Countrymen
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In the entire ghastly history of the Holocaust, only two "good" stories stand out, and this is one of them. Denmark, under German Occupation, but with its King and government intact, did something no other country in Western Europe even tried to do. Knowing that German command was coming in 1943 to round up their Jews
(there were 7,000 of them) for deportation to the camps, they said no. The King, his ministers, and parliament were all in agreement--those 7,000 people were theirs, they were Danes who happened to be Jewish, and nobody was going to assist in their round-up and certain death. While the government used its limited but formidable powers to manoeuver and to impede matters in Berlin, the warning went out to the Jewish community that crisis was at hand.
Over the next 14 days, assisted, helped, hidden, and protected by ordinary people who came together spontaneously to the aid of their countrymen who were suddenly refugees, an incredible 6,500 out of the 7,000 total escaped -- smuggled on big boats, little boats, fishing boats, anything that floated -- to Sweden.
The bare facts of this exodus have been known for decades but, astonishingly, no full history of it has ever been researched or written. The refugees kept diaries, letters, family accounts which have now been brought together and form the basis of this riveting account. After a powerful historical introduction, the book follows the story on a day-by-day basis. We watch and share the heartstopping experiences of real people during those fateful two weeks from September 26 to October 9, 1943. This is a story of ordinary glory, of simple courage and moral fortitude that shines out in the terrible history of the 20th century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Danish diplomat, journalist, and historian makes his impressive U.S. debut with this comprehensive account of the 1943 rescue mission that saved 6,500 of German-occupied Denmark's 7,000 Jews from the Nazis. That King Christian X wore a yellow star in solidarity with his hunted countrymen is likely an apocryphal tale, but it is true that the monarch, government, and Danish people did do something extraordinary for the time: they denied the validity of a Jewish question. Jews were "Danish citizens... protected by Danish law." Enough said. Despite the Danes' refusal to cooperate not to mention Hitler's dependence on Denmark for food supplies Berlin nevertheless gave the deportation orders on September 28. Results were limited: warnings had been issued in the days before encouraging Jews to seek shelter. Typically they'd hide with friends or benevolent strangers en route to the coast, where Danes and Swedes worked together to provide the refugees with safe passage to the neutral land of the latter. Lidegaard describes an evacuation that was chaotic, frightening, and highly successful, thanks in part to the tacit acquiescence of occupying Nazis who, sensing that they would soon lose the war and face the consequences, "had nothing to gain... but much to lose" by angering the Danish people. Photos.
