De Samarbejdspartnere (The Collaborators)

There were many winners at the end of the war and one of the most famous ones was Harald Petersen. A Danish State Prosecutor, he was one of the leading officials responsible for the Danish policy of expelling stateless Jews from Denmark from 1940 to 1943. After the war, Harald Petersen like many of his colleagues and Nazi sympathizers achieved great professional success and rose up to the highest offices of the state as the Minister of Defense[1].

We knew Harald Petersen and yet his star shone bright. What about the collaborators that we didn’t know about? What about those who stayed secret and became famous and influential political figures in Denmark? What if we found out today of their sins from the past? Will we punish them, or will they trample upon justice like the Harald Petersen’s of the world?

The Bovrup Index released a first list of names of Danish Nazis, members of the Danish Nazi Party, D.N.S.A.P. from before and during World War ll. The published online version includes 5,265 of the 22,795 names on the complete list, taking in all those born more than 110 years ago. According to the Data Protection Act, the information can be published when the person has been deceased for at least 10 years or was born more than 110 years ago[2].

 Many believe that this entire list should be made public despite the 1946 District Court ruling that decreed that the names of Danish Nazi party members be encompassed by archival laws, meaning only researchers and others given approval are able to view the names in the National Archives (Rigsarkivet)[3].

A Danish State Prosecutor and perpetrator, Harald Petersen, Minister of Defence after WWII, was one of many leading officials who was engaged in the collaboration policy of expelling stateless Jews from Denmark 1940-43. After the war nearly all of the white collar criminals, anti-Semites and xenophobes of the The Ministry of Justice, the State Police and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who engaged in the expulsion of Jews and other stateless persons from Denmark during WWII achieved fine careers, up to the highest offices of the state. No one asked questions about their crimes, which the modern authorities tried to hide as late as 2001.

UDDRAG AF MANUSKRIPT NAZISYMPATISØRER: DANMARK’S BESKIDTE HEMMELIGHEDER. Forfatter: Sanne Melgaard.  (Excerpt from the manuscript, Nazi Collaborators: Denmark’s Dirty Secrets by Sanne Melgaard)

[1] FORNLEIFUR. (n.d.). Danish holocaust distortion - fornleifur.Blog.Is. Retrieved July 8, 2021, from Blog.is website: https://fornleifur.blog.is/blog/fornleifur/entry/1308693/

[2] Thousands download newly published list of Danish WW2 Nazis. Ritzau/The Local. 28 December 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2021, from Thelocal.dk website: https://www.thelocal.dk/20181228/thousands-download-newly-published-list-of-danish-ww2-nazis/

[3] Vilhjálmsson, V., & Blüdnikow, B. (2006). RESCUE, EXPULSION, AND COLLABORATION: DENMARK'S DIFFICULTIES WITH ITS WORLD WAR II PAST. Jewish Political Studies Review, 18(3/4), 3-29. Retrieved July 14, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25834694

Hitlers Kæledyr Kanariefugl (Hitler’s Pet Canary)

A group of Danish soldiers on the morning of the German invasion, 9 April 1940. Two of these men were killed later that day.
(Source: Hendriksen, C. Næsh, ed. (1945). Den danske Kamp i Billeder og Ord (in Danish). Odense: Bogforlaget "Dana". p. 18. Photo taken near Bredevad in Southern Jutland.)

It had worked well for Denmark to be neutral in World War I. It had been good for business to sell to both sides and make money without experiencing any of the wartime ugliness.

At 4:15 a.m. on 9 April 1940 Denmark’s luck ran out when German forces crossed the border into neutral Denmark. In a coordinated operation, German ships began disembarking troops at the docks in Copenhagen. When the Germans came to the Danish border, all expectation of neutrality and the choice of it was taken away from the Danes. The fact was that Denmark with its 3.8 million people could not defend against the Germans. The German population surpassed Denmark’s 20 to 1 and there were 370 men in the service of the Wehrmacht for every Danish soldier[i].

The military outcome of the German attack on Denmark was never in doubt and although outnumbered and poorly equipped, Danish soldiers in several parts of the country put up resistance, most notably the Royal Guard in Copenhagen and units in South Jutland. Sixteen Danish soldiers died in the invasion and within two hours the Danish government surrendered[ii].

As dawn broke on April 9, 1940, Denmark’s septuagenarian monarch King Christian X told the country that he was “inwardly shattered” and announced cooperation with Germany to spare his country further misfortune[iii]. The strategy worked. Denmark was one of the few European countries occupied by Germany that prospered during the war and saw minimal death and destruction.

When the Danes conceded defeat, the perfect Aryan protectorate was born, dubbed by Winston Churchill as “Hitler's pet canary.[iv]”

Danish Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning addresses the Rigsdagen in Christiansborg Palace on the day of the invasion.

UDDRAG AF MANUSKRIPT NAZISYMPATISØRER: DANMARK’S BESKIDTE HEMMELIGHEDER. Forfatter: Sanne Melgaard.  (Excerpt from the manuscript, Nazi Collaborators: Denmark’s Dirty Secrets by Sanne Melgaard)

[i] Hong, N. (2012). Occupied: Denmark’s Adaptation and Resistance to German Ocupation 1940-45. Frihedsmuseets Venners Forlag.

[ii] William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), p. 663.

[iii] Ackerman, P., & DuVall, J. (2000). A Force More Powerful: A Century of Non-Violent Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan Trade.

[iv] Levine, E. (2000). Darkness over Denmark: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews. Holiday House.

Ren Religion (Pure Religion)

LEFT: Ruth Fanni Niedrig was only 23 years old when she was killed in Auschwitz. Her husband survived the stay and managed to get to Canada, where he died in 1987. Photo: Mads Nissen (Source: Politiken.dk)

RIGHT: Ruth and Schulim Niedrig's portraits in the refugee passports that they were never issued. Two sets of passports were made, which to this day lie unused in the National Police Chief's archive. In the middle, the love letter from Schulim to Ruth, which an officer in Vestre Fængsel has scratched an angry rejection. (Source: Berlingske.dk)

Brandla Wassermann thought her luck had changed in October 1942 when a young Dane helped her and her three children, Ursula (7 years), Jacky Siegfried (5 years) and Denny (2 years) and brought them from Berlin to Copenhagen. Brandla had believed that their lives would now be spared.

But the Danish government was not as kind as that Danish man. Brandla and her three children were expelled from the country, marched back to the German border from where they were sent straight to Auschwitz. The children were murdered immediately. The mother was executed by an injection of phenol into the heart in Auschwitz on 15 December 1942. Researchers found a list of her belongings made by Berlin authorities from her apartment in Keipelstrasse 41, which were secured to compensate for the rent she didn’t pay when she was in Copenhagen[1].

Why is it that Brandla was not afforded any of the sympathy afforded 7,300 Danish Jews who were secretly transported to safety in Sweden? The answer is quite simple. Anti-Semitism didn’t stop at the German border but infiltrated into Denmark. Danes saved Danish Jews because they were Danes first and their religion was secondary. But in the case of Brandla and other Jews, their religion came first.

In the report about Brandla, written by a Dane and Nazi sympathizer at the Department of Immigration of the Danish State Police, it says: “She is a pure Jew, also of religion[2].”

Then there is the story of Schulim and Ruth Fanni Niedrig, a young Jewish couple that was expelled by the Danes in 1940. Ruth was bitten to death in Auschwitz by dogs in 1943; while Schulim survived Auschwitz and was one of the few survivors from Danish expulsion of Jews from 1940-43[3].

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister, apologized on behalf of Denmark for the extradition of innocent people to Nazi Germany during World War II, calling it "shameful." Now, he agrees that an apology cannot change history, but he believes "it can contribute to recognize mistakes made in history and hopefully help future generations to avoid similar mistakes in the future.[6]"

And yet, Denmark is trying to send back Syrian refugees, saying Syria is a safe place to return to. In 2019, the Danish government notified about 1,200 refugees from the Damascus region that their residency permits would not be renewed. Many reports suggest that Denmark’s policy towards asylum seekers and refugees has become notably more hostile in recent years and the current Danish government shas declared that Denmark wants zero asylum seekers[4].

However, shortly after Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine, the Danish Immigration Service reportedly asked Denmark’s 98 municipalities to assess their capacity to take in Ukrainian refugees. This same agency recently began stripping Syrian refugees of their residency permits in a bid to force them back to Syria, asserting that parts of Syria are safe[5].

So much for learning from our mistakes.

Demonstrators march with a banner reading "Syria is not safe" during a protest against the government's policy of returning some Syrian refugees in Copenhagen on November 13, 2021. (Source: CNN)

UDDRAG AF MANUSKRIPT NAZISYMPATISØRER: DANMARK’S BESKIDTE HEMMELIGHEDER. Forfatter: Sanne Melgaard. (Excerpt from the manuscript, Nazi Collaborators: Denmark’s Dirty Secrets by Sanne Melgaard)

[1] Vilhjalmur Orn Vilhjalmsson, Medaljens Bagside: Joediske flygtningeskaebner i Danmark 1933-1945 (Copenhagen: Forlaget Vandkunsten, 2005)

[2] Rescue, Expulsion, and Collaboration: Denmark’s Difficulties with its World War II Past - Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson and bent blüdnikow. (n.d.). Retrieved July 8, 2021, from Jcpa.org website: https://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-vilhjalmsson-f06.htm

[3] Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson. The Jews who were deported from Denmark 1940-43. A consequence of the WW II Collaboration Policy in Denmark. (N.d.-b). Retrieved July 8, 2021, from Blog.is website: https://fornleifur.blog.is/users/5c/fornleifur/files/deported1940-43_18062.pdf

[4] Weronika Strzyżyńska. ‘Zero asylum seekers’: Denmark forces refugees to return to Syria. May 25, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/may/25/zero-asylum-seekers-denmark-forces-refugees-to-return-to-syria

[5] Nadia Hardman. Denmark’s Mismatched Treatment of Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees. March 16, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2023. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/16/denmarks-mismatched-treatment-syrian-and-ukrainian-refugees

[6] Denmark apologizes for WWII 'mistakes'. The New York Times. May 5, 2005. Retrieved February 25, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/05/world/europe/denmark-apologizes-for-wwii-mistakes.html

Modstand. Modstand. Modstand. (Resistance. Resistance. Resistance.)

A famous photo of a boy running with the results of a resistance sabotage in Odense

Winston Churchill dubbed Denmark “Hitler's pet canary” and the Nazi’s touted Denmark as the perfect Aryan protectorate[i] after they occupied it on April 9, 1940.

Three years later, the pet canary decided enough is enough. One of the most important events that shaped the Danish resistance movement took place on July 28th, 1943, when a Danish worker bombed a German freighter at the Odense shipyard[ii]. The Germans posted armed guards in the shipyard, which provoked a strike. The strike quickly spread to other places of work within the town’s iron industry, with about 3,000 men walking out, and lasted more than a week[iii].

This caused the tensions between the Germans who were guarding the ship that was bombed and the Danish laborers increased, culminating in the August Uprising, which spread across Denmark[iv].

Unable to quell the uprising, the Germans gave the Danish government with an ultimatum on August 28th, 1943:

·       prohibit strikes

·       public meetings of five or more persons

·       any private meetings in closed rooms or the open air

·       impose a night curfew

·       collect all weapons

·       turn censorship over to the Germans

·       establish summary courts to deal with any infractions of these rules

·       impose the death penalty for sabotage, defiance of the German military, and weapons possession.

The Danish government refused. On August 29th, 1943, Germans arrested influential figures of the resistances and occupied key installations[v]. The Germans ultimately declared Denmark "enemy territory" later that month; the Danish government was dissolved, and martial law was imposed[vi].

UDDRAG AF MANUSKRIPT NAZISYMPATISØRER: DANMARK’S BESKIDTE HEMMELIGHEDER. Forfatter: Sanne Melgaard.  (Excerpt from the manuscript, Nazi Collaborators: Denmark’s Dirty Secrets by Sanne Melgaard)

[i] Levine, E. (2000). Darkness over Denmark: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews (available free on www.openlibrary.org)

[ii] Sørensen, MJ. Glorifications and Simplications in Case Studies of Danish WWII Nonviolent Resistance. Journal of Resistance Studies, ISSN 2001-9947, Vol. 3, no 1, p. 99-137. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-64351.

[iii] Holbraad, C. (2017). 1940–45: From cooperation to resistance. In Danish Reactions to German Occupation: History and Historiography (pp. 42-130). London: UCL Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1mtz53j.6

[iv] Grooss, Poul (2017). The Naval War in the Baltic 1939–1945. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-52670-002-5.

[v] Danish citizens resist the Nazis, 1940-1945. Global Nonviolent Action Database. https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/danish-citizens-resist-nazis-1940-1945. Retrieved February 9, 2023.

[vi] Larsen, Jørgen (29 August 2003). "Operation Safari". Berlingske. Archived from the original on 4 July 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.

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De Små Løgne. De Store Løgne. (The Small Lies. The Big Lies.)

May 5, 1945: Copenhagen residents take to the streets while celebrating the liberation of Denmark
(National Museum of Denmark)

When the occupation ended on May 5, 1945, Danes celebrated by hurting, humiliating and executing alleged Nazi collaborators. They also talked endlessly about the “difficult days” under Nazi rule. And it was expected that Danes would have suffered and been exploited as the Belgians, Norwegians and the Dutch were.

          But unlike European neighbors, Denmark surrendered within hours of being attacked by the Germans—which doesn’t seem like the most courageous of decisions but probably a smart one because the Danish military did not stand a chance against the German machine.

          The Danish king and government decided that the best way of maintaining a sovereign Denmark was to cooperate with the Germans. We were so good at it that the Germans wanted to use the Danish-German cooperative relationship as a model for a future European community under Hitler’s domination. So, this claim that all Danes were busy fighting against the Germans is not entirely true. Danish economy and industry thrived during the occupation. There are several examples that validate this[1]:

·       The number of private firms with five or more employees increased by 20% from 1940 to 1945

·       The average union worker’s wages had increased by ~50 percent over 1939 levels

·       Some laborers were being paid two to three times the official rate for their work on German construction projects

UDDRAG AF MANUSKRIPT NAZISYMPATISØRER: DANMARK’S BESKIDTE HEMMELIGHEDER. Forfatter: Sanne Melgaard. (Excerpt from the manuscript, Nazi Collaborators: Denmark’s Dirty Secrets by Sanne Melgaard)

[1] Giltner, P. (2001). The Success of Collaboration: Denmark's Self-Assessment of Its Economic Position after Five Years of Nazi Occupation. Journal of Contemporary History, 36(3), 485-506. Retrieved July 14, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/261008

Please note that this is an excerpt based on fact from a fictional novel of non-fiction, written by a fictional character who was murdered in A DEATH IN DENMARK. Enjoy!

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