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.

HIKE INTERPRETATIONS

HIKE INTERPERTATIONS

         In England we learned quickly that our guide’s interpretation of a few undulations   meant there would probably be nearly a full day of ups and downs and that little or slight could mean 500’ straight up.

        He said the first morning, “Most Americans determine English walks are really hikes.”  It did not take us long to absolutely agree!  In spite of the fact that hiking boots and walking sticks are difficult to pack in limited luggage I was most grateful for both.

        Toodleing is a slow walk and cracking on means to walk smartly or move quickly.  In reality toodle (rhymes with noodle) meant a pace of about 3 ½ miles an hour and to crack on meant to walk as fast as your legs would go. Everything was so well planned that we seldom had to crack on.

         Loo the favorite expression for toilet, has two explanations of how this abbreviated word came about. One is that years ago the contents of  chamber pots were thrown out the window into the street below. When doing so, one yelled, “Watch out for the loo” or some equivalent which eventually got contracted down to just plain loo.  The other explanation is that the word waterloo, meaning watering hole, just shortened to loo. In any case they were pretty scarce in the areas where we were hiking, and each morning at the briefing we would be advised of the loo availability. Most days it was the green room which I think is a delightful expression for back to nature, or  behind a bush.
       The English do a really smart thing by having a totally equipped free-standing restroom in their carparks (parking lot). We found these consistently clean and well stocked. You always know where one is available. What kid doesn’t have to go as soon as you park the car? 
       In ancient times before roads or maps existed, people used Celtic crosses to mark the way. We saw many such crosses when hiking in the moors. It was the custom to leave a few extra coins, if one had them, on the top of the cross, and if one needed them he could take what he needed---ah the days of honesty! One ancient cross we stopped at was about six feet high and sat on a 30-inch base. It was impossible to put coins on the top, although our guide made a valiant effort.
      The definition of a moor is a flat high area that is treeless, but usually is scrubby. Walking the moors we noted the heather was beginning to bloom so our guided explained, “There are three kinds of heather: bell, ling, and cross leaf. It is the bell heather that is beginning to bloom. You can see fairly large patches of it. Heather is the life blood of the red grouse, which is indigenous to the area. The grouse eats the young shoots. When the heather is 6-7-inches tall it provides nesting areas, and at its full height of 12-15-inches it provides protection. Grouse hunting season is in August. There are controlled burns of the heather every 12 years from September to April so there are patches of different stages of growth all the time. When burning, only the top growth is burned, then the fires are put out before the roots are burned.”
       When the wind blows, and I think that is most of the time on the moors, the heather sways in undulating waves in a sea of color. We were lucky to see three grouse leisurely cross our path!