--- description: In Copenhagen a newsdealer displayed a textbook, English in 50 Hours, under a poster saying: LEARN ENGLISH BEFORE THE TOMMIES ARRIVE. Nazi occupation authorities made him take down book and... title: DENMARK: Language Lesson image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # DENMARK: Language Lesson by [TIME](/author/time/) Aug 11, 1941 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Aug 11, 1941 4:00 AM CUT In Copenhagen a newsdealer displayed a textbook, English in 50 Hours, under a poster saying: LEARN ENGLISH BEFORE THE TOMMIES ARRIVE. Nazi occupation authorities made him take down book and poster. Next day the newsdealer displayed a new book, German in 50 Hours, under a new sign: LEARN GERMAN BEFORE OUR FRIENDS THE GERMANS DEPART. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6765240/denmark-language-lesson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6765240/denmark-language-lesson/"},"headline":"DENMARK: Language Lesson","datePublished":"1941-08-11T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-28T18:38:17.930Z","description":"In Copenhagen a newsdealer displayed a textbook, English in 50 Hours, under a poster saying: LEARN ENGLISH BEFORE THE TOMMIES ARRIVE. Nazi occupation authorities made him take down book and...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6765240/denmark-language-lesson/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6765240/denmark-language-lesson/","name":"DENMARK: Language Lesson"}}]}] ```