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The Legacy of the Danish Resistance in World War II

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The Legacy of the Danish Resistance in World War II The Bridge Volume 27 Number 1 Article 8 2004 The Legacy of the Danish Resistance in World War II Joy Ibsen Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge Part of the European History Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, and the Regional Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Ibsen, Joy (2004) "The Legacy of the Danish Resistance in World War II," The Bridge: Vol. 27 : No. 1 , Article 8. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge/vol27/iss1/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Bridge by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Legacy of the Danish Resistance in World War II by Joy Ibsen Introduction When I first heard about this conference, I immediately thought of this topic, because I believe the Danish Resistance in World War II provides a legacy of critical importance. It is one which can be of help in guiding our way through today's murky social and political problems as we grapple with terrorist threats and moral issues confronting us in this new millennium. It is a story of special significance to all Danes and Danish-Americans. I have relied on several sources in developing this paper, and am especially indebted to an unpublished paper and interview with Immanuel Rodholm, my mother's cousin, who was born in Danevang, Texas, and who moved to Denmark as a young boy. Immanuel, or lb as he is called, has enjoyed a distinguished career. After serving in the Danish Navy during the Second World War, including time as a prisoner of war, he eventually became a Rear Admiral, then Deputy Chief of Danish Defense, and finally Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Supreme Commander, Allied Forces, Europe. I also have been inspired by Harold Flender' s classic book, Rescue in Denmark. How did I become interested in this subject? I grew up in a Danish­ American household. My father was in the King's Royal Guard, guarding Amalienborg Castle; he was a minister in the AELC, the Grundtvigian-influenced Lutheran Church, and we always lived in small-town Danish communities. Working in a grocery store or cafe when I was a teenager necessitated a Immanuel "lb" Rodholm limited Danish vocabulary. I had 26 relatives in Denmark on both sides of my family who were involved in the resistance movement. In this country, my bedstemor (grandmother) on my mother's side, Marie Rodholm Juhl, received a medal from the king of Denmark for her organization of volunteer efforts on behalf of the Danish people. Nevertheless, I grew up with little consciousness of the real significance of the Danish resistance, especially the rescue of the Jews. While there were acts of courage in resistance movements from every occupied country, only in Denmark did the people as a whole take such an active role, enabling over 98% of the Danish Jews to still be alive after the war.1 Danish people don't speak much about it. When the American television network, CBS, made a documentary in 1961 of the Danish rescue of the Jews they found it to be a very difficult task. Many Danes were rather uncooperative, seeing little point in the story being told widely. It was simply the human thing to do. Some people who were involved in the rescue worried that talking about it would cheapen what they had done.2 While commercialization and exploitation are deplorable, the story needs to be told in order for the legacy to continue. It was only as an adult at age 40 when I went to work at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago as its Director of Development that I began more fully to realize what this was all about. At Mount Sinai, Jewish board members and staff said things like "We trust you because you're a Dane," or "Ah, we know you're o.k. You're a Dane." At first I didn't even know what they were talking about, and then a remarkable exhibit, "The Danish Rescue of the Jews," came to Spertus College in downtown Chicago and I read for the first time Harold Flender' s book, Rescue in Denmark. Flender' s book was inspired by the Eichmann trial. Day after day tales of shocking horror were recited, and to make matters even more deplorable, it was all too apparent that people in the occupied countries often greeted the Nazi's inhumane acts with apathy, toleration or even approval. Then one day, during the trial, mention was made of Denmark and how this small country virtually saved its entire Jewish population (nearly 8,000 people) during World War II. 27 What Happened On April 9, 1940, when Germany took over Denmark, there were no fortifications to defend the Danish-German border. The Danish naval vessels did not open fire on German troop ships. Only the Royal Guard fired upon German soldiers at Amalienborg Castle; thirteen Danish soldiers were killed and twenty-three wounded. Almost immediately, King Christian X conceded to German demands. General Kurt Himer, Chief of Staff to the commanding general in Denmark, General Kaupisch recorded this meeting: "The seventy year old King appeared inwardly shattered although he preserved outward appearances perfectly and maintained absolute dignity. His whole body trembled. He declared that he and his government would do everything possible to keep peace and order in the country and to eliminate any friction between the German troops and the country. He wished to spare his country further misfortune and misery."3 The King of Norway, Christian's brother Haakon, responded quite differently, vowing to abdicate if the Norwegian government accepted the German demands. Norway resisted and held out for three months, inflicting severe damage on the Germans and suffering great losses. Today, some Danes today are very critical of the Danish government's immediate capitulation to the Germans. However, unlike Norway with its mountains and woods which offer an arena for guerilla warfare, flat and open Denmark offers no natural defense. It was useless to resist and would only have resulted in tremendous hardship and the loss of many lives. The Germans would have rounded up the Jewish population at once and shipped them to concentration camps. In my opinion, the Danish king's capitulation was the necessary thing to do. On April 9, 1940, the first day of the occupation, a small pamphlet written by student Ame Sejr, was distributed containing the so­ called "Ten Commandments for the Danish population" .4 It became the "Bible" of the resistance, and I am going to use it as an organizational structure for the first part of my presentation as we examine what subsequently transpired. 28 The Ten Commandments of the Danish Resistance 1. You should not work in Germany. 2. If working for the Germans you should perform poorly. 3. You should work slowly for the Germans. 4. You should destroy important machinery and tools. 5. You should destroy everything which could be useful to the Germans. 6. You should delay all German transports. 7. You should boycott all German and Italian films and magazines. 8. You should not deal in shops owned by Nazis. 9. You should deal with traitors as they deserve to be treated 10. You should protect any person who is being pursued by the Germans. As one can see most of the tenets are non-violent. Commandments 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8 are all economic measures of passive resistance. Commandments 4, 5 and 6 advocate or imply destruction of property. Number 9, although open to interpretation, implies killing of informers, and Number 10, also open to interpretatio_n, can result in risking one's life, as can several of the other commandments. The Danish resistance was strengthened after the German attack on the Soviet Union, June 1941, and became much stronger after several major events: First, the attempt on the part of the Germans to destroy the entire Jewish population in October 1, 1943, when membership of the Danish resistance increased overnight from a relative few to over 35,000 people by all estimates. Following August 29, 1943 when the Danish government resigned and Germans declared martial law, many Danish soldiers and sailors went underground joining the resistance movement. The general strike, which began June 26, 1944, was an encouraging victory, flaming the resistance movement. The arrest of the Danish police force, also in 1944, sent many police underground greatly strengthening the resistance. And surely, the delivery of weapons from the Allied forces, which increased drastically beginning in August 1944, was a very major factor. Resistance Groups included Holger Danske, Frit Danmark, Dansk Samling, and The Student's Intelligence Service. These resistance 29 groups often had a specialty such as sabotaging factories, damaging railroads and railroad equipment or investigating and eliminating Danish informers to the Gestapo. Other groups provided money, weapons and safe houses to hide resisters, helped obtain guns, hand grenades, and other explosives ammunition, a very high priority. They also obtained guns in "drops" and other weapons from Allied planes. Underground groups, which participated in the Jewish evacuation, included the Elsinore Sewing club, Mogen's Staffeldt's bookshop, The Rockefeller Institute, The Lyngby Group and The Danish Swedish Refugee Service. Commandments 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8: Economic Measures of Passive Resistance During the first years of the war, as Danes tried to make the best of a situation, many were able to exercise some resistance through economic measures. Some people were simply passive, quietly enduring the situation.
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