DENMARK'S WW II RESISTANCE

                                Denmark's Brave People
 

      It was a short ride from Kronborg Castle to the Gilleleje church which played a major role during Denmark’s well known WW II resistance movement. Gilleleje is a small quaint fishing village. The movement was large and I’m sure there is much I do not know, but I can impart the little of what I have learned traveling.

         In 1939 Germany informed Denmark’s government that they were about to be invaded, and they could agree peacefully, or if they chose not to, Germany would then bomb and flatten Copenhagen. After weighing all options Denmark chose to survive and save the historic city.

         The Dane passive-aggressive behavior was quite remarkable. They identified and blew up any factory that was sending supplies of any kind to Germany. England dropped weapons and artillery by plane to the resistance.

          The royal family remained in Copenhagen for the duration of the occupation. The king rode horseback through the city every day taking no official guards with him. Masses of people on bikes followed close behind him sending the message to the Germans that they had better not mess with the king. At one point the Germans tried to occupy the palace, but the resistance from the people was so great that they backed off. However, four royal guards did die.

     Bond fires were built in the streets to prevent German movements. The army and palace went underground.

        Mr. Wallenberg, a Swedish citizen, went to Denmark and gave false Swedish passports to Jews so they could escape.

        In 1943 when the Germans planned to round up all Jews in the city, that fact was leaked to the Danish government by a German high command insider who had been schooled in Denmark.  Overnight 7000 Jews were hidden and a few at a time smuggled to neutral Sweden. It is said that Danes checked the phone books to locate Jews and then went knocking on their doors. Only a few refused to leave. Jews started leaving town with only a small suitcase as if they were going to the countryside to visit relatives. Many made their way to the small fishing village of Gilleleje.

      Here villagers walked up to Jews on the street and guided them to their home and sheltered them until they could safely be transported to Sweden in small fishing boats. At this point, Sweden is only a few miles across the water. In a small village everyone knew everyone else and everything that was going on. It is remarkable that no one let it slip what the community was doing. Germans had obtained a list of all Jews from the synagogues, so they knew who to look for.

      When all the homes were full, the small 1400s church sheltered 75 Jews at a time in the dark attic above the ceiling of the church. Being quiet in totally dark surroundings the frightened Jews could hear Germans talking outside. Villagers smuggled food and pails of water, for sanitary purposes, into the church. About 1300 Jews were sheltered in the church before the Germans got wise. Of the 7500 Danish Jews only 450 were caught and of those only 55 died. Those captured were sent to Czechoslovakia where they could receive Red Cross packages.

        Sweden opened their borders to any Danish Jew who could make it to freedom. When the war ended a Swede paid for a bus to fetch and bring home Jews who had been sent to Czechoslovakia.

     In 1945 General Montgomery and his troops searched for anyone who had in any way helped the Germans. The men met swift justice, but the women publicly had their head shaved and paint thrown on them to show their shame.

      It was pretty awesome to stand in the little church that played such an important part in the resistance movement. The church has a brick aisle down the center that ends at the altar and the aisle is called the ship. Ship models hang from the ceiling over it, which is very typical of Danish churches. The sea has always been an integral part of this sea-faring nation.  This church’s walls are white and brass chandeliers hang from the ceiling. An hourglass is in prominent display near the pulpit to time the sermon. I wondered if people would get up and leave when the hourglass was empty.

       Remember the story about the English woman living in Denmark who helped many a downed allied pilot.  It took the Germans a long time to discover her but when they did they sent her to a concentration camp. However, because she was English they were reluctant to execute her. After much harassing she finally wrote her ‘confession’ on toilet paper in defiance of the Germans. She died of natural causes a few months before liberation.

      There are many stories about brave people who defied the Germans during the war, and of the 6000 Danes sent to concentration camps during WW II most were resistance fighters, not Jews; 600 of them died in the camps.

     The Danes, living in a neutral country, have long memories and will never forget the German occupation from 1940 until Allied Forces liberated them in 1945. To this day one cannot buy a bottle of German wine in Denmark. Denmark became a charter member of the United Nations and one of the original signers of the North Atlantic Treaty.