Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz (Born September 29, 1904, in Bremen -dead February 16, 1973) was a German attache who warned the Danish Jews about their intended deportation in 1943. It is estimated that he prevented the deportation of all but 7% of Denmark's Jews in the resulting rescue of the Danish Jews.
In the 1930s Duckwitz was a businessman trading with Scandinavian countries. He joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and worked for Alfred Rosenberg's foreign policy office but eventually left to work for a private shipping company Hamburg-America. In 1939 the Third Reich assigned him to the German embassy in Copenhagen as a maritime attache.
After 1942, Duckwitz worked with the Nazi Reich representative Werner Best. On September 11, 1943, Best told Duckwitz about the intended roundup of all Danish Jews on October 1.
Two weeks later Duckwitz flew to Stockholm, ostensibly to discuss the passage of German merchant ships. While there, he contacted Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson and asked whether Sweden would be willing to receive Danish Jewish refugees. In a couple of days, Hansson promised them favourable reception.
Back in Denmark on September 28, Duckwitz contacted Danish social democrat Hans Hedtoft and notified him of the intended deportation. Hedtoft warned the head of the Jewish community C.B. Henriques and the acting chief rabbi Dr. Marcus Melchior, who spread the warning. Sympathetic Danes in all walks of life organized a mass escape of over 6000 Jews over the sea to Sweden.
Duckwitz, apparently assuming that he had done everything he could and possibly fearing exposure to Gestapo, went back to his official duties.
After the war, Duckwitz remained in the German Foreign Service. In 1955-1958 he served as West German ambassador to Denmark. On March 21, 1971, the Israeli government named him Righteous Among the Nations and included him in the Yad Vashem memorial.
A little different account of this remarcable man comes from a different source
Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was born in Bremen to an old patrician family in the Hanseatic city. After finishing commercial college, he pursued a career in the international coffee trade, residing for several years in Scandinavian countries. In 1939, the Nazi Foreign Ministry assigned him to the German embassy in Copenhagen as an expert in maritime affairs.
As Duckwitz was intimately acquainted with local conditions and enjoyed good connections with Danish leaders, after 1942, he became a close confidant of the new Nazi Reich Representative (Reichsbevollmächtigter) for Denmark, Werner Best. A former deputy chief of the Gestapo and a hard-core Nazi ideologue, Best nevertheless chose to stick to the moderate policies of his predecessors. However, Hitler demanded a new iron-fist policy toward the increas-ingly rebellious country and an immediate implementa-tion of the “Final Solution.”
On September 28, 1943, Best tipped off his confidant about the plan for the deportation of Denmark’s Jewish community of 6,500 people. At great risk to himself, Duckwitz proceeded to inform his Danish Social-Democratic friends, who, in turn, alerted the leadership of the Danish Jewish community. This made it possible for the Danes to carry out their great rescue operation, during which some 6,000 Jews where transported overnight in ships and boats across the sea to the safety of neighboring Sweden. By October 2, when the Gestapo set out to implement their plans, there were simply no Jews left to deport.
On March 29, 1971, Yad Vashem decided to recognize Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz as Righteous Among the Nations.
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Georg F Duckwitz
Yad Vashem Memorial