Denmark Celebrates 75th Anniversary of Jewish Rescue
By Carl Tulevech
The Danish government will hold a memorial celebration on October 11 in Gilleleje Kirke, Denmark to commemorate the rescue of Danish Jews 75 years ago during World War II. The Nazis sought to ghettoize or kill this ethnic group and project their ideology of purity in what they considered an Aryan nation.
The Nazis murdered approximately six million European Jews during their reign. While they faced little resistance to their genocide in some nations, Danish King Christian X opposed their persecution of the Jews, slowing Nazi efforts. The Nazis sought to keep peaceful relations with the Danes and maintain their relationship with King Christian. According to CPH Post, for example, Danish Jews were neither required to register nor wear the yellow star of David, leaving them, for the most part, unrecognizable to Danish Nazi officials during the first two years of Nazi occupation.
As the war dragged on, Germany began to extract resources from Denmark, leaving the country emaciated. The Danes revolted against German factories, assaulted Nazi officers, and held demonstrations. As a result, in 1942, Germany declared Denmark enemy territory and sought a complete takeover of the country.
On September 23, 1942, the Nazis invaded using Gestapo trucks, seeking to arrest the 8,000 Danish Jews and deport them to occupied Czechoslovakia, described the CPH Post. Although they mobilized extensive resources for this campaign, they captured only 202 Jews, mostly elderly. The Danish government had warned the population in advance and in person, since Denmark’s phones were tapped, and the Danish Jews went into hiding. Furthermore, Danish police refused to cooperate with the Nazi officials and obstructed further deportation of the Jews.
In addition to protecting Danish Jews from deportation, the Danish government successfully transported Jews to hiding places in Køge and Gilleleje, reports the CPH Post.
The Danes sought to send Jewish citizens to a more permanent hiding place in Sweden. According to the CPH Post, the night between October 1 and 2, the Nazis raided the entire country, seeking Jewish expulsion. However, over 7,000 Jews had already escaped by boat. Although 51 of those captured in Denmark died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, the vast majority of the Danish Jews were saved, a miracle when compared to statistics concerning Jews from other Nazi-occupied European nations.
Denmark, at the time, was the only Nazi-occupied state to fight against the persecution of their Jewish countrymen. The memorial event will celebrate the Danish resistance to the genocide of their Jewish citizens and to the Nazi occupation more generally.
Israeli President Reuvin Rivlen, Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, and representatives of the Jewish Society in Denmark will attend the memorial ceremony. The CPH Post emphasized the importance of the rescue to modern Danish history, quoting the prime minister, who said, “the courage that Danish citizens showed 75 years ago still moves me today.”