Throughout the story, The Churchill Club helped evolve Danish resistance against the Germans who occupied their land and government. There are also many theme topics that can be found in the text. For example, one strong theme topic is identity. Knud is determined to serve the resistance and to do whatever he can to stop the Germans from occupying Denmark.
One quote in the text that shows Knud’s identity is on page 154: “I got an idea: I bet a toy train with a tender and three or four wagons loaded with PE2 dynamite on rails leading beneath the Gestapo building might work. That’s how desperate I was to be a part of the organized resistance. Of course, the rational side of me knew this was a harebrained idea, a hopeless enterprise. But ever since I had come home from the jail I had tried without success to introduce myself to the organized resistance movement built up by the SOE.” This shows that Knud would do almost anything to be a part of a resistance, based on all the thoughts and ideas that cross his mind.
Another theme topic in The Boys Who Challenged Hitler is good vs evil. Although this may be a very general topic for such a serious series of events, this book’s main plot relies on this theme topic. Knud Pederson, the RAF Club, and The Churchill Club all strived to get start a resistance against Germany, who was the oppressor of their country. Knud’s experiences with the Churchill Club all revolve around the theme topic of good vs evil, where they deemed Germany to be evil. They took actions onto their own hands because the people of Denmark didn’t.
Overall, the theme topics of identity and good vs evil are clearly present in The Boys Who Challenged Hitler, from the beginning to the end. The connections to these theme topics show the reality of who the people were and what they had to face during WWII, and the remarkable story of Knud Pederson and The Churchill Club.