Why 95% of Denmark's Jews thrived under German occupation

Adolf Goebbels
Published on Oct 20, 2023
It was the evening of October 1st, 1943, when German Police and members of the Danish SS descended on Copenhagen with orders to round up and deport Denmark’s Jewish population. It was the night of the Jewish New Year - Rosh HaShanah - and the German Police were expecting to find Jewish families at home celebrating. What they found instead was empty house after empty house. Someone had tipped off the Jewish community...

By the end of the war, over 95% of Denmark's nearly eight thousand Jews would escape Denmark, and avoid becoming victims of the Holocaust. This survival rate is extraordinary, unfortunately, this was not the case across the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe.
To find out why, we need to go back to 1940.

Visit the Holocaust Galleries at IWM London: https://www.iwm.org.uk/events/the-holocaust-galleries
View and licence some of the archive film clips used in this video on IWM Film: https://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/mycollections/index/_B4XDqY4d

Credits:
USHMM: RG-60.0345; German occupation of Denmark; Accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Bundesarchiv
A large group of Dutch Jews who have just arrived in Theresienstadt are herded into one of the entrances to the camp. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 20255. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Ivan Vojtech Fric.
Prewar portrait of a Danish couple, their daughter and her two Jewish friends in prewar Denmark. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 44560. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Dr. Dov Kischinovsky
A Jewish refugee from Denmark, who was ferried to Sweden during the Danish rescue operation in October 1943, works at his own barbershop in Sweden. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 59695. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Esther Diament Nussbaum
A Jewish mother and her son pose in a park in Copenhagen. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 25279. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Herbert Krogman
Five Danish Jews pose outside a home in Copenhagen. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 75024. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Hetty Klein
A young Jewish boy rides in a toy car on a sidewalk in Copenhagen. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 25261. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Herbert Krogman
Wedding party in Denmark attended by many Jewish religious leaders. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 84541. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Leo Goldberger
A Jewish couple from Denmark who was ferried to safety in Sweden poses with the Swedish family who hosted them in the backyard of their home in Landskrona. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 59715. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Birthe Trommer
Students and teachers in a school for Danish refugees in Goteborg, Sweden. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 01216. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Leo Goldberger
A Jewish family from Denmark who was ferried to safety in Sweden, has Christmas dinner at the home a Swedish family in Landskrona. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 59716. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Birthe Trommer
Danish fishermen (foreground) ferry a boatload of fugitives across a narrow sound to neutral Sweden. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 70737. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Frihedsmuseet, Copenhagen
Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Danish_jews_arrive_in_Sweden.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:B%C3%A5d_med_j%C3%B8der_p%C3%A5_vej_fra_Falster_til_Ystad_i_Sverige_(5709133933)_(2).jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Overrabiner_Friediger_i_synagoen_(6045730410)_(2).jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marcus_Melchior.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mystic_Seaport_Gerda_III.JPG
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WP_Georg_Ferdinand_Duckwitz.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-F008672-0027,_Ausw%C3%A4rtiges_Amt,_Rabbiner_aus_USA.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Werner_Best_1942.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christian_X_of_Denmark_on_horse_at_Gyldenl%C3%B8vesgade.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-F008672-0032,_Ausw%C3%A4rtiges_Amt,_Rabbiner_aus_USA.jpg