Danish Rescuers and Yad Vashem Double Standards Werner

A Conspiracy Of Decency: The Rescue Of The Danish Jews During World War II, by Emmy E. Werner, Steve Catalano. 2004

Danish Rescuers, German Permissiveness, and Yad Vashem Double Standards. Usually-Unmentioned Anti-Semitism in Denmark

Author Emmy Werner describes the rescue of the Jews as a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. (It was—not all in a positive sense.) He characterizes the Danish people as lovers of freedom and HYGGELIG—being cheerful, comfortable, and cozy. (p. 7). [Other definitions have de-emphasized coziness in favor of conviviality.]

THE GERMANS NEVER SERIOUSLY TRIED TO STOP THE DANISH EVACUATION OF THE JEWS

German efforts to stop the rescue effort amounted to a joke. “Not a single boat carrying Jews from Denmark to safety in Sweden was seized or sunk by the German Navy.” (p. 171). Germans inspecting Jew-filled boats accepted the explanation that they were carrying fish and, upon spotting the Jews, declared them fish. (p. 82). Rescue boats could even sail in broad daylight. (p. 71). Nearby anchored German ships stayed put (p. 74), while many other German patrol vessels were “on repairs” (pp. 37-38). The Germans never entered the hospitals where Jews were hiding. (p. 49). Germans at railroad platforms ignored masses of Jews there. (p. 53). Ditto for hotels. (p. 59).

The details of high-level German commands remain unknown, because, as with many other details of the Final Solution, the orders were oral. (p. 39). In addition, Felix Kersten played a role in the release of captured Danish Jews at Theresienstadt. (p. 116). Nazi Werner Best, in charge of Denmark, had earlier murdered 8,723 Poles and Jews in the fall of 1939. West Germany got around to indicting him in 1989—just over a week after he had died at 86. (p. 157).

POLISH RESCUERS OF JEWS WERE JUSTIFIED TO BE PAID: DANISH RESCUERS WERE NOT

In German-occupied Poland, Poles were reduced to near-starvation conditions. Thus, Poles requiring payment for housing fugitive Jews were certainly acting in an understandable manner, and were in no sense “greedy exploiters of Jews” as painted by Jan T. Gross in his GOLDEN HARVEST. Danes faced no such privations. In fact, Werner comments, “For the average Dane, life continued near normal…Jobs were plentiful. The income of the Danish farmers rose because of their extensive food exports to Germany.” (p. 13).

Yet the Danes took hefty payments for shipping Jews to Sweden. (pp. 61-4, 77). One Danish Jewish woman paid 6,000 kroner, which was “everything she owned”, to save herself and her two children. (p. 56). One Lutheran pastor loaned 30,000 kroner so that fishermen would take six Jews to Sweden. (p. 44).

YAD VASHEM HYPOCRYSY

Ironically, one of the requirements for being honored by Yad Vashem for rescuing Jews is aiding them “…without exacting in advance monetary compensation…” (p. 167), yet that is exactly what happened in Denmark! Despite this, and unlike paid Polish rescuers of Jews, Yad Vashem has not only chosen to honor paid Danish rescuers of Jews: It has chosen to honor the ENTIRE Danish nation. (p. 168).

AN IRONY TO COMPLAINTS THAT “THE ENTIRE POLISH NATION IS CLAIMING CREDIT FOR RESCUING JEWS”

There has recently been a flurry of complaints, from certain influential Jews, that the setting up of a monument to Polish rescuers of Jews sends a misleading message that Poles as a whole saved Jews, and that this skirts around those Poles who denounced Jews. Oh dear.

And what of the Danes? Apart from the payment issue, surely not every single Dane was involved in the rescue of Jews, and most certainly there were Danes who sided with the Nazis. (see final paragraphs in this review). The 7,220 Danish Jews shipped to Sweden departed from over 50 embarkation points, on at least 300 fishing vessels that performed about 1,000 crossings. (p. 61). It is obvious that there were far fewer Danish boatmen rescuers than there were rescued Jews. From the figures given, the reader can deduce that the number of Danes ferrying Jews across to Sweden ranged from a few hundred to perhaps several hundred.

In addition, given the next-to-nonexistent German interference of Jewish movements across Denmark, and minimal German interference in Danish actions in general, it did not take a large number of Danes to get the over-7,000 Jews to the boats. Suppose, as an example, that an average of twenty Danes were involved in saving one Jew, if only by contributing financially to the effort. This means that, for a total Danish population of 4 million, 3.6% of the Danish population was involved in aiding Jews [This figure is comparable to some quoted Polish rescuer rates, working under conditions that were infinitely more difficult than in Denmark]. Even if my assumption of Danes-per-Jew is a gross underestimate, it is obvious that the collective Yad Vashem award to the Danish people, based on the premise that, “…almost everyone, from king to fishmonger, took an active role in rescuing the Jews”, is more than slightly hyperbolic! (p. 168).

Finally, the fact that 99% of Danish Jews were saved owed to a German permissiveness unimaginable in German-occupied Poland. What’s more, the Danish maritime rescuers had the luxury of operating two weeks. (p. 3). Now, supposing that the Jew-saving Danish activity had gotten even this far, imagine if the Germans had acted decisively at once, reducing the successful crossings to a trickle (say, even 50 instead of the 1,000). The percentage of Danish Jews saved would then have dropped to 5%, comparable to the rate of saved Polish Jews.

ANOTHER PRO-DANISH HOLOCAUST MYTH

The false rumor, surfacing in wartime England, about Danish King Christian X threatening to wear a Jewish Star, was just that. Werner adds that, “At no time was the wearing of the Star of David one of the German demands in Denmark.” (p. 15; see also p. 169).

ANTI-SEMITISM IN POLAND–AN ENDLESSLY-REPEATED GIVEN. ANTI-SEMITISM IN DENMARK–ALMOST NEVER MENTIONED

Whatever the exact motives of the Danes in transferring their Jews to Sweden, they did not possess unbounded philosemitism. With few exceptions, the Danish government refused to accept fugitive Jews, notably those from Germany after the rise of the Nazis to power (1933). It turned away many German Jews seeking asylum after Kristallnacht (1938). (p. 15).

After WWII, there was a brief surge of anti-Semitism in Denmark, complete with such things as discrimination against Jews renting apartments. (p. 153).

THE SELDOM-MENTIONED DANISH BETRAYERS OF JEWS

Now let us consider the other side of the coin. As with all other peoples, Danish rescuers of Jews had to deal with local informers and denouncers of Jews. (p. 55, 64, 102). Danes would call an informer a STIKKER (p. 102), which means ratter.

About 8,000 Danes fought on the German side in the FRIKORPS DENMARK, which became the Danish Waffen SS. Ironically, more Danes died fighting FOR the Germans (3,900) than did against it. (p. 3,172). (p. 16). The FRIKORPS DENMARK also helped the Germans repress Danish protests and to destroy Danish cultural items in reprisal. (p. 127). Overall, 20,000 Danes were arrested as collaborators. (p. 149). If accurate, then, for this nation of just 4 million, about 1 in 200 Danes was a Nazi collaborator.

SOME DANES ALSO RESENTED THE RETURNING HOLOCAUST SURVIVING JEWS

The much-discussed hostile response to some returning Polish Jews also occurred to some returning Danish Jews: “Some returning refugees whose houses had been rented out by the government did not feel welcome. Others had lost their lease on their old apartments or found new tenants in them that refused to move. Still others lost their household effects. Some Jews found that their furniture or valuables had been sold to finance the October ’43 rescue. In September 1945 [four months after the end of WWII in Europe], 1,300 Jewish refugees were still living in temporary government quarters.” (p. 152). Considering the 7,220 rescued Jews, 1,300 is a significant number.

COMPARATIVELY TRIVIAL GERMAN LOSSES UNDER NAZI GERMANY

Overall Danish nonmilitary war losses were minimal. Of 6,000 Danish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps for various reasons, only 10% died. (p. 4).