More one the Rescue of Danish Jews in World War II..

 In the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. a sailing boat was put on display in 1993, to the memory of the rescue of the Danish Jews in October 1943.

by Per Nelleman Bang

 It belonged to the printer Erling Kjær, who together with the  policeman Thormod Larsen was the leading driving force in the illegal resistance group, ‘The Sewing-circle’,  who took care of the majority of the transports across the narrow strait between Denmark and Sweden, Øresund. Well known are also the fishermen in Snekkersten.  The medical clinic Lægehuset’, in Elsinore, where Lone Sommer, now runs my former pactice, is built on the place where the fishermen from Snekkersten did the drying and cleaning of their nets. Due to the short distance to Sweden (5 km), and the island Hven, most of the passages took place here. The Snekkersten Inn was a pick-up place and the Inn-keeper Thomsen coordinator. There were so many sailing trips that the inn between the locals was nick named ‘The Ferry Inn’.

 The inn burnt down later on and was replaced by ‘Kystens Perle’, The Pearl of the Coast, which in the sixties was well known on both sides of Øresund. Thomsen had several assistants including Knud Parkov, the director of the brewery Wiibroe, the local doctor Jørgen Gersfelt and many others.

 The inn was strategically well situated, because the coast police stayed in a summer residence ‘Stella Maris’ only a kilometer way. From here patriotic Danes were able to pass information about German and other hostile vessels close by. It was also of great importance that a German refugeee, Otto Bakowski, as a telephone worker could assist in getting access to the local telephone exchange far away from the exchange. Here he could secretly listen in and translate the Gestapo telephone calls. In a way he was too effective, because Gestapo was cheated too often. When ‘SS’ arrived, the bird had flown away! Otto Bakowski was taken, but luckily, due to the RAF bombardment of the Gestapo headquarter (Shellhuset in Copenhagen) where his files were kept, he was set free.

 Not all were so lucky. The chief for the Coastal police, Svend Asbjørn Holten had close cooperation  with ‘Gestapo-Juhl’, a Danish speaking SS officer from Flensburg, who was responsible for the disgusting actions of Gestapo in the Elsinore area.  When 14 Jews were caught in the harbour of Snekkersten, and 130 in Gilleleje in the harbour and at the loft of the church, where they were given hide; it was mostly due to the sad and keen efforts of the coastal police with Holten in front. Gestapo-Juhl arrived from Elsinore at a much later moment. Fortunately the captive fishermen were taken to the civil court, where the judge Olrik gave them a, according to the circumstances, mild punishment, 30 days in prison. But the innkeeper Thomsen was tortured at Wisborg, the local Gestapo headquarter and died in the concentration camp Neuengamme December the same year. The so called ‘Vienna kid’ (Wienerbarnet) participated in the torture, and thanked in this way for his convalescent stay in Denmark after World War I. He was liquidated, shot against a  wall  in the spring of 1945 at the later Simon Spies square. For many years the building had a black rough painting at the shot holes saying ‘sorry’ (Undskyld).

 There were 7.500 Jews in Denmark, of whom 6.000 were Danish citizens and the main part came across the strait to Sweden during the rescue action period of 14 days. About 500 were caught and deported to Theresienstadt and not Auschwitz, which would certainly have meant death.

The survival rate was about 95 per cent; much more than in Norway and The Netherlands. In Norway there is an 1800 km long border to Sweden. In spite of this 40 per cent of the Norwegian Jews perished and 70 per cent in the Netherlands despite a low degree of antisemitism in Norway.

Historians and especially Hans Kirchhoff had focused a lot on the German ambassador in Denmark, Georg Duckwitz, who played an important part. The head of the German civilian administration in Denmark SS-obergruppenführer Werner Best and Duckwitz in particular probably played a double dealing against the fanatics in Berlin.  On September 26, Hitler ordered SS chief Himmler to intervene in Denmark, and on September 29, Duckwitz brought a third warning to the German embassy in Sweden and also to the Danish politician Hans Hedtoft about a coming action on October 1 and 2. (October 1 was the beginning of the Jewish New Year this year, Rosh Hashanah).

Duckwitz also informed the Swedish prime minister Per Albin Hansson.

 At this time there was a beginning reverse in the previously German-leaning Swedish neutrality and a Swedish Parliament Decision was imediately issued, guaranteeing any fleeing Danish Jews free entry to Sweden. Thus when Danish Jews arrived to Swedish territorial waters, they were welcomed by the Swedish Royal Marine and border police.

 During the action German troops were ordered not to break doors, if nobody answered on the Jewish addresses!  Also in other ways the German effort was half-hearted.

 Among the Danish Jews were several well known scientists and doctors. And among the children and teen-agers, several later becoming ophthalmologists. Niels Bohr had a Jewish mother and was thus Jewish in the Jewish sense, but not according to SS. Niels Bohr crossed to Sweden from Copenhagen South Harbour in a boat belonging to the Light and Buoys Service, which had a daily trip to the territorial border. His children came in another boat accompanied by Hilde Levy, the describer of autoradiography.

 Bohr not only had personal reasons to escape, he was also expected in the USA as a member of the Manhattan project, which ended with the atomic bomb. Another of Bohrs ‘bomb-theorists’ Lise Meitner was already in Stocholm, while Heisenberg was back in Germany.

References.

HANS KIRCHHOFF : OKTOBER 1943 SET »FRÅN HINSIDAN«  ,DET SVENSKE UTRIKESDEPARTEMENT OG JØDEFORFØLGELSERNE I DANMARK
EN STUDIE I HUMANITÆR HÆLP OG REALPOLITIK.:

Historisk tidsskrift 97:1, 80-115. (1997)

Carl Madsen: Vi skrev Loven . Stig Vendelkærs Forlag. 1968

Øresundstid: an internet story.

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Lurifax, the sailing boat belonging to printer Erling Kjær, now on display in D.C.

The Eye Clinic in Elsinore

Snekkersten Inn in 1943

The grave of the inn keeper H.C.Thomsen on the Coast road right across Kystens Perle. The transscription says “ The brave helper  of the refugees. HC Thomsen. * 18-9- 1906 in Thisted. + 4 - 2  1944 in Neuengamme.

Gestapo-Juhl was a Danish speaking SS-officer from Flensburg, who made the North Zealand unsafe for everybody. He and the chief for the Coastal Police Asbjørn Holten were responsible for catching the main part of the Danish jews, who came to Theresienstadt. They arranged an effective closing of the Gilleleje Harbour.

Svend Asbjøn Holten, head of the coastal police, balances with icecream, as he balances on the edge beween Gestapo and the danish people.

The Gestapoheadquarter in Elsinore, Wisborg, with the Nazi flags, Svastikas.

Refugees are received at the Swedish territorial border by the Royal Swedish Marine.

The lights in the neutral Sweden could be seen from occupied Denmark which was then blacked out

Fishingboat with Danish distinguishing marks