901 - 1985)
Profile
Pvt. Eli Heilskov enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1943. She was one of twenty-nine Danish born WACs during the Second World War. While she was serving as a WAC, her son volunteered for the Danish military forces in exile in Sweden in December 1944.
Eli Mariane Heilskov (née Basballe Sørensen) was born in 30 September 1901 in Klovby, Ubby parish, Denmark, to farmer Niels Rasmus Basballe Sørensen and Jensine Serine Basballe Sørensen (née Jensen).[1] She married Niels Peter Heilskov on 1 March 1925 in Engesvang.[2]
Heilskov travelled to United States in 1935 with her youngest son Niels Jørgen. They seem to have lived with her parents in Morgan, Minnesota, from 1935 to 1939. The parents and Heilskov’s two younger brothers had settled there in 1928.[3] Following a short stay in Denmark, Heilskov returned to the United States in on 5 September1939,[4] only days after the outbreak of the war. She had divorced Niels Peter Heilskov on 7 March 1939.[5]
Heilskov was naturalised as citizen of the United States on 7 April 1943.[6]
Heilskov enlisted as a Private (A-608625) in the Women’s Army Corps at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, on 3 May 1944.[7] She was discharged on 14 June 1945. There is no further information on the nature of her service and it is, thus, not clear if she served as an Army Air Force WAC.
Heilskov died on 7 February 1985.[8]
Eli Heilskov was not the only family member in military service during the war.
Her son—Jens Aage Heilskov, who had remained in Denmark—served in the Danish Brigade (DANFORCE) in Sweden during the war. He enlisted on 15 December 1944 and served in the 3rd Brigade.[9]
Her brother Poul enlisted in the US Army and died at Fort Custer, Michigan, on 4 May 1945, while in service as a private.[10]
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Ubby sogn.
[2] DNA: Parish register, Engesvang sogn.
[3] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[4] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[5] DNA: Parish register, Bispebjerg sogn.
[6] Ancestry: U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project).
[7] Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
[8] Ancestry: U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010.
[9] Jens Aage Heilskov, Frihedsmuseets Modstandsdatabase, http://modstand.natmus.dk/Person.aspx?77909 (20 July 2022).
[10] Ancestry: Michigan, U.S., Death Records, 1867-1952.