Pvt. Karl Lundshøj
(1904 - 1994)
Profile
Pvt. Carl Lundshoj served briefly in the US Army during the Second World War. He served with the anti-aircraft artillery in Los Angeles.
Carl Lundshoj—originally Karl Lundshøj—was born on 1 January 1904 at the Royal Maternity Institution (Fødselsstiftelsen)[1] in Copenhagen, to Johanne Sofie Marie Hansen and an unknown father. [2] Following the birth his mother moved in with her parents in Copenhagen and Lundshoj was placed at an orphanage in Rye. [3] He later lived with his grandparents in Hillerød before moving to Copenhagen to live with his mother and her then husband, Hjalmar Viggo Malmsjø.[4]
In the early 1920s, Lundshoj travelled to Buenes Aires in Argentina. It is not clear, when he returned to Denmark. [5] Lundshoj emigrated to the United States in 1937. He signed on the SS Batory as a stewart in Copenhagen in early May but deserted the vessel following its arrival in New York on 10 May 1937. [6] He settled in New York but later moved to California.[7]
Lundshoj enlisted as a private (39267977) in the US Army in Los Angeles, California, on 28 November 1942. He was not yet a citizen at the time of enlistment.[8] He served in the antiaircraft artillery in Los Angeles. He was honourably discharged on 1 February 1943. Three months later, on 28 May 1943, he was naturalised as a citizen of the United States.[9]
Lundshoy returned to civil life in San Francisco. In 1963, he returned to Denmark where he lived in Boeslunde. He was the guide of a group of Americans touring Scandinavia in 1966. He planned to returned to the United States within a few years. [10] It is not certain from the sources it he did so. He died in Denmark on 24 December 1994.[11]
Endnotes
[1] Fødselsstiftelsen, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%B8dselsstiftelsen (accessed on 27 December 2024).
[2] DNA: Parish register, Den Kongelige Fødselsstiftelse.
[3] DNA: Den Kongelige Fødsels- og Plejestiftelse, Udsætterprotokoller, p. 118 of 981.
[4] DNA: 1921 Census of Denmark.
[5] DNA: 1925 Census of Denmark; Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934.
[6] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[7] Ancestry: U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947.
[8] Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
[9] Ancestry: California, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1888-1991.
[10] Scandinavian Tourists Visit Oldest City in Sweden, The Republic, 28 September 1966, p 5.
[11] Ancestry: U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014.