The Danish Response To The German Occupation 1940 1943

For five years during World War II, Denmark was occupied by Germany. While the Danish reaction to this period of its history has been extensively discussed in Danish-language publications, it has not until now received a thorough treatment in English. Set in the context of modern Danish foreign relations, and tracing the country’s responses to successive crises and wars in the region, Danish Reactions to German Occupation brings a full overview of the occupation to an English-speaking audience. Holbraad carefully dissects the motivations and ideologies driving conduct during the occupation, and his authoritative coverage of the preceding century provides a crucial link to understanding the forces behind Danish foreign policy divisions. Analysing the conduct of a traumatised and strategically exposed small state bordering on an aggressive great power, the book traces a development from reluctant cooperation to active resistance. In doing so, Holbraad surveys and examines the subsequent, and not yet quite finished, debate among Danish historians about this contested period, which takes place between those siding with the resistance and those more inclined to justify limited cooperation with the occupiers – and who sometimes even condone various acts of collaboration.

A HISTORY OF FIVE YEARS OF SECRET WARFARE AGAINST THE NAZI OCCUPATION Students were the first to resist Entire cities went on strike All the Danish population worked to save their Jewish countrymen V-2 component factories were destroyed in pitched battles General Montgomery described the Danish Resistance as “second to none.” By the end of the war, illegal newspapers had published a total of about 26 million issues; radio guides for Allied aircraft had been set up on the coasts; boats were running timetable services between Britain, Sweden and Denmark; illegal broadcasts were transmitted regularly; German ships were unable to move from Danish harbors; and vast numbers of German troops were kept from the main fighting points by Danish sabotage of the railways and airfields, and of the factories that the Nazis thought would be invulnerable sources of vital air force and military components. It is a fantastic story, full of tales of impudent, almost foolhardy heroism. With every reason to collaborate in safety, the Danes established an international news bureau that provided the Allies with a continuous service of inside information; they shipped seven thousand Jews to safety; they organized strikes; they spirited away most of Denmark’s tug fleet; they even established an office of the British Ministry of Food in Copenhagen. A quarter of a million feet of film recording their activities were shot by the Resistance under the eyes of the Gestapo, including photographs of many of their sabotage raids, which were meticulously planned. To the Danish Resistance the Nazis were not all-conquering supermen but dangerous fools to be parried at every turn. Their story is one of which any nation would be proud. Illustrated with 19 photographs.

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 34. Chapters: Danish resistance members, Occupation of Denmark, Rescue of the Danish Jews, Danish resistance movement, Liselund, Peter Freuchen, Rescue of Stutthof victims in Denmark, Anders Lassen, Georg Schafer, Knud Pedersen, Danish Freedom Council, Deportation of the Danish police, Jens Quistgaard, Georg Quistgaard, Bent Faurschou-Hviid, Three Hearts and Three Lions, John Christmas Moller, Holger Danske, Jorgen Haagen Schmith, Hvidsten group, Poul Andersen, Kim Malthe-Bruun, Churchill Club, Eli Fischer-Jorgensen, Arne Sejr, Flemming Muus, BOPA, Mogens Fog, Erling Foss, Carsten Hoeg, Jorgen Kieler, Frode Jakobsen, Arne Sorensen, Marius Fiil, Alma Allen. Excerpt: Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark began with Operation Weserubung on 9 April 1940, and lasted until German forces withdrew at the end of World War II following their surrender to the Allies on 5 May 1945. Contrary to the situation in other countries under German occupation, most Danish institutions continued to function relatively normally until 1943. Both the Danish government and king remained in the country in an uneasy relationship between a democratic and a totalitarian system until German authorities dissolved the government following a wave of strikes and sabotage. In 2003, in a speech for the 60th anniversary of the end of the 1940-43 collaborationist government, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that Denmark's cooperation with Nazis was "morally unjustifiable," which was the first public condemnation of the World War II era Danish leadership by a Danish leader. The occupation of Denmark was initially not an important objective for the German government. The decision to occupy its small northern neighbor was taken to facilitate a planned invasion of the strategically more important Norway, and as a precaution against the expected British...

The illegal press in Denmark opposing German occupation grew to impressive size and influence by the end of World War II. But its origins were modest, springing up from the small banned Danish Community Party and informal friendship groups in 1941.

The rescue of the Danish Jews from Nazi persecution in October 1943 is a unique exception to the tragic history of the Holocaust. Over fourteen harrowing days, as they were helped, hidden and protected by ordinary people who spontaneously rushed to save their fellow citizens, an incredible 7,742 out of 8,200 Jewish refugees were smuggled out all along the coast - on ships, schooners, fishing boats, anything that floated - to Sweden. Now, for the first time, Bo Lidegaard brings together decades of research and new evidence, including unpublished diaries and documents of families forced to run for safety and of those who courageously came to their aid, to tell this story of ordinary glory, of simple courage and moral fortitude that shines out in the midst of the terrible history of the twentieth century and demonstrates how it was possible for a small and fragile democracy to stand against the Third Reich.

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This book is about men and women who risked their lives to rescue their fellow countrymen. The Jewish community of Denmark was the only one in Nazi-Controlled Europe which survived WWII intact by escaping in small boats to neutral Sweden in 1943.