Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project: "Forget You Not"™
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The Holocaust and Denmark --a Country of Blessed Memory

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The heroic actions of the Danish people during the autumn of 1943 saved nearly all of Denmark's Jews from certain death in Nazi concentration camps.
Almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark was rescued and survived the war years, mostly in neutral Sweden and a few hundred in the KZ camp Theresienstadt
under the distant but constantly protective concern of the Danes. Denmark is a country of truly blessed memory.
 

Five Pictures from the German-occupied Denmark that speak volumes...

Danes rescuing a fellow Jew

A Jew, recently apprehended by a Danish Nazi (center, in black raincoat and hat), is rescued by his fellow Danes. As the Nazi escorted the Jew through the streets, an angry crowd forced him to surrender his prisoner to the Danish police. Once safely inside the police station, the gendarmes helped the Jew escape. The Danish police consistently refused to cooperate with the German occupation authorities.

[Photo Credit: Frihedsmuseet / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive.]

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Danish fishermen ferry a boatload of Jewish fugitives across a narrow sound to neutral Sweden during the nationwide rescue operation. News of impending deportations of Jews spawned a rapid response by the Danes, who worked feverishly to save Jewish citizens. Boats of every size and shape were used to transport the Jews from Denmark to Sweden, away from the grasp of the Nazis.

[Photo Credit: Frihedsmuseet / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive.]

Danish fishermen saving Jews

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Danish Jewish children brought
                                    to safety

This group portrait of Danish-Jewish children was taken in a children's home in Sweden after their escape from Denmark. The rescue of Danish Jewry was one of the few positive stories in the tragic annals of the Holocaust. These Jewish children unknowingly defied all odds by surviving the genocidal intentions of the Nazis.

[Photo Credit: Frihedsmuseet / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive.]

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The heroic actions of the Danish people during the autumn of 1943 saved nearly all of Denmark's Jews from certain death in Nazi concentration camps.

After the Germans occupied the country in 1940, the Danish government resisted Nazi pressure to hand over its Jews. In 1943, however, the Danes intensified resistance, prompting a harsh Nazi reaction. Imposing martial law, the Germans in October began to arrest and deport Danish Jews. Reacting spontaneously, Danes alerted and hid the Jews, helping them to the coast and organizing secret passage across the sea to Sweden (pictured). The unassuming Danish rescuers included police, fishermen, and members of church and social organizations.

Over the course of three weeks, the Danish people transported more than 7200 Jews and almost 700 of their non-Jewish relatives to safety aboard Danish fishing vessels. The Nazis did capture 464 Jews, whom they sent to the Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, camp/ghetto. Aid continued, nonetheless, as the Danish public sent food parcels to their Jewish countrymen imprisoned in Theresienstadt. Just before the conclusion of the war, in spring 1945, negotiations rescued most of these Jews through an agreement that transferred many Scandinavian nationals from concentration camps to Sweden.

Photo: Frihedsmuseet / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive

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A Swedish policeman accompanies a newly arrived Danish-Jewish refugee to the welfare office in Rebslagergade, Sweden. Swedish participation was critical to the success of the rescue operation. Not only did the government proclaim its willingness to accept all Jewish refugees from Denmark, but the Swedish Red Cross helped save the approximately 500 Danish Jews who were deported to the Theresienstadt camp/ghetto in Czechoslovakia.

Photo: Frihedsmuseet / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive



Text Source: http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/StaticPages/489.html


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