Rescue of the Danish Jews (1943): Escape Across the Sound

The rescue of the Danish Jews in October 1943 was one of the most successful acts of mass rescue during the Holocaust. Warned of an imminent Nazi round-up, Danish Jews went into hiding, and ordinary Danes helped about 7,200 of them cross the narrow Øresund strait to neutral Sweden in fishing boats and other small craft.

More than 95 per cent of Denmark’s Jewish community survived the war. The episode is remembered as a rare example of a whole society acting to protect a persecuted minority.

Background

Germany occupied Denmark on 9 April 1940. Because the Danish government cooperated with the occupiers, it kept unusual control over domestic affairs, and the country’s roughly 7,500 Jews were left largely undisturbed. Danish leaders consistently refused to introduce anti-Jewish laws.

That changed in 1943. Resistance sabotage and strikes grew, and on 29 August 1943 the Danish government resigned rather than accept German demands. The Germans declared martial law. The German plenipotentiary in Denmark, Werner Best, then proposed deporting the Jews, and Berlin approved the plan.

The warning

The round-up was set for the night of 1–2 October 1943, at the close of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, when families were expected to be at home. Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, a German maritime attaché in Copenhagen, learned of the plan and on 28 September passed the warning to Danish Social Democratic politicians, including Hans Hedtoft.

On the morning of 29 September, Rabbi Marcus Melchior told worshippers at the Copenhagen synagogue that there would be no service the next day and urged them to hide and warn others. Within hours the news spread through families, friends, colleagues and neighbours.

When German police went from house to house on the night of 1–2 October, they found most homes empty. Only about 200 to 300 people were arrested in the first raids.

Escape across the Sound

Jews hid in summer houses, hospitals, churches and private homes, often with people they had never met. Doctors at Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen hid many refugees and moved them in ambulances.

On 2 October Sweden announced that it would accept Danish Jewish refugees. The physicist Niels Bohr, who had just fled to Stockholm, had urged Swedish leaders to make this public.

Over the next two to three weeks, fishermen and resistance groups carried refugees across the Øresund, at its narrowest only about 4 km wide, from harbours such as Gilleleje, Dragør, Helsingør and smaller coastal villages. Crossings usually took place at night. Some fishermen charged large fees, which were later partly covered by collections and loans, while others asked nothing.

The escape was not without losses. On 6 October 1943 German police found about 80 Jews hiding in the church loft at Gilleleje and arrested them. Some refugees drowned or took their own lives.

Outcome

About 7,200 Jews, together with around 700 non-Jewish relatives, reached Sweden. Around 470 were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Danish officials kept pressing the Germans for information and parcels, and none of the Danish deportees was sent on to Auschwitz. About 50 died in Theresienstadt, and the survivors were brought home in the “White Buses” of the Swedish Red Cross in April 1945.

Why the rescue succeeded

Several factors came together in Denmark. The Jewish community was small, well integrated and concentrated mostly in Copenhagen, so warnings travelled fast. Sweden, a short boat ride away, was neutral and willing to take refugees.

The timing also mattered. By autumn 1943 Germany was losing the war, and some German officials in Denmark were reluctant to provoke Danish society further. Patrol boats and port authorities were often less than vigilant, and Best himself may have tolerated the escape once the raid had failed. Above all, Danes from every walk of life treated Jews as fellow citizens and refused to hand them over.

Myths and facts

Myth: the king wore a yellow star. The story that King Christian X wore a Star of David in solidarity is a legend. Danish Jews were never forced to wear the badge.

Fact: the rescue was a group effort. No single organisation planned it. It grew from thousands of individual decisions by Danes, aided by Duckwitz’s warning, Sweden’s open door and the relatively late timing of the round-up in the war.

Timeline

• 1940, 9 April: Germany occupies Denmark.
• 1943, 29 August: The Danish government resigns; martial law is declared.
• 1943, 28 September: Duckwitz warns Danish politicians of the round-up.
• 1943, 29 September: Rabbi Melchior warns his congregation.
• 1943, 1–2 October: The German round-up finds most Jews gone.
• 1943, 2 October: Sweden announces it will accept Danish Jews.
• 1943, 6 October: Arrests in the church loft at Gilleleje.
• 1945, April: Danish prisoners return from Theresienstadt.

Legacy

Yad Vashem has recognised Duckwitz and many individual Danes as Righteous Among the Nations, and at the request of the Danish resistance, it honours the Danish underground collectively. Boats used in the crossings are preserved in Danish harbours and museums.

Why it matters

The rescue showed that the Nazi genocide, planned at the Wannsee Conference and carried out at camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, could be resisted when a society refused to cooperate. It remains a powerful example of civil courage in occupied Europe.