Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Danish Resistance

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

As Germany conquered countries in WWII, in many nations, they found willing volunteers to help them identify Jews to send to concentration camps. However, not every country did. Finland, Bulgaria, and Albania engaged in a spirited defense of their Jewish communities in the face of Nazi oppression.  However, no country did more to save its Jewish population than Denmark. Learn more about Denmark’s Great Escape on this episode of Everything, Everywhere, Daily. Sponsors Quince Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order! Mint Mobile Get your 3-month Unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/eed Subscribe to the podcast!  https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Austin Oetken & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Discord Server: https://discord.gg/Ds7Rx7jvPJ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/  Disce aliquid novi cotidie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Germany conquered countries in World War II, in many nations, they found willing volunteers to help them identify Jews to send to concentration camps. However, not every country did. Finland, Bulgaria, and Albania engaged in a spirited defense of their Jewish population in the face of Nazi oppression. However, no country did more to save its Jewish people than Denmark. Learn more about Denmark's great escape and its resistance to Nazi Germany on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Denmark has a long history of accepting and accommodating Europe's Jewish population. During the chaos of the 30 years war, the Danish monarchy, eager to bring in much-needed capital for taxation and investment, invited Jewish migrants into the nation. During the 18th century, while many European nations adopted the long-standing tradition of forcing Jewish people to live in ghettos, the Danish refused the practice. In fact, Denmark emerged as a citadel of religious tolerance when it ratified the 1814 decree, which granted Jewish Danes equal rights and sponsored the construction of synagogues across the country. While many European nations endorsed politics of limiting the rights of Jewish people, Denmark became an exemplar of religious pluralism.

The principle was enshrined in the Danish constitution of 1849. Hitler's plan to establish a new European order, motivated and organized on racial principles, ran in direct contradiction to long-held Danish values. And these values were on full display in 1933. when the Danish king, Christian the 10th, attended the 100th anniversary of the great Copenhagen synagogue. The historic relationship of Germany and Denmark proved inconvenient to Hitler. Denmark's position in Hitler's Europe was unique and played an important role in Denmark's resistance. Germany and Denmark share a border and have many other cultural and historic ties. Their proximity and long economic history reflects centuries of cultural exchange.

They had economic and commercial connections through the Hanseatic League, and before Christianity they shared significant religious and mythological traditions. Hitler's rise to power challenged the strength of this historic alliance. Hitler was motivated by the establishment of a pan-traumatic empire with Aryan roots. And at the center of this network were the Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Nazi racial philosophers identified the people of those countries as blood equals of Germans. As such, the Germans' engagement with Denmark was very different, from their other European conquests in France, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

On April 9, 1940, Germany invaded Denmark. The German conquest of Denmark was one of the fastest in history. Operation Veser Ubung-Sood lasted six hours. The Germans and Danes reached a quick agreement after a series of short sporadic military skirmishes. The Danes knew that resistance to the German military machine was futile and hoped to spare Copenhagen from Luftwaffe bombardment. While Germany did occupy Denmark, they maintained a very different sort of control. Hitler's Germany labeled Denmark as a model protectorate.

This protectorate status and their quick surrender preserved portions of Danish sovereignty. Danish leaders had hoped to preserve as much of Danish life as possible. Part of that preservation was maintaining the standards of religious and social tolerance in Denmark, particularly towards the Jewish community. The hope was that Denmark could leverage its long-standing relationship with Germany to avoid the experience of occupation that the rest of Europe endured. The Danish government insisted in its surrender agreement that there be no legal changes for its Jewish population.

While the Germans unleashed a campaign of social ostracism towards Jews across Europe, Denmark resisted it. One of the most prominent features of this campaign was the identification of the Jewish population by forcing them to wear a yellow star of David. The Nazis intended for the star to mark the Jewish population for visibility and humiliate them on the streets. Denmark was the only European country that did not legally require its Jewish citizens to wear yellow stars. Legends even held that Danish king Christian wore a yellow star in protest of this treatment, or that the majority of the Danish people wore one in solidarity.

Neither of these actually happened, and they didn't need to happen, as the Danes stood in unisonable. with their Jewish citizens by refusing to bow to such laws. In addition, Denmark never passed any of the other laws that destroyed Jewish life across Europe. They never lost their right to participate in public life. They were never forced to register their businesses. Synagogues were not closed, and they did not lose their homes or properties. Across Denmark, at least in the early 1940s, life for Danish Jews remained largely unchanged. But in 1942, the German leadership began insisting that the full weight of the Nuremberg laws be brought to bear in Denmark.

In response, the Danish government threatened to resign. Normally, the mass resignation of a government would have been something the Nazis would have welcomed. But in this case, it was viewed as a disaster. By transforming Denmark into a model protectorate, the Nazis hoped to send a clear message to neutral Sweden and a defiant Norway that German oversight didn't have to mean the end of civilization. It was a calculated attempt to show that if fellow Aryan nations cooperated, they could keep their king, their parliament, and way of life. For the Nazis, a stable, functioning Denmark was far more valuable than one under a pile of rubble.

The Danes knew that they were in a very strong position when it came to resisting the expansion of Nazi ideology. The cracks in the Danish-German relationship appeared in September of 1941, when the Danes were outraged that the Nazis had forced them to sign the anti-commontern pact against the Soviet Union. The relationship worsened the following year at the Nazi's Vonsi conference, which outlined the continent-wide protocols for the implementation of the final solution. German occupied lands were expected to participate in the final solution, yet Denmark did not comply. Denmark was specifically cited at the Wanzi conference as a problem, given the autonomy Hitler had granted them as part of his broader Nordic plans.

Hitler was so insistent on treating Denmark with kid gloves that he allowed them the freedom to hold parliamentary elections in 1943. The decision backfired as the Danes had record voter turnout, which saw the complete defeat of all Nazi-affiliated parties. Hitler had underestimated the passion that the Nordic countries held for their values of tolerance and community and overestimated their affinity for the Nazis. Consider the words of Kai Monk, a Lutheran minister who was later murdered by the Gestapo. He said, quote,

When here in this country, pogroms have been started against a special group of our fellow countrymen, only because they belong to a special race, then the church has a right to cry out. This is breaking the constitution of Christ's kingdom and is abominable to the Nordic way of thinking. End quote. As the tide began to turn against the Germans in 1943, Danish resistance to Nazism grew increasingly bold. The summer of 1943 brought a nationwide campaign of strikes and coordinated sabotage against Nazi interests. The Germans unsuccessfully ordered the Danish government to force the workers back into shipyards and to punish sabotage with death. The Danish government

refused to comply and resigned. The resignation brought about martial law. The crisis effectively ended the legal shield that had protected Denmark's Jewish population. The state of emergency allowed the Nazis to seize the state's security apparatus and arrests occurred in large numbers, making what was about to happen seen them all the more heroic. By the fall of 1943, the Nazis had formalized plans to round up Danish Jews and force them into camps. To stay ahead of the German SS, Denmark had to respond with extraordinary speed and resolve. The rescue of the Danish Jews was a plan to evacuate the entire Danish Jewish population to safety in neutral Sweden. Sweden had opened its orders to anyone during the crisis. By chance, word of the Nazi plan was leaked to Danish leaders

by a German military officer named Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz. Word spread quickly. Rabbis across the country warned their congregations emphasizing that there was no time to delay. In his sermon on September 29, 1943 at the great synagogue of Copenhagen, Rabbi Marcus Melchior said, quote, we have no time to continue prayers. You must leave at once and go into hiding. The Danish nation roared into action. A network of countless citizens contributed to the heroic hiding of Danish Jews. Danes hid more than 7,000 Jews in forests, attics, hospitals, and churches. Danish police refused to allow German forces to enter Jewish homes. They looked the other way when they found someone, and they helped hide those who had yet to be hidden.

Danish boats ferried more than seven thousand people to safety in Sweden. The voyage was inherently perilous sea conditions, characterized by high winds and freezing temperatures. Undertaking the journey at night, concealed by darkness, introduced an additional layer of danger, making the avoidance of German patrol boats absolutely critical. In fact, the captains who sailed the ships usually preferred bad weather. Heavy fog reduced visibility for German ships and shore-based spotlights, while storm threats kept German vessels in port. The journey was, typical of the Danish resolve displayed throughout the entire period. Like the strikes and uprisings

of the previous year, this effort was a grassroots campaign that used regular family style or small commercial fishing boats to make the journey. Photographs of the period often show people in groups of four to ten, perhaps two families at a time, boarding small craft. The Danish sailors were also not alone in their courage. It was common for vessels to wait in the middle of the straight for Swedish ships to take on passengers and then carry them the rest of the way. Leo Goldberg, a survivor of the journey, recalled the risks the captains took. He noted, quote, I remember how poor the fishermen were and how dangerous it was for them. If we were caught on the water, they would have been arrested and sent to a concentration

camp themselves, end quote. Sweden gladly took in the Danish Jews. Goldberg recalled the Swedish government creating schools for them so that they could continue their education. He noted, quote, within a week, I was in a Swedish school wearing a Swedish hat. Despite the remarkable success of the campaign, there were some Jews in Denmark who did not escape the Nazis. Early in the campaign, Nazi forces captured 470 Jews and deported them to the Theresean-Stat ghetto in Czechoslovakia. In a manner consistent with the spirit of the Danish resistance, the Danish government insisted that the captured Jews be placed in a concentration camp

and not an extermination camp. They also demanded the ability to communicate with all 470 and to share care packages with them as part of their correspondence. While several dozen of those sent to the Thereseenstott ghetto died, the overwhelming majority returned home after the war. Upon their return, they found their homes and businesses intact as they had left them. Their Danish neighbors had refused to allow any looting or destruction of Jewish property in their absence.

Today, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, there is an avenue of the righteous among the nations, and there you'll find individual trees planted in the honor of heroes like Oscar Schindler and Arenas Sender. Denmark's tribute stands apart, however. Instead of honoring a single person, a tree is planted in honor of the entire Danish resistance. This serves as a powerful tribute to the only nation in occupied Europe that collectively refused to cooperate with the Nazis. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research in writing for this episode was provided by Joel Hermanson.

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