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Resumé

Did He Become a Catholic?

A few years before his death in 2000, the entertainer Victor Borge, born Børge Rosenbaum, visited the grave of his grandfather, Nathan Rosenbaum, in the Jewish cemetery in M.llegade, Copenhagen. Victor Borge had paid for a restoration of the tombstone and came to see the result and pay his respect.

Victor Borge arrived with his daughter to the cemetery where they were met by a representative from the Mosaic Community, Erik Henriques Bing, editor of the magazine Jødisk Orientering; Birte Kont and her husband Lennart Kont; and photographer from the newspaper Politiken, Tine Harder, who later published a book with photographs of Borge.

Erik Henriques Bing, who had had a previous mail correspondence with Borge, guided the group through the cemetery to the grave. While trying to take a photograph of the tombstone, Borge's hat gets in the way, and despite the tradition that a Jewish man should always cover his head at a cemetery, he takes off the hat and declares: ”I have become a Catholic!” After a moment, the hat is put back on and Borge is, according to himself, Jewish again!

The day at the cemetery was very important to Borge. Not only did he see his grandfather’s tombstone and pay him his respect, but he also had a glimpse of his past in Denmark.