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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Denmark Saved Its Jews From the Nazis
By Gerhard Spörl, SPIEGEL
November 3, 2013
Denmark was the only European country to save almost all of its Jewish residents from the Holocaust. After being tipped off about imminent roundups by prominent Nazis, resisters evacuated the country's 7,000 Jews to Sweden by boat. A new book examines this historical anomaly.
They left at night, thousands of Jewish families, setting out by car, bicycle, streetcar or train. They left the Danish cities they had long called home and fled to the countryside, which was unfamiliar to many of them. Along the way, they found shelter in the homes of friends or business partners, squatted in abandoned summer homes or spent the night with hospitable farmers. "We came across kind and good people, but they had no idea about what was happening at the time," writes Poul Hannover, one of the refugees, about those dark days in which humanity triumphed.
.........
Denmark in October 1943 was a small country with a big heart. It had been under Nazi occupation for three-and-a-half years. And although Denmark was too small to have defended itself militarily, it also refused to be subjugated by the Nazis. The Danes negotiated a privileged status that even enabled them to retain their own government. They assessed their options realistically, but they also set limits on how far they were willing to go to cooperate with the Germans.
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The Danes provided no assistance to the Nazis in their "Jewish campaign" in Denmark. They viewed the Jews as Danes and placed them under their protection, a story documented in "Countrymen," a new book by Danish author Bo Lidegaard. "The history of the rescue of the Danish Jews," writes Lidegaard, "is only a tiny part of the massive history of the Shoah. But it teaches us a lesson, because it is a story about the survival instinct, civil disobedience and the assistance provided by an entire people when, outraged and angry, it rebelled against the deportation of its fellow Danes."
http://abcnews.go.com/International/denmark-saved-jews-nazis/story?id=20750027
I had heard this story before, but it still moves me. It reminds me that in the depth of despair, when the darkness enfolding the world seemed to be at its worst, there was a ray of hope. The Danish did not bow to Nazi oppression and defended every single one of their Jewish citizens and refugees.
I have visited quite a few museums in various countries, but the Holocaust Museum in Washington affected me in a way that none of the others did. I am not Jewish, but the suffering of one people and the enormous cruelty and evil of another is something that the world should never forget, because to forget history is to repeat it.
This is a lesson that is as applicable today as it was in 1943. Never forget, and to quote Churchill, "Never, never, never give up."
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Beacool
(30,247 posts)Right back at you.........
littlewolf
(3,813 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)littlewolf
(3,813 posts)Chiune Sugihara,
the Japanese Consul-General in Kaunas, Lithuania, issued thousands of visas to Jews fleeing Nazi occupied Poland in accordance with Japanese policy.[1] The last diplomat to leave Kaunas, Sugihara continued stamping visas from the open window of his departing train.
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and his colleagues saved as many as 100,000 Hungarian Jews by providing them with diplomatic passes.
Aristides de Sousa Mendes, between June 16 and 23, 1940, frantically issued Portuguese visas, free of charge, to over 30,000 refugees seeking to escape the Nazi terror.
Dimitar Peshev, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Bulgaria and Minister of Justice during World War II. He rebelled against the pro-Nazi cabinet and prevented the Deportation of Bulgaria's 48,000 Jews.
these names and others continue to give me hope.
Beacool
(30,247 posts)What is remarkable about Denmark is that it saved almost all of its Jews. The first time I heard about what Denmark did and other stories of similar courage and sacrifice was at the Holocaust Museum. It's top floor is dedicated to the liberation of the camps and the aftermath of the Holocaust.
"A recurring theme is the issue of individual responsibility toward fellow human beings in danger. Thousands of courageous non-Jews risked death or imprisonment to save their Jewish neighbors, and othersJews and non-Jewsjoined in the underground war against the Nazis. Still others joined the killers, becoming perpetrators or enablers of genocide. The vast majority of Europeans, however, were bystanders who did little to deter the Nazis or to aid Jews or other victims of Nazi persecution. Highlights of this floor include the activities of French villagers in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and the surrounding region to hide Jews, the Danish rescue of some 7,000 Jews, and the actions of the American War Refugee Board and Raoul Wallenberg to save Jews in occupied Europe."
http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/permanent/floor-2
One of the stories that I read on that floor that stuck with me was the one about a very beautiful young woman who worked as the housekeeper of a Nazi officer. She had the courage to hide several Jewish people in the officer's own home. Eventually he found out and gave her a choice, to become his lover or he would send these people to the camps. She sacrificed herself by becoming his lover and thus saved the family. It's the kind of story that operas are made of; I don't know if I could have had the courage to do what she did.
Behind the Aegis
(53,956 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/1223719
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1223334
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014608528
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/irena-sendler-poland-jews_n_3280035.html
There is a list of other saviors, including some already mentioned by you or me, at this site: http://listverse.com/2008/11/06/10-people-who-saved-jews-during-world-war-two/
Beacool
(30,247 posts)When I despair about the world, I think of all those who have redeemed humanity by their selfless acts.
Behind the Aegis
(53,956 posts)Culture, religion, location, nationality, sex, and other things all fell to the wayside to do the right thing and save humanity.
Beacool
(30,247 posts)there are many others who will stand against oppression and who in some cases will pay with their own lives to rectify a wrong. Just as these heroes did during WWII.
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)It does rather renew my faith in humanity.
Julie
Beacool
(30,247 posts)dhill926
(16,337 posts)Fantastic post!
Beacool
(30,247 posts)I was reading the other night about this place in Chicago that I was unaware existed: SelfHelp Home, Chicago Retirement Facility, Houses World's Last Generation Of Holocaust Survivors.
There are only a handful of survivors left and their stories need to be told and remembered by humanity. Similar holocausts continue to be committed in various lands.
Here's the story of SelfHelp
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/03/selfhelp-home-chicago_n_4208373.html?utm_hp_ref=chicago
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)There's the important criterion. The Jews weren't others, or foreigners who wouldn't assimilate, or illegal immigrants, etc. They were Danes.
Beacool
(30,247 posts)They weren't viewed as foreign or alien, they were their friends and neighbors. Therefore, they had to be protected and saved. The whole country was into the effort, from the king down. Remarkable valor, considering what was at stake. The Nazis killed all collaborators.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)I can't wait to read that book.
Behind the Aegis
(53,956 posts)It was nice to see Jews to be recognized as citizens and not "an other." If it happened then, then should an event like the Holocaust happen again, I would hope we see a Danish response.
Beacool
(30,247 posts)What happened in Europe in the 30s and 40s is a blotch on humanity and every person should learn about it to avoid repeating it. Some years ago I attended a New Year's party at someone's home. One of the people there was an elderly woman, I was chatting with her when at one point I noticed a tattoo on her forearm. At first I was shocked, but then I asked her if it was what I thought it was. She said yes, that she had been sent to a concentration camp. The lady told me that she was a teenager when they were sent to the camps. She lost her family, eventually moving to the US and marrying another survivor. That incident made a huge impact on me. I started reading about the advent of Nazism and the war. What I found very sad was how many people turned a blind eye and ignored what was being done to a large segment of their own countrymen, women and children.
mountain grammy
(26,620 posts)How sad that so many lived out the rest of their own lives in poverty and obscurity. It's gratifying to see these extraordinary human beings recognized so we can all sit in awe, and wonder; what would we do?
Beacool
(30,247 posts)The majority of these people died in obscurity. They helped their fellow countrymen out of a sense of decency and outrage of what the Nazis were doing. I bet that, like most heroes, they didn't view themselves as such. I'm glad that they are now being recognized. I would like to read the book.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)From his Wikipedia bio:
Wikipedia also has a comprehensive account of the whole episode at "Rescue of the Danish Jews".
I first heard of Duckwitz because he's named in an amazing song by Fred Small, "Denmark 1943" (lyrics here), on his album I Will Stand Fast.
Beacool
(30,247 posts)It's good to know that not all Germans at the time were in agreement with Hitler's "Final Solution". This man saved many with his warning. I had never heard of that song, it basically tells the whole story of the rescue of the Jewish Danes.