- During his bachelor days in the early 1920s in Los Angeles, he had the opportunity to work in Hollywood as an actor. During that time he also wrote articles for the Danish daily tabloid B.T., including a portrait of child actor Jackie Coogan as well as an interview with/portrait of his fellow Dane, famous actor Jean Hersholt whom he visited in his L.A. home.
He met fellow Danish immigrant Helga Marie Pedersen in Los Angeles circa 1929 (she had immigrated to the U.S. the previous year.)
The couple was married on November 4, 1930 in Los Angeles.
Their only child Betsie May Brinkmann was born on May 26, 1932 in Los Angeles.
The family of three left the U.S. in 1938, and settled down in Denmark.
In 1939 in Copenhagen, Helga became pregnant again, but was admitted to Sundby Hospital where she died on December 18. The cause of death was graviditas extrauterina, pregnancy outside the uterus. Secondary cause of death: paralysis.
Oscar Brinkmann remarried in 1941, his 2nd wife was Karen Eli Lindhøj Larsen. The couple had one child, Jens Georg Brinkmann, born 1941 in Copenhagen.
In the late 1920s to early 1930s in the U.S., he had become interested in politics and the communist party.
He had served in the U.S. army, and also volunteered to fight with the International Brigade in the Spanish civil war.
In In June 1941, Danish police arrested the first 107 of 250 Danish communists who were interned at the Horserød camp north Copenhagen. On August 28, 1943, the Germans took over the camp. 95 of the inmates managed to escape; the rest, including Oscar Brinkmann, were sent to the Stutthof concentration camp in northern Germany.
In March 1945, Oscar Brinkmann and the surviving inmates at Stutthof were liberated by the advancing Russian army. He and about 100 fellow Danish inmates walked to Denmark. From Fredericia in Southern Jutland he took a train to Copenhagen. His time at Stutthof had weakened him physically and mentally, and he never fully recovered from his ordeal although, together with his wife, he was able to continue his restaurant business in Hellerup after his return.
On May 8, 1949, he shot himself in his home at Calisensvej 8 in Hellerup. World War II had stolen yet another life.
More info:
http://www.alba-valb.org/volunteers/oscar-brinkmann
http://www.alba-valb.org/about-us/faqs/
http://www.xn--horserd-stutthofforeningen-0wc.dk/?page_id=78
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horser%C3%B8d_camp
"In Denmark, communists had long been surveilled and perceived as a threat to national security by the political establishment and on 22 June 1941, around 300 Danish members of the Communist Party of Denmark (DKP) were arrested by the Danish police. In Copenhagen they were detained at Vestre Prison without charge and on the 20 August, 107 of the arrested men were deported from Vestre Prison to the Horserød camp, among them member of parliament Martin Nielsen. On 22 August 1941, the Danish parliament adopted the Anti-Communist Act with retroactive effect.[2] On 29 August 1943, during the countrywide Operation Safari, the Germans captured the camp and in the event, 95 prisoners managed to escape, while the remaining 150 communists were subsequently deported to the German Stutthof concentration camp."
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