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
