Danish Resistance

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.

A look at the Danish resistance to the Nazis during World War II.

The experiences of a sixteen-year-old Danish boy during the German occupation of his country in World War II. Two teenagers turn from pranks to sabotage in this tense story of a people pushed to their limits by the tyranny of the Nazi regime in Denmark.

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.

Tells the story of Denmark's ordinary citizens who created an extraordinary resistance movement to Nazi occupation.

Writing in lively tones with a wit that reveals his indomitable spirit, the author paints a vivid picture of the resistance movement in Denmark, with detailed descriptions of many of the Holger Danske group's daring sabotage operations.

Describes Danish contributions to World War II's Allied cause through such resistance activities as rescue and evacuation of Danish Jews, sabotage of armament factories, shortwave communication with London, illegal press, and recovery of arms, radios, and supplies.

The people of Denmark managed to save almost their country's entire Jewish population from extinction in a spontaneous act of humanity -- one of the most compelling stories of moral courage in the history of World War II. Drawing on many personal accounts, Emmy Werner tells the story of the rescue of the Danish Jews from the vantage-point of living eyewitnesses- the last survivors of an extraordinary conspiracy of decency that triumphed in the midst of the horrors of the Holocaust. A Conspiracy of Decency chronicles the acts of people of good will from several nationalities. Among them were the German Georg F. Duckwitz, who warned the Jews of their impending deportation, the Danes who hid them and ferried them across the Oresund, and the Swedes who gave them asylum. Regardless of their social class, education, and religious and political persuasion, the rescuers all shared one important characteristic: they defined their humanity by their ability to act with great compassion. These people never considered themselves heroes -- they simply felt that they were doing the right thing.

An account of people in Denmark who risked their lives to protect and rescue their Jewish neighbors from the Nazis during World War II.

The British formed the Special Operations Executive in 1940 to encourage and support saboteurs in German occupied territories during World War II. Jesperson (history, U. of Southern Denmark), basing his work on recently available Danish documents, gives an account of the operations of the SOE in Denmark. He describes an effort that was fairly ineffective in the early years and was only able to develop a concerted resistance campaign in the final years of the war. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR