Truly remarkable things: when Danish Jews returned they found their homes, pets and gardens had been looked after; a champion rower called Knud was a resistance member and made the return trip 18 times in one night
the jews were not specified as jews in society, they were your neighbors collegueges etc.etc.and of course you helped them hide and get away to sweden.
It's complicated We were ever so close to be labled as 'colaborators' by history- and we kinda should have been tbh- our gov was quite quick to throw in the towel, some would say a little to quick And we didn't help out Norway, in any significant way, and we're still ashamed of that But we(one dude named Kaufman, quite a story if you wanna look it up) did give America a small slice of Greenland, for we all knew the next enemy would be the Soviets, and Greenland(Thule Airbase) was the bargining chip that put us on the side of the Allies Also Niels Borh's contribution to the atom bomb should be mentioned Thanks for bringing up the fact we did the right thing regarding the jewish people in our land It's nice when others bring up your triumphs, rather than your skeletons. . but make no mistake, we had our share of those too Never Forget Skål, and keep up the good work : )
Yes, let's rejoice at how the proud and brave Danish Fishermen demanded up to $25,000 at today's rate, per person, to sail them to Sweden. Let's also not forget the lovely Danish women who attached flowers to the German soldiers' uniforms on the day of the invasion in pure joy at finally being liberated. Let's also not forget how Germany's understanding of racial purity influenced Danish legislation long after the end of the war and we therefore forced unwanted women to be sterilized right up until the 1970s, so that they could not pass on their bad degenerate offspring.
My grandfather was 19 in 1943, learning to be a boatbuilder like his father, and helped build summerhouses in the north of Copenhagen. He was involved in hiding jews and other people who tried to escape to Sweden. In 1944 he had to flee himself, and joined the Danish Brigade in Sweden. At one point during his own escape, he was hiding in a wooden box, while he could hear guards roaming around. Must have nervewracking. The time in Sweden was mostly spent by training and waiting. Since he loved dancing, he entertained his comrades by tapdancing on the tables 😊 He returned to Copenhagen in may 1945 and lived to be 82 years of age. On feb 10th this year, he would have become 100 years old. I miss him ❤
2:08 just wanna point out that they forgot to colorize Bornholm as part of Denmark in the animation which, considering Bornholms destiny during the war and the aftermath, is pretty ironical.
If you want to learn a bit more about Denmark during WW II there's a nice video about our king and his importance "Hitler's Royal Nemesis - The King on the Horse". Many Danes still light a candle and put it in the window on May 4th the evening where it was announced in the radio that Germany had surrendered and Danmark was free. Some jews fled earlier on among them Victor Borge who fled to America where he became a famous comedian and musician (though he din't know any english when he arrived to the states in 1940). One of my favorite videos with him is from his 80th birthday in Denmark where he plays with a young virtuoso Michala Petri. You can find it here on youtube with subtitles - it's hilarious!
Hey friend I am Danish I have ben bode teresienstat and ausvith /birkenau an I tel. You it give goosebumps To go ther an a freezing feeling never again
My maternal grandparents were part of the Resistance...everything from bombings, shootings, newspapers/flyers, sabotage and smuggling many of the Jewish people out of Denmark, to Sweden. I am proud of their contribution and will always hold them dear ❤ Czechoslovakia is now 2 states, The Czech Republic and Slovakia. They separated after the fall of the Berlin Wall Most of the Danish Jews, returned to Denmark, after the war...it was part of the deal made with Sweden, for giving them refuge. hello from Denmark 🌸
@@JesperSandgreen Yes. There is a correlation between his love for us nordics because of our looks, and all the norse/viking symbols him and his armies adopted.
InJerusalem on a square you'll find a copy of the bow of a danish fishing vessel placed there in order to hounor the efforts made to rescue those danish citizen of jewish descent that got away
In central Copenhagen there is a square called Israels Plads "Israels Square" named so in 1968. There is a red granite rock from the Negev desert with an inscription from the Israeli state.
I have to say, I respect that you are willing to go into this. Its a big part of Danish history, and a thing that we are actually quite proud of. And thank you for being interested in this part of ww2, and not only pearl harbor and d-day. Thank you for that
My grandfather was in the resistance and actively helped Jews cross to safety in Sweden. He never mentioned it himself and I only found out after his death by my grandmother telling me. I was and is so proud of the morale backbone Denmark had back then...
I would imagine one of the reasons the Germans where keen on treating Denmark, such that the Danes would not resist more, was because Denmark produced food for about 5 times their own population. The population of Denmark at that time being roughly 4 million, as we also heard in the video here, that means a surplus production feeding about 16 million people (20 million - 4 million). The census for Germany in 1939 was just under 80 million people and I would imagine the population was lower at this time (1943), due to so many soldiers being abroad as occupation and fighting forces. Lets still do the math with 80 million - that means that the food being brought from Denmark could feed about 20% of the German population. I remember hearing a saying that "In Europe, during WWII, the only ones eating better than the Danes, where the Germans".
I strongly doubt that ordinary Germans, or German soldiers for that matter, ate better than the Danes, even with the forced export of food from Denmark (and other occupied countries.)
The german soldiers in Denmark called it doing service in the “whipped cream front”. It was rather peaceful. No frontline but only minor guarding. Obviously the fight for freedom increased during the war, but in total it was a relative quiet and peaceful.
My grandfather participated in bringing the warning to Jews in Copenhagen. He told me he was given about 20 addresses on families to contact and bring them the message. He said, 1 of the families didn’t believed him and were picked up on the 1st October. We lost my grandfather 6 years ago after a long life.
We can’t know everything. All we can do it try to learn more and you certainly do that.. you have no reason to apologize. Keep up the good work and the great reaction’s videos
I've been to Theresienstadt. It's open to the public today as a sort of museum. I would say that anyone who finds themselves close to it, should go visit. It's not a fun visit, but it's enlightening. I still remember now 25 years later as if it was yesterday, that there was an aura of death and despair that hovered over the place. The bullit holes in the walls where people were executed. The old grave stones that were used as pavement in places. It's quite horrific, but also eye opening. I can't imagine being held captive there.
Yes, Ive been there too, about 30 years ago, not that long after the fall of the Berlin wall. U can still feel it in the air, that oppressive feeling, its hard to describe.
The SS was surprisingly multi-national. There were men from all over Europe who fought that Nazism was a good idea and who volunteered (!) for the SS. Which is crazy when you consider that the Waffen SS was often deployed in the most dangerous spots on the front line and had very high casualty rates. There were Danish SS units. Also SS units from Norway, the Netherlands, France. Even Muslim SS units. ("Fun" fact: the very last unit defending the area in Berlin where Hitler was hiding in his bunker was the Waffen SS Division Charlemagne - a French SS unit!).
1. The SS was where non Germans could serve and some of them ("Germans" from occupied countries) where not entirely volunteers. 2. The motivation for volunteering varied a lot - a major motivation was the fight against Communism.
My grandmother was a part of the Danish resistance and she was such a cool lady. She helped people going underground getting places to stay and also delivering resistance papers. She ended up being captured, because some of those people she helped got captured and ratted her out, questioned by gestapo, being let go (she was pretty good at playing confused innocent young lady, definitely didn’t see her Aris cause she had dark hair despite being many generations pure Danish) and being forced to go under ground. Those 5 months had reduced her to barely a skeleton. She gave birth to my uncle on the 19th of May 1946. Personally believe becoming a mother so soon after was a bit hard on her cause my mom was born 15 years later as her only other child (although part of it was also the fact she needed to find a new husband. I know she was definitely traumatized because of what she had experienced (she also forget most of what she learned during her studies before the war and her memory had in general been compromised) but she lived a long and good stubborn life passing away at 91 years old. By the end of her life she had many health problems that looked like arthritis but didn’t quite fit, and ended up seeing a specialist who said it was KZ syndrome. Those 5 months was about as damaging to her as people who had survived concentration camps. With some convincing she ended up applying for compensation which included a larger sum of money and a pension (although she wasn’t always convinced that money really should be used on her especially after the death of her husband). I only knew her for about 7 years but she was such a sweet stubborn woman and I would have loved to get to know her better.
Maybe watch and react to the movie Schindler's list. That movie is pretty accurate about what happend in WW2 but mind you, the REAL thing was even worse then the movie, that's what my grandma and mom told me. During the war my huge family was reduced to 4 people, my grandma, my mom and 2 uncles.
@ItsCharlieVest Yes, Charlie if you want to know more about the Holocaust then the film Schindlers List is a must see. But beware the film contains shockingly brutal scenes. Scenes not only with adults but also with children. Schindler also a member of Hitler's Nazi party. The membership pin is clearly visible on or under the lapel of his coat
My Grandfather was in the resistance, he was a soldier in the royal guards when the Germans attacked in '40.. He later fled to sweden, married a a girl (my Grandmother) who was a fugitive and here I am ;-) And so are his great-grandchildren.
Czechoslovakia became a part of the soviet union after the war, gained full independence after the fall of the Iron Curtain, then split into two separate nations in 1992: Czech Republic and Slovakia (Slovak Republic).
It did not! Repeat not! become part of the Soviet Union. You are confusing the USSR with the "communist" bloc, which admitted, was controlled by the USSR. ("communist" in quotes, because I personally do not consider their form of government communist in any proper sense of the word.)
@@lhplEastern Bloc. Warsaw Pact. Behind the iron curtain. were terms I grew up with as a child. There were various ways to describe these communist countries under the sway of the USSR. But they remained independent of Russia and the USSR, up to a point.
@@lhpl Czecholsovakia didn't become part of the Soviet Union. it was an independent country under the soviet sphere of influence. Until the invasion in 1968 when the so-called "Prague spring" reforms were halted and a more hardline communist government installed. It remained independent. though much more aligned with the soviet union. It was never part of the Soviet Union.
@@duntrolling8876 You seem to be misreading my comment. It was WolfHeathen who wrote "Czechoslovakia became a part of the soviet union...". To which I replied that it _did not_ .
I, and most others I know tend to view the fact that they held us Danes in such high regard as downright creepy, since their reverence was due to liking our genetics. On the other hand, I'm glad it gave the poeple back then enough leeway to make these maneuvers against the German occupation. Btw, there's no shame in wanting to learn anything! I wish you the best with whatever you're leaning. It's admirable ❤️
Same for us Swedes. It's good we could (eventually...) use their gross infatuation to protect people (so glad we could help our neighbors ❤ although we obviously should've done more and way sooner). That said, it's sickening, isn't it...Talk about admiration one doesn't want to have...
Great video to understand a bit more about the Jewish situation Charlie. As you probably know the results of these atrocities still plays a role in today's politics. In most countries around Europe there were people giving aid to the Jewish people, but Denmark was the most successful. The SS (Schutzstaffel) had volunteers from most if not all occupied countries. Even in the US of A there were groups sympathizing with Nazi Germany.
The sympathy with Germany was probably more extensive than most Americans realise (or like to admit) today. And of course, now history is repeating itself...
denmark had them too. many young men who wanted adventure, and joined the wehrmacht (regular german army) found themselves in the Waffen-SS, and they fared hard in Denmark after ze war. (those who came home). volunteering for the enemy, they were stripped of their citizens rights. No habeas corpus, no freee medicare, no social help, etc.etc.
@@zymelin21 that is part of it, another part this is seldomly mentioned but was a major reason for voluntering with the ss was that they seemed to be the only alternative and opposition to the bolsheviks/communists.
I am proud of my famlily during that period of time, as my grandfathers father was one of the fishermen who helped the resistance smuggle jew out of denmark.
Oh dear. A commendable reaction video, and a big like for wanting to learn stuff. Alas, the video obviously has you confused in some places. (I guess Imperial War Museums, being a British organisation, has more of a British or European audience in mind, and assumes some basic knowledge of European countries and history facts.) The relation between Denmark (Denmark being the southernmost of the Nordic countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) and Germany is complicated and ancient. Denmark as a name is first documented in the late 800s AD. However, the fortified earth wall called Danevirke dates back to 650 AD, and presents a major separation between the northernmost Germanic tribes and those to the south. It is located near the town Schleswig, where the Schlei (Sly) river flows into the Sly Firth on the Baltic side of Jutland. The peninsula on the east side of Jutland just north of Schleswig is actually called Angel or Angeln, and is also the place from where a large group of Angle people migrated to Great Britain, together with Saxons, Jutes and Frisians a few hundred years earlier, becoming the Anglosaxons, and giving England and the English language their names. Fast forward roughly 400 years: by 1050 Christianisation of Denmark was ongoing. FF roughly another 400 years: 1420 the Treaty of Ribe was signed by the Danish king, establishing the unity of the Duchies Slesvig/Schleswig (a Danish duchy) and Holstein (a duchy under the Holy Roman Empire). FF yet again 400 years (skipping the 100 years and 30 years wars, the Lutheran reformation and other stuff): 1848, under the influence of the German nationalist movement, Germans in Holstein (by now a member of the German Confederation, although still with the Danish king as its duke) demanded that the duchy of Schleswig (due to the "unity" declared in 1420) join the German Federation also, leading to an uprising and the 1. Schleswig War 1848-1851, which the Danes won. This didn't last long, a succession dispute resulted in the 2. Schleswig War, or the War of 1864, resulting in the annexation of both duchies into the German Confederation, Prussia and Austria. 50 years later, in 1914, we have the First World War, in which my great-grandfather died, of Danish heritage, but fighting as a German soldier. A referendum resulted in the northern part of Schleswig to return to Denmark, placing the border where it is today. Which eventually leads us to the events of the video. Denmark, which had been rather humiliated in 1864, had remained neutral in WW1, and hoped not to anger our southern neighbor Germany. Germany, otoh, wanted to secure steel availability from Sweden from Norwegian ports, and needed to occupy Norway before the UK did so. Denmark was seen as a stepping stone to Norway. The invasion on 9. April 1940 wasn't unexpected, and the Danish army had mobilised, but not deployed fully, to not give Hitler any excuse to attack. As the Germans very effectively entered Copenhagen early in the morning (using a freight ship to sail troops right into the city harbor), the King and government surrendered very quickly; the information however did not reach the partly deployed army in Jutland until several hours later; in the meantime, some fighting had taken place. Eventually the army got the information and all units surrendered. From April 1940 to August 1943, the Danish coalition government (we even held elections for parliament in March 1943, which confirmed the coalition, and also showed very minimal support for the nazi party) maintained a policy of reluctant cooperation with the occupying German forces. The military (army and navy) had been retained, although within limits set by the Germans. 29. August, following a period of protests and strikes in the Danish population the Germans declared martial law in Denmark, the government ceased the cooperation (but technically remained, as the king didn't formally accept their resignation), and while the administrative bureaucracy continued (this included the Danish police), the military was dissolved - not _entirely_ without fight. The navy tried scuttling the fleet, with some success. This was the culmination of a growing resistance movement that had already started from the very beginning of the war. As a result of this, there probably was good contact between shall we say less militant Germans and the Danes, which is probably a part of the reason why the information on the plans for arresting the Jews got leaked. Thanks to the great degree of freedom retained, communication was relatively easy. Denmark had also established a kind of concentration camp, at Frøslev near the border, to prevent deportation to German camps of people arrested for resisting the Germans, although sometimes there would be deportations from there to actual concentration camps further south. In 1944, the Danish police and border gendarmes (a paramilitary force tasked with guarding the border, mainly for customs) were arrested, and interned, some going to Frøslev, and some deported further, mainly Buchenwald and Neuengamme. In the early part of my childhood, our neighbor was a former captain (ritmester Aage Malling Jacobsen) of the gendarmes - he had first witnessed the crossing of the German army on the morning of 9. April and was also interned at Frøslev, and deported to Neuengamme, from which he returned with the famous "White Buses", also mentioned in the video. These buses were the result of negotiations by the Swedish diplomat and Swedish Red Cross vice-president Folke Bernadotte, to evacuate Norwegian and Danish prisoners from German concentration camps. This resulted in the evacuation of around 15000 prisoners from various camps, including around 450 jews from Theresienstadt (although exact numbers are difficult, as - as is customary in the Nordic countries - religion was never registered.) When the white bus convoys arrived in Denmark, after a harrowing journey through a now war-ridden and devastated Germany in the early spring of 1945, the rescued people, many of whom were starved and sick, were fed and attended medically by Danish doctors and nurses, before continuing to Copenhagen by the safe Danish roads (and ferry across the Great Belt), and finally by ferry from Copenhagen to Malmö in Sweden. In my opinion, the role of Sweden in both the rescue of the Danish Jews and in the evacuation of prisoners from the horrors of the concentration camps in Germany and Czechoslovakia deserves more recognition that it usually gets. Sure, the Swedes sold steel to Germany, and were neutral, but they also had little choice; had they refused, they too would have found themselves invaded. In fact I think some historians claim that Sweden only escaped being occupied, because Hermann Göring had strong ties to Sweden, with a Swedish wife, and having lived there for some years. Damn, history is complicated! :-)
Thank you for your input, its a long and complicated story. About Sweden ( and it is very difficult to get hold on what happened for real) , maybe they saw their change to change the picture of them selves as "Hitler friendly", when they saw that Hitler couldnt win the war ( after Stalingrad). The Swedish king was very fond of Hitler - there were many nazi's in Sweden, and he refused to let the Norwegian Crown princess stay in Stockholm, so she had to flee to the USA, a very dangerous travel ( by ship ) at that time. The Swedes allowed transport of German soldiers through Sweden up north, so they could take Norway from the back. But what else should they have done? With the way they chosed to go, they earned a lot of money under the war, like Denmark did under WWI.
The fact that the suvival rate in the Netherlands was even lower then the rate in Germany baffles me. I knew we didn't do well by our Jewish fellow men but I never expected it to be this bad...
I could've known though. 75 % of the Jewish inhabitants of the small town I was born and raised in didn't return. Some of 'm went to Israël but most of them perished
The Dutch experience of occupation, after initially being much the same, ended up very different to the Danish. Comparatively early and more active resistance + more jews resulted in harsh reprisals. You should look up the dutch famine, the winter of 44-45, its a story of profound evil !
My great grandma was (what is called “a young woman in the house”, who would earn money by helping around the house, take care of the kids etc.) back then in Copenhagen, when the nazis invaded. She told us about it many times. How she could hear them marching up and down the street during the night and how they would give children candy, which she hated because she knew what they were up to. Her brothers where in the resistance back in Jutland, where they made and distributed resistance papers.
41yr old dane here. My 93 yr old grandmother is still alive and sharp as a knife. She was alive back then. She is from bornholm, the eastern danish island that was bombed by the russians in the days after the germans surrendered. She has told me stories about how they would flee to the countryside and hide in barns when the bombers came. Her bike had flat tires and they couldn't get patches, so they had filled the tubes with wine botlle corks...
my Great grandfather escaped to Sweden as the only jew we know of in the family and well he came back and got kids with his wife that he had left in Denmark :D
Love from Denmark🇩🇰🔥 i have grandparents who lived thru these days as teens (15-17 years old) and you are absolutely right, we wouldnt had stand a chance against the Germans, it would be like Hawaii vs America lol🤣
A very important thing to consider when speaking about the German occupation of Denmark is that Germany saw Danes as Aryans and so not automatically viable to simply kill off to make room for the German Aryans (like they thought of Slavs). Additionally, Denmark was used a lot for propaganda; "Look, if you're an Aryan, you have nothing to fear, so there's no reason to resist the German occupation of your land, everything is fine! We're actually nice!" and to continue to be able to do that, they needed to keep resistance in Denmark low and to do _that_ they needed to avoid any kind of violence or overt use of force.
The most important thing is not what you know about the world, but that you are curious to learn. When the Germans occupied Denmark they had 40,000 troops at their disposal with modern weapons. The Danes have 13,000 men with old weapons and virtually no air force. If the Germans had needed more troops it would not have been a problem. German bombers circled around Copenhagen and even if they never actually had a plan to bomb the city, you couldn't know it at the time. But against such a superior force, the government chose to stop the fighting.
To be fair some of the fishermen wasnt as much greedy as they wanted compensation if they lost their livelyhood still could live a decent life during the war which obviously isnt selfless but not necessarily greedy either... I mean sometimes you have to consider the wellbeing of your own family too
@@MrMaxEdelstahl Many years later we found out, that the King actively helped with organizing the evacuation and personally gave the funds needed. As he said, when the Germans first occupied Denmark - the Jews are not different, theyre Danes, same as every1 else. We have never registered ppl by religion, hence why theres not exact numbers of Danish Jews killed during WWII.
In 1986, I was with the school in Theresienstadt. It was something that we in Denmark call after-school. It is a religious boarding school that cannot be found anywhere else but in Denmark. There were many people who were doing outdoor tours behind the old blanket. When that norm was a steering wheel closed from people from the west. Always forget that trip over the pine tree. A lorry came with iodine waste that was going to West Germany and there were guards with long javelins to check if there were any of their own population who wanted to flee underground. On that trip we also passed by Theresienstadt. Although it was not one of the worst camps. The guards were amused that if they could find a father and son, then they would have to knock one dead. In the newest part of the camp, there was so much disease that guards walked on a rampart or footbridge so it wouldn't get infected. And at the end between two rows of barracks was a place where they could shoot, I think it was 50 prisoners at a time, So the next team that had to shoot had to start by removing the bodies from the first before it was their turn.
Danish jews warent targeted at first - The germans that came here in Denmark, saw denmark as a form of holiday place away from the war. MANY Many people in Denmark that were deported also ended up in -> Neuengamme Concentration Camp located in Hamburg Hands down the most intense thing i have ever experienced in my life!
Most of them returned to Denmark where their homes were still in tact. Please find out about the white busses. The Danish politicians had arranged the pick up of the people from the camps they saved 24.000 and brought them to Sweden before the war was over. My mom and grandma helped. my mom said I have seen how they looked, they did not dare to take a shower so we went with them in the shower. There is a wonderful film called the final solution and it was on you tube but unfortunately not anymore. I now live in the Netherlands but I am a Dane. The Dutfh were bad and helped to get rid of 100.000 of their jews. The yellow stars were even made in Holland.
I think there was around 6000 Danish SS, under the name Frikorps Danmark. Many fought for the Germans, mostly at the eastern front. A lot of those, who were in Denmark, helping the Germans, were executed in the latter part of the war (attacked by the Danish resistance), or right after (lined up and shot). There were a lot of non German SS soldiers, during the war, from all over Europe - also in the US.
Their first Leader, till he became killed at Lake Ilmen, Von Schalburg was of Russian Decent, and definitely not a "brilliant soldier", but he hoped to be able to get his family Estates back, lost by the Revolution!
@@finncarlbomholtsrensen1188 he was after all an officer of the "danish life guards" which is supposed to guard the royal house. the guards do not like to remembered of that fact.
well we didnt surrender THAT fast.. our soldiers fought the germans when they went up through Jutland AND the guards protecting the royal family fought aswell BUT yes we didnt fight aslong as our brothers in Norway did............My grandfather was in the danish resistance and he had 2 jews. a mother and her 3 y old child hidden away in a fake coal cellar they escaped to sweden aswell .. my mother had pamflets in her school bag and delivered them to other resistens members she was 12 years old...
6 hours, Denmark surrendered after 6 hours, all in all it was one of the better Political decisions in our history, especially when you look at the political work to ensure that Denmark was considered as part of the allies.
Part of the story also is, that when the government met with the King and the Crown Prince at Amalienborg, the Royal Palace, to discuss whether or not to surrender, German troops were already in Copenhagen, in fact the Royal Garders guarding Amalienborg were in an active firefight with Germans, as the meeting took place inside. I dont like the optics of surrending in 6 hours, but clearly they realised, that Denmark had been overrun. So they took the decision, that meant the fewest casualties and the most influence going forward. I think, the most criticism is as to, how long they kept cooperating, and how far they acquiesced in some cases. On a side note - 1 of my grandfathers was a Garder, the other worked with railway maintenance and used that along with his colleagues to actually sabotage the rails, sometimes under the nose of the Germans. As my grandfather spoke German, he could chat with the soldiers and distract them, while his colleagues covered their tracks, if the Germans turned up at a bad time.
A classmate of mine, very old, told us a story. He and his friends (11y.o.) would steal stuff from the nazis whenever they were bored. He brougt some of the stuff to a show and tell 😂
My great grandfather was in the Danish resistance in ww2, and my grandpa told me all kinds of stories about the sabotage and such that his dad got up too and all the people they saved. Could not be prouder to be related to Denmark 🇩🇰
The home guard is a direct paramilitary organisation with roots in the resistance and the freedom fighters. Towards the end of WW2 5 larger organisations emerging from the underground took control over most strategic key points, and there was actually a little danger of those groups would begin to fight each other, simply because the security had been so tight many resistance fighters didn't trust each other, so at some point the 5 groups were joined to be 1 defensive organisation and this was the solution to the unrest, and the organisation still stands as a rear group to begin fifth column insertions and sabotage. At any point the home guard consists of about 50,000 volunteers trained just as professional as the standing armed forces.
The Danish police were warned in the same way that they would be interned by the Germans. Almost all fled and the few that were caught were sent to a KZ camp in Germany. Namely Bergen Belsen.
My greatgrandfather went to a concentration camp and survived. As my mom tells it, he survived because ordinary German people threw raw potatoes over the fences for them to eat. He weighted 45 kg when he came home to Denmark, he was about 1.90 m tall.
The Danish situation during World War 2 was unique in a myriad of ways, it was much more complex than "Aryan" status or German respect for Danes. The biggest factor was likely that Germany imported as much as 20% of the food for the German army from Denmark, this meant that serious disruptions to their occupation there would really hinder the war effort. Denmark surrendered immediately and was made a protectorate by Germany, this allowed Denmark to continue as normal for several years, this bound the German economy and war effort to Denmark much tighter than many other occupied territories, which gave Denmark power over Germany in negotiations and allowed Denmark to demand concessions from their occupiers. These days Denmark is considered an occupied and a resisting country, however the truth is that while Denmark was occupied Denmark was also formally allied to Germany and the other Axis powers having signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. At the same time Danish resistance fighters were in close contact with the British armed forces and supplied by the British. Basically Denmark ended up leveraging its position to play both sides of the war and came out of World War 2 considered a friend to the allies despite going through the war as a formal ally of the Axis. Compare to Norway which was just as "Aryan" as Denmark in Nazi eyes. Norway did not surrender and the Norwegian government fled the country into exile, and the Norwegian resistance immediately started fighting the occupiers. In Norway there were not the same considerations for neither the Norwegians nor the Norwegian Jews as those Denmark enjoyed. Sweden was able to help Denmark as well due to Sweden being neutral and a trade partner of Germany, again being a vital supplier of resources for the war effort and thus they could leverage their position in negotiations with the German Reich. If we examine similar situations to the Danish one, like Bulgaria, also a member of the Anti-Comintern Pact and formal ally of the Axis powers who also saved basically all their Jews then we see that similar forces come into play though the Bulgarian state was not as protective of the Jews as the Danish they came under pressure from the Bulgarian people to protect them. Bulgaria then used similar leverage to forestall the deportations and protect its Jewish population. The case of Denmark in World War 2 is a funny one, and for a long time it wasn't acceptable to talk about the alliance, cooperation and aid Denmark offered Germany during the war, and Denmark was allowed to portray itself as a purely occupied nation both at home and abroad. Reality though is much more complex and the Danish allegiances were murky. Recent decades has seen a rise in criticism of the Danish position during WW2 and before it, centering on the idea that Denmark basically did only what was best for Denmark and had no larger moral stance or willingness to take sides. With the immediate answer of course being that there would have been no way to do things like protect and save Jews if Denmark had been openly antagonistic to Nazi Germany through the war and hadn't surrendered and made deals. It's a complex debate and in large part ones stance on the matter depends on what one finds most important and moral in the grand scheme of things. Either way the rescue of the Danish Jews is a point of light in a dark time, whether it was possible only due to self-serving prior actions or not.
It is quite significant information that Denmark's adherence to the Anti-Comintern Pact had an additional protocol where Denmark was only obligated on Danish soil. The Danish foreign minister would, for negotiation reasons, let Denmark accede to this pact in order to avoid restrictive consequences for the Danish people in other areas, for example internment or special laws regarding Danish Jews. You can think what you want about this real-politic approach (Germany kicked ass everywhere in Europe and destroyed, among other things, France, which at the time had the world's largest army in 6 weeks.) In the dim light of the occupation, there was really no reason to look optimistically at our freedom. That that optimism later appeared is a completely different matter. It is completely free today to criticize Denmark's actions, but the actions must be seen in the light of the occupations and not sitting at the top of the moral compass. The Danes' fairly consistent reaction to the Germans' attempts to intern the Jews says something completely different about the Danes' morale when they have the opportunity to act.
Another thing about the Resistance organizing and fundraising for the evacuation of the Jews, that we only found out many years later, was, that the King, Christian X (yes, the same King riding unescorted around Copenhagen wearing an old Danish cavalry uniform while studiously ignoring the German soldiers) behind the scenes actively assisted in organizing the evacuation and personally funded it.
southern jutland was hit pretty hard, they where under nazi territory for a looong time. I dont know about bornholm, but if you say so, i believe you.@@MrMaxEdelstahl
My grandparents were kids during the war and my great-grandpa was part of the resistance - Some of the stories they used to tell about those times are wild..
@itsCharlieVest There can be several reasons why Denmark and danish jews/communists were treated better than most other countries. I'll list some of them: Denmark was seen as more Aryan than Germans. Denmark had, in 1918, refused to annex the entirety of Slesvig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, even though France and England pushed for it. Denmark's government was trying to cooperate with Nazi Germany and was allowed to remain. Denmark only fought for 6 hours. The Danish kings have pretty much all been Germans: Oldenburgs, Glückburgs, and a single Wittelsbach.
My friends grandfather was in the resistance. He was in the police and land out his uniform to others, so they could slip around more easily. Her grandmother fled to Sweden so her mother was born in Sweden 👍
Danish ss volunteers....we all know what happened to them after the war. And good on those who did the deed. F fascism forever. And let me assure you, the pain of what happened to the Jewish populations and others in Europe is not forgotten even to this day. I lived in Mexico years ago...my friend was Dutch, from Holland (Netherlands) and when 2 German girls came in his bar he turned 3 shades of red. I asked him what's wrong. He said he despised Germans. I said buddy, the war ended over 60 years ago. He didn't care. That informed me that the pain caused by the reich runs very deep indeed.
I don't know what you may _believe_ you know about what happened to Danish SS volunteers after the war. And I'm not sure you want to know what really happened to them, but not all were executed, if that's what you believe. As for your friend, he sounds quite weird, and not at all typical for a person living this side of the year 2000. Most - if not actually all, by now - Germans with any direct kind of responsibility for what happened in the war are dead. Most living Germans have to live with the remembrance of the history of their country and whatever their ancestors have done, but they don't forget, most also think it is terrible (there are new nazi idiots everywhere, of course), and have nothing to be personally ashamed of. Did he feel guilt or shame because of the Dutch SS volunteers? Also worthy of note: not all volunteers were necessarily nazis or SS. Some just joined Frikorps Danmark to fight USSR and communism. Although this itself is a complicated and not very well researched part of history.
@@KurtFrederiksen actually, we weren't victors at all after WW1, as we were neutral. When the question of Schleswig-Holstein came up, we could possibly just have demanded everything, instead there was a referendum. Even Hitler seemed to accept the border that came to be as a result. As for the volunteers, a few probably survived and also managed to evade punishment, like Søren Kam.
@KurtFrederiksen "Victory" to me implies participating in the fighting on the winning side. And we weren't offered SH just out of good will, but as a way to punish Germany. Although the scenario where Hitler had won is very hypothetical, and impossible to say with certainty, I strongly doubt he had any interest in eradicating Denmark as a nation, or UK for that matter. We would still depend on trade with Germany, and maybe there would have been some influence or manipulation, perhaps similar to the USSR and Eastern Europe after the war. Maybe after the victory the matter of SH would have been brought up again. Noone can say for sure, fortunately.
@@KurtFrederiksen The allied victory I am talking about, which gave us the 1920 referendum and the return of Sønderjylland, is obviously the victory of 1918 and the end of WW1. I believe that between the two of us, there is at most one who lacks understanding of what happened before during and after WW2 (or WW1 or the two Schleswig wars), but I know it is not me. Combining this with your insulting manners and lack of reading ability, I choose to not continue this discussion, unless an apology from you is forthcoming.
@@KurtFrederiksen Well, I'll let that "sorry" suffice then. Strictly speaking, Schleswig was divided into three zones, and as zone 2 voted to Germany, no voting actually took place in zone 3. Of course this had everything to do with Denmark; the allied offered all of SH (with the most benefits for their strategic interests), but that would have become a huge burden for Denmark, plus a potentially hostile German population as the majority in the southern part, plus the risk of a future conflict with a rebuilt Germany feeling vengeful. By following the wishes of the people this could mostly be avoided. Which is also why I still feel quite certain that Hitler would have respected the current border in any case. Also remember that he thought quite amicably of both the Nordic and the Btitish people, considering them true "aryans". So if he had won the war, he would not have _wanted_ to annex Denmark, nor parts thereof. At worst, he would have manipulated the installation of a puppet government, but even that would have been unlikely given that Christian X remained as the official ruler, and would have been difficult - impossible - for Hitler to deal with. So at some point, the occupation forces would have been withdrawn.
i remember in high school me and some friends had this topic as a school project, and i was lucky enough to get to talk to one who had been part of it, also lived close to one of the small harbors that was used witch is not shown, but on the tip between Koge and Rodvig is small town called Holtug wich had a small harbor where there was a few boats going out aswell. i guess its not on since the numbers crossing there was very small compared to the other places..
Denmark had a policy of Cooperation with the Germans. We didn't have an active defense before Rommel started losing in Africa. This was great for the Danish Jews, but frankly I admire the countries who fought back much earlier. If everybody had been like us, the the Nazis would have won.
I read an annecdote about the Swedish cosstsl defence ship Manligheten that had a boat of refugees from denmar hiding along one side of the ship and talking to a german patroal boat looking for it on the other side that asked if they had seen it.
It has to be said that Danes were part of the SS. And also The Hilfspolizei (Hipo) that served under SS. But on the other hand, More Germans were on the side of the Danes than one would initially think. My dad was in the resistance and was carrying ammo for the group when the box split open and the rounds fell to the ground, right in front of a German Wehrmacht officer. He looked at the ammo, at my dad, at the surroundings, and then started to scoop up the ammo and put it inside the boxes not damaged, and then left without ever saying a word. He also did NOT report it after returning to the barracks as no forces or police or anything ever showed up to raid the shop my dad emerged from. My inlaw family was running a farm in Jutland during the war which was also part of the fugitive pibeline. One of the main operators of that pibeline was another Wehrmacht officer stationed in Denmark, who later had to go through the pibeline himself because he was found out, but also warned by fellow officers in his regiment that he needed to get away ASAP. I had the honor of getting to know him in his final years, and I have rarely met a finer human being. The most extraordinary thing though, was that after the surrender of German forces in Denmark, Danish SS and hipo and the like refused to surrender out of fear of what would happen to them, which ironically led to the first real battles of WWII fought on Danish ground. But the extraordinary thing was that the German forces that had not yet been disarmed at that time actually volunteered to help in the fight against the Danish nazies, and did so with the loss of life of several German soldiers. It goes without saying that even if Germans were not very well regarded after the war, the soldiers who actually took part in the fighting on Danish side received a bit better treatment during disarming and internment and being sent home. Not much since there were little to no resources available for anyone or anything, but enough to make it clear to them that they were being treated better and given preferential treatment as a result of their fighting on our side. As for my dad being in the resistance, so was his brother. But sadly, some cousins were on the side of the Germans and served in the Shell House and as guards for the Germans. What happened to them after the war was never found out. They just vanished. Wether they fled the country or were killed by vigilante crowds or imprisoned and died while doing so, we never found out, albeit we didn't exactly do our outmost to find out either. Because Danish nazies in German uniform and service, helped by the SS and Gestapo and others would after the august 43 termination of the governments policy of cooperation start to terrorize the civilian population by random shootings with submachineguns through the streets and Schalburtage (A nickname for sabotage actions performed against Danish factories and institutions by members of the Danish Schalburg corps and SS and Hipo) and random voilence and destruction of property and even assasinations against well known Danish celebrities and dignitaries known to be against the nazies.
The Germans referred to Denmark as the “whip-cream front”, it was okay to be German in Denmark during the occupation - compared to other occupied territories. Danes did not like the Germans, but they were mostly passive or somewhat insulting, but the Germans in general had little to fear. The German soldiers who were sent to Denmark feel that they have won the lottery... Nothing was missing and they could relax as there were not much to fear compared to other countries...
One must certainly not rule out that the relatively peaceful coexistence between the Germans and the ordinary Danes contributed to the fact that the Germans were quite good at avoiding finding Jews. It in no way relieves the Germans of their responsibility for the atrocities that were carried out, but it belongs to the part of history that creates a slightly more nuanced and complete version of the Second World War in Denmark.
My father was a small boy, wenn the Germans rolled over the borders... He lived in the south of Denmark, where they came first. It must have been very scary
Even without the Eugenics garbage, Denmark and Germany has always had a strong relationship. Harald Bluetooth the founder of Denmark was basically given the power to rule by German monarchs in exchange for being baptised. It's not the same strong sense of kinship we have with the other Scandinavian countries but it's definitely like a close neighborly relationship
Theresienstadt is now in the Czech republic. Theresienstadt was not specifically for the danes. The camp was a transit camp and those who was transported out of it went to Auschwitz II/Birkenau to be exterminated or used as slave labour. The relatively good treatment and none-deportation of the danish jews in Theresienstadt was due to some negotiations between SS-Obergruppenführer dr. Werner Best, the german civil administrator in Denmark, and the danish government.
The Danes actually put up a fight, for a few hours, until the order from the government to lay down arms reached them. The Germans made the first ever parachute attack in history, against the airport at Aalborg, Northern Denmark, to secure an airfield halfway to Norway from Germany, so that they could refuel their short range fighter aircraft that otherwise wouldn't be able to reach Norway. The Germans attacked both Denmark and Norway on the same day, April 9th 1940. And the local Danish garrison had no orders on what to do, so they did what seemed natural, they fought. Until orders reached them to stop doing that. The same thing happened in other parts of Denmark too. There's a Danish movie about that day, from 2015 called April 9th which is pretty darn good. Not super good, but very good, and very much worth the watch.
Almost all came back - but in a wonderful display of the law of unintended consequences, many came back in Danish uniform. (The Swedes has allowed the building of a Danish army-in-exile, which should fight the nazis). Many, many young jews joined the outfit and the first brigadista, who fell in battle against the Nazis was a young jew.
Because of the cooperation policy with Germany, Denmark could make demands on how Jews were treated. Most Jewish prisoners in the concentration camp survived. The head of the Danish police was imprisoned and tortured to death because he warned Danish Jews. Glory be to his memory
While i my self wasn't alive back then i remember my grandfather telling me some tidbits of his time as a resistance fighter during the last couple of years of the war... he was kinda tight lipped about it since he was a fighting for a communist group and he experienced some backlash from it back during the cold war times. God i miss him even if he wasn't my biological grandfather. Also the SS was not super soldier, but Schutz Staffel which roughly translated means Protective Echelon.
In November 1992, the federal legislature voted to divide Czechoslovakia. Having drafted separate constitutions, the two new countries, Slovakia and the Czech Republic (later Czechia), formally came into being on January 1, 1993.
Not one person in the whole world knows everything. We all just know bits & pieces. As long as we are aware of this and are up to learn more, everything is fine. Stay curious! Even if I always been curious and tried to learn, it's now so much easier with online sources. When I was a teenager only the public library could assist my learning.
No judgement. You where never occupied by a hostile invader. You came to Europe being liberators. WO2 has a totally different meaning and emotional charge to Americans as opposed to Europeans.
Well "accidentally" some vital parts for the very heavy canons on the fortresses protecting Copenhagen were send for repear so the canons could not operate at the very moment the Germans attacked, so .... another important issue was that the jues was regarded as normal citizens so of course we protected them.
im so proud to be a Dane for what we as a nation has accomplished. everytime i watch this video it makes me cry both of how proud i am that my people did this to safe our own but also to see what the Nazis did to my people.
F. Duckwitch, being a German, Naval Representative, saw to that several of the Patrol Boats on the separating, Øresund became sent to Service, so that all the minor ships transporting Danish Jews had access to reach Sweden or Swedish boats, after a fast negotiation with Sweden, to accept the Danish fugitives! And we saw to keep in touch and supply even the Danish Jews, who became caught and came to KZ Theresienstadt, to make the Germans "Keep up the appearances" that this was just a town for jews, so nearly all stayed, instead of being deported to the Death Camps! And they came home, when the war had nearly ended with the Swedish Organized, White Busses!! Swedish, Folke Bernadotte, negotiated this transport with Heinrich Himmler, who by that time still hoped to be a Leading Figure in "After War" Germany! Duckwitch, for his services, became German Ambassador to Denmark after the war!
My grandparents helped……there came children to ther House …….stayed there for 30 minuts …end were then send to the next helpstation and ended up in Sweden. My grandfather, who worked at the railwaystation…..together with his doughter…..my ant…..gav food and wather to people, who were send to the konsentrationslejre in Germany….with train. My father and uncel went out in the night and fought against the german My uncel got cout…..and was deportet to Germany. He serveived and came hom in april 1945, with the White busses.
Czechoslovakia was behind the iron curtain after WW2 and invaded by the Soviet union in 1968 where they knocked down their democracy, then after the Berlin wall came down and the collapse of the USSR in 1992 the country peacefully decided to split into the two countries, Czechia and Slovakia.
There are 3 reasons for how the German occupiers treated Denmark. 1. The Danish people was a perfect match for the racial and cultural ideals promoted by the Nazis. 2. Denmark was intended as an example of how benevolent German occupation could be. 3. The German govenor was very keen on keeping the occupation as cheap as possible and maximise profits from exploitation of Denmark.
Sweden was neutral during World War II and in addition to Danish Jews, they also took in 70,000 children from Finland, as well as people fleeing from Norway. But despite neutrality, Sweden played an important role during this time, which meant that both Germany, the Soviet Union and the Allies posed more or less a threat to the country. There is a very good video on topics by the channel King & Generals where the video is called "Why didn't the nazis invade Sweden". I hope you will react to it someday.
11:25 Czechoslovakia was broken up during the war, with Czechia and Moravia under direct German control and Slovakia under a puppet regime, and then reformed as the Czechoslovakian SSR (soviet socialist republic) during the Cold War. At the end of the Cold War the people decided to split in two as Czechia and Slovakia.
Im really sad to see that the lack of knowledge of history in the US is as bad as seen in most reaction videos from Americans, but i am glad that some try to amend that.
Regarding the "German police and Danish SS" that's a little misleading The police in Denmark was outlawed when the Germans declared marshall law, and replaced the police with the 'Schalburg corps' who was basically thugs in uniform(much like brown-shirts) So they were neither German police or Danish SS, but somewhere in between They were pro-german Danes in German uniforms After the war, Denmark reintruduced the death penelty after 200 years absence, exclusively for these guys Good ridence
8:31 The reason it was German police was that prior to this they had removed the Danish police and sent them to concentration camps. Danish police actually ended up having it worse than Danish Jews during the war.
There is small mistake - in video and in a lot of comments too. Terezín was not in Czechoslovakia in 1943 and Czechoslovakia did not split into 2 countries in 1992 - Terezín was those days under Nazi ordinance as protectorate Bohemia and Moravia and from 1939 to 1945 (end of WWII) we were Slovak state/(first) Slovak republic collaborating with Nazi regime (Similarly to Danish people, our strongly disagreed with government and collaborate on assassination of Heidrich /protector/ and resistance led to national uprising against Nazis) And Czechoslovakia was split again when Slovakia declared independence and set up own state 1st of January 1993 - state holiday we celebrate since (which also did Czech republic)
It's not in Czechoslovakia, because there's no such country anymore. The Czech Republic and Slovakia separated in 1992. Terezin/Theresienstadt is in the Czech Republic.
At first, I believe, around 40.000 German soldiers attacked with tanks and very modern equipment for the time. The danish army had at that time around 16.000, divided onto 2 divisions, Jyske Division and Sjællandske Division. Pretty much outdated equipment except for the excellent Madsen machinegun. The Danish soldiers used bikes to navigate around and had no supporting lines behind them when they faced the germans. After a few hours, when the King decided that "we've fought enough to look decent in the allies eyes (we didn't)", we surrendered. The Danish SS are another interesting story, this ua-cam.com/video/ctV6ytT2yDw/v-deo.html shows a story where a reporter travels back to an area in Russia, where they fought. And this is a doc about one of their commanders, who had a Russian mom, Von Schalburg: ua-cam.com/video/dIJdxLG809Q/v-deo.html Continue the good work with the channel, greetings from Denmark.
Your assessment of the Danish 1940 Army is wrong. 1. When Poland was invaded 30.000 were mobilized to protect Danish neutrality. Most were sent back home in order "not to provoke" and when the fighting stoped the first reservists who had mobilized on their own initiative were ready to join the fight. In any case the defending personel strength was a lot smaller and of lower quility than it had to BY CHOICE. 2. The equipment of the Danish and German infantry units was very similar and while Dansih armour was almost non-existant, Danish anti tank weapons (20mm Madsen Cannon and 37mm Bofors anti tank guns) were quite capable of dealing effectively with the German armour. Using bicycles was a good thing that significantly improved their mobility and other nations like Germany used them too. 3. The figting that took place was a surprisingly effective dealying action intended to buy time for the Jutland division setting up a defence line at the much more defensible terrain at the height of Vejle from the Vejle fjord and the slopes around the Grejs valley in the East to the Varde river valley in the West. 4. As for the Army airforce they had been forced to stay at their peactime base being denied the permission to disperse to wartime airstrips and was alerted so late that the German air strike arrived just while the first Dansih aircraft was shot down during takeof and the rast caught on the ground. The pilots of the German Me 110 fighterbombers were very woried about meeting the Danish Airforce in the air where the 9 Me 110s would be overmatched by the Danish 13 Gloster Gauntlets and 9 Fokker DXXI
U also misunderstood, who made the decision to surrender. While the decision was taken in a meeting between the government and the King and Crown Prince at Amalienborg, the Royal Palace, the Kings role was and is nominal. Its the elected government, that has all the power in a constitutional monarchy, the King signs the laws and approves of their decisions, but he has no choice, hes required to do so. And Christian X knew that. he learned the hard way in 1920, when he due to severe disagreements dismissed the Prime Minister against the will of Parliament and the Easter Crisis lasted for a total of 6 days, until he had to surrender and admit, that Parliament had the power, and any further resistance could very well lead to the fall of the monarchy. Since then neither he nor any other monarch has tried to defy the government. Whatever the Kings personal opinion, he could only voice it as an advisor, but he would have to accept and support, whatever decision the government made. U should also remember, that while this meeting was taking place inside Amalienborg, right outside the Royal Garders were in an active firefight with German soldiers. They knew, they were being overrun. I dont like this any more than u do, but they, the government, decided to capitulate, not surrender, to achieve the best possible terms for the occupation. Imo, the real criticism is more about, how long they continued to cooperate, and how far they took that cooperation at times. As for the Kings personal opinion, its pretty clear by his subsequent defiant action of continuing his daily rides around Copenhagen, unescorted, wearing an old Danish cavalry uniform, which he continued to do, even after the German head of the occupation asked him to stop. Even the German soldiers respected that and would stop and salute him, as he rode by, but while he was constantly saluting his Danish citizen right and left, as they greeted him, he never acknowledged the German soldiers. So a long explanation to say - it was not the Kings decision, that we had fought enough. It was the elected governments decision.
Truly remarkable things: when Danish Jews returned they found their homes, pets and gardens had been looked after; a champion rower called Knud was a resistance member and made the return trip 18 times in one night
the jews were not specified as jews in society, they were your neighbors collegueges etc.etc.and of course you helped them hide and get away to sweden.
I know about this history, and the Danish people can be proud of what they have done for the Jews...
we are .... still to this day
@@WoWsadistic Your name says something different, LOL
@@EricvanDorp007 really wird answer
It's complicated
We were ever so close to be labled as 'colaborators' by history- and we kinda should have been tbh- our gov was quite quick to throw in the towel, some would say a little to quick
And we didn't help out Norway, in any significant way, and we're still ashamed of that
But we(one dude named Kaufman, quite a story if you wanna look it up) did give America a small slice of Greenland, for we all knew the next enemy would be the Soviets, and Greenland(Thule Airbase) was the bargining chip that put us on the side of the Allies
Also Niels Borh's contribution to the atom bomb should be mentioned
Thanks for bringing up the fact we did the right thing regarding the jewish people in our land
It's nice when others bring up your triumphs, rather than your skeletons. . but make no mistake, we had our share of those too
Never Forget
Skål, and keep up the good work : )
Yes, let's rejoice at how the proud and brave Danish Fishermen demanded up to $25,000 at today's rate, per person, to sail them to Sweden. Let's also not forget the lovely Danish women who attached flowers to the German soldiers' uniforms on the day of the invasion in pure joy at finally being liberated. Let's also not forget how Germany's understanding of racial purity influenced Danish legislation long after the end of the war and we therefore forced unwanted women to be sterilized right up until the 1970s, so that they could not pass on their bad degenerate offspring.
My grandfather was 19 in 1943, learning to be a boatbuilder like his father, and helped build summerhouses in the north of Copenhagen. He was involved in hiding jews and other people who tried to escape to Sweden. In 1944 he had to flee himself, and joined the Danish Brigade in Sweden. At one point during his own escape, he was hiding in a wooden box, while he could hear guards roaming around. Must have nervewracking.
The time in Sweden was mostly spent by training and waiting. Since he loved dancing, he entertained his comrades by tapdancing on the tables 😊 He returned to Copenhagen in may 1945 and lived to be 82 years of age. On feb 10th this year, he would have become 100 years old. I miss him ❤
2:08 just wanna point out that they forgot to colorize Bornholm as part of Denmark in the animation which, considering Bornholms destiny during the war and the aftermath, is pretty ironical.
If you want to learn a bit more about Denmark during WW II there's a nice video about our king and his importance "Hitler's Royal Nemesis - The King on the Horse".
Many Danes still light a candle and put it in the window on May 4th the evening where it was announced in the radio that Germany had surrendered and Danmark was free.
Some jews fled earlier on among them Victor Borge who fled to America where he became a famous comedian and musician (though he din't know any english when he arrived to the states in 1940). One of my favorite videos with him is from his 80th birthday in Denmark where he plays with a young virtuoso Michala Petri. You can find it here on youtube with subtitles - it's hilarious!
Hey friend I am Danish I have ben bode teresienstat and ausvith /birkenau an I tel. You it give goosebumps To go ther an a freezing feeling never again
My maternal grandparents were part of the Resistance...everything from bombings, shootings, newspapers/flyers, sabotage and smuggling many of the Jewish people out of Denmark, to Sweden.
I am proud of their contribution and will always hold them dear ❤
Czechoslovakia is now 2 states, The Czech Republic and Slovakia. They separated after the fall of the Berlin Wall
Most of the Danish Jews, returned to Denmark, after the war...it was part of the deal made with Sweden, for giving them refuge.
hello from Denmark 🌸
Yes German saw Danes as almost equal Ariens. Theresienstadt is today in the Czech Republic. Almost all Jews returned to Denmark again after the war.
Higher not equal.. Hitlers was crazy about the vikings
@@JesperSandgreen Yes. There is a correlation between his love for us nordics because of our looks, and all the norse/viking symbols him and his armies adopted.
InJerusalem on a square you'll find a copy of the bow of a danish fishing vessel placed there in order to hounor the efforts made to rescue those danish citizen of jewish descent that got away
In central Copenhagen there is a square called Israels Plads "Israels Square" named so in 1968. There is a red granite rock from the Negev desert with an inscription from the Israeli state.
You are learning. You are activly trying to get more world knowledge. I salute you, Sir, and would never judge you for not being taught this in school
I have to say, I respect that you are willing to go into this. Its a big part of Danish history, and a thing that we are actually quite proud of. And thank you for being interested in this part of ww2, and not only pearl harbor and d-day. Thank you for that
My grandfather was in the resistance and actively helped Jews cross to safety in Sweden. He never mentioned it himself and I only found out after his death by my grandmother telling me. I was and is so proud of the morale backbone Denmark had back then...
Mine too. Though his family knew everything about it as he was sometimes under ground for months.
No true freedom fighters ever talked about their exploits. How do I know, guess!
My grandfather worker at the trainstation in Aarhus and help to hide jews in trains to get the out of Denmark
My grandpa was one of the jews that was saved❤
There is a saying: Your not stupid if you are ignorant, you are stupid if you don´t want to learn...
I would imagine one of the reasons the Germans where keen on treating Denmark, such that the Danes would not resist more, was because Denmark produced food for about 5 times their own population.
The population of Denmark at that time being roughly 4 million, as we also heard in the video here, that means a surplus production feeding about 16 million people (20 million - 4 million).
The census for Germany in 1939 was just under 80 million people and I would imagine the population was lower at this time (1943), due to so many soldiers being abroad as occupation and fighting forces.
Lets still do the math with 80 million - that means that the food being brought from Denmark could feed about 20% of the German population.
I remember hearing a saying that "In Europe, during WWII, the only ones eating better than the Danes, where the Germans".
I strongly doubt that ordinary Germans, or German soldiers for that matter, ate better than the Danes, even with the forced export of food from Denmark (and other occupied countries.)
The german soldiers in Denmark called it doing service in the “whipped cream front”. It was rather peaceful. No frontline but only minor guarding. Obviously the fight for freedom increased during the war, but in total it was a relative quiet and peaceful.
My grandfather participated in bringing the warning to Jews in Copenhagen. He told me he was given about 20 addresses on families to contact and bring them the message. He said, 1 of the families didn’t believed him and were picked up on the 1st October. We lost my grandfather 6 years ago after a long life.
My greatgrandparents hid a Jewish youth on his way to Sweden on their farm.
We can’t know everything. All we can do it try to learn more and you certainly do that.. you have no reason to apologize. Keep up the good work and the great reaction’s videos
I've been to Theresienstadt. It's open to the public today as a sort of museum. I would say that anyone who finds themselves close to it, should go visit. It's not a fun visit, but it's enlightening. I still remember now 25 years later as if it was yesterday, that there was an aura of death and despair that hovered over the place. The bullit holes in the walls where people were executed. The old grave stones that were used as pavement in places. It's quite horrific, but also eye opening. I can't imagine being held captive there.
Yes, Ive been there too, about 30 years ago, not that long after the fall of the Berlin wall. U can still feel it in the air, that oppressive feeling, its hard to describe.
The SS was surprisingly multi-national.
There were men from all over Europe who fought that Nazism was a good idea and who volunteered (!) for the SS.
Which is crazy when you consider that the Waffen SS was often deployed in the most dangerous spots on the front line and had very high casualty rates.
There were Danish SS units. Also SS units from Norway, the Netherlands, France. Even Muslim SS units.
("Fun" fact:
the very last unit defending the area in Berlin where Hitler was hiding in his bunker was the Waffen SS Division Charlemagne - a French SS unit!).
1. The SS was where non Germans could serve and some of them ("Germans" from occupied countries) where not entirely volunteers.
2. The motivation for volunteering varied a lot - a major motivation was the fight against Communism.
@@CarlAlex2 Ah yes like Lauri Allan Törni did
My grandmother was a part of the Danish resistance and she was such a cool lady. She helped people going underground getting places to stay and also delivering resistance papers. She ended up being captured, because some of those people she helped got captured and ratted her out, questioned by gestapo, being let go (she was pretty good at playing confused innocent young lady, definitely didn’t see her Aris cause she had dark hair despite being many generations pure Danish) and being forced to go under ground. Those 5 months had reduced her to barely a skeleton. She gave birth to my uncle on the 19th of May 1946. Personally believe becoming a mother so soon after was a bit hard on her cause my mom was born 15 years later as her only other child (although part of it was also the fact she needed to find a new husband. I know she was definitely traumatized because of what she had experienced (she also forget most of what she learned during her studies before the war and her memory had in general been compromised) but she lived a long and good stubborn life passing away at 91 years old. By the end of her life she had many health problems that looked like arthritis but didn’t quite fit, and ended up seeing a specialist who said it was KZ syndrome. Those 5 months was about as damaging to her as people who had survived concentration camps. With some convincing she ended up applying for compensation which included a larger sum of money and a pension (although she wasn’t always convinced that money really should be used on her especially after the death of her husband).
I only knew her for about 7 years but she was such a sweet stubborn woman and I would have loved to get to know her better.
Maybe watch and react to the movie Schindler's list. That movie is pretty accurate about what happend in WW2 but mind you, the REAL thing was even worse then the movie, that's what my grandma and mom told me. During the war my huge family was reduced to 4 people, my grandma, my mom and 2 uncles.
I was always told that it was a good movie
@@ItsCharlieVest It's a great film but it's hard to watch as it exposes the evil the Nazis were made of.
@ItsCharlieVest Yes, Charlie if you want to know more about the Holocaust then the film Schindlers List is a must see. But beware the film contains shockingly brutal scenes. Scenes not only with adults but also with children. Schindler also a member of Hitler's Nazi party. The membership pin is clearly visible on or under the lapel of his coat
My Grandfather was in the resistance, he was a soldier in the royal guards when the Germans attacked in '40..
He later fled to sweden, married a a girl (my Grandmother) who was a fugitive and here I am ;-)
And so are his great-grandchildren.
Czechoslovakia became a part of the soviet union after the war, gained full independence after the fall of the Iron Curtain, then split into two separate nations in 1992: Czech Republic and Slovakia (Slovak Republic).
It did not! Repeat not! become part of the Soviet Union. You are confusing the USSR with the "communist" bloc, which admitted, was controlled by the USSR. ("communist" in quotes, because I personally do not consider their form of government communist in any proper sense of the word.)
@@lhplEastern Bloc. Warsaw Pact. Behind the iron curtain. were terms I grew up with as a child. There were various ways to describe these communist countries under the sway of the USSR. But they remained independent of Russia and the USSR, up to a point.
@@duntrolling8876 Yes, that was exactly my point. (Were you just confirming my comment, or was there something you disagreed with?)
@@lhpl Czecholsovakia didn't become part of the Soviet Union. it was an independent country under the soviet sphere of influence. Until the invasion in 1968 when the so-called "Prague spring" reforms were halted and a more hardline communist government installed. It remained independent. though much more aligned with the soviet union. It was never part of the Soviet Union.
@@duntrolling8876 You seem to be misreading my comment. It was WolfHeathen who wrote "Czechoslovakia became a part of the soviet union...". To which I replied that it _did not_ .
Czech Republic and Slovakia are now different countries and all over Europe there were ss volunteers
I, and most others I know tend to view the fact that they held us Danes in such high regard as downright creepy, since their reverence was due to liking our genetics.
On the other hand, I'm glad it gave the poeple back then enough leeway to make these maneuvers against the German occupation.
Btw, there's no shame in wanting to learn anything! I wish you the best with whatever you're leaning. It's admirable ❤️
Same for us Swedes. It's good we could (eventually...) use their gross infatuation to protect people (so glad we could help our neighbors ❤ although we obviously should've done more and way sooner). That said, it's sickening, isn't it...Talk about admiration one doesn't want to have...
I'm Danish. My Grandmother was sitting in her living room, drinking Coffee with german soldiers. They didn't know she was hiding jews in her attic.
Great video to understand a bit more about the Jewish situation Charlie. As you probably know the results of these atrocities still plays a role in today's politics. In most countries around Europe there were people giving aid to the Jewish people, but Denmark was the most successful. The SS (Schutzstaffel) had volunteers from most if not all occupied countries. Even in the US of A there were groups sympathizing with Nazi Germany.
The sympathy with Germany was probably more extensive than most Americans realise (or like to admit) today. And of course, now history is repeating itself...
denmark had them too. many young men who wanted adventure, and joined the wehrmacht (regular german army) found themselves in the Waffen-SS, and they fared hard in Denmark after ze war. (those who came home). volunteering for the enemy, they were stripped of their citizens rights. No habeas corpus, no freee medicare, no social help, etc.etc.
Don't forget Albania ua-cam.com/video/17WKgTOE9Xg/v-deo.html
@@zymelin21-back then there were no "free" medical or social security in DK. But they got pension from the German State.
@@zymelin21 that is part of it, another part this is seldomly mentioned but was a major reason for voluntering with the ss was that they seemed to be the only alternative and opposition to the bolsheviks/communists.
I am proud of my famlily during that period of time, as my grandfathers father was one of the fishermen who helped the resistance smuggle jew out of denmark.
My grand parents and they families was part of the resistance in denmark I'm am very happy ur showing this❤
Oh dear. A commendable reaction video, and a big like for wanting to learn stuff. Alas, the video obviously has you confused in some places. (I guess Imperial War Museums, being a British organisation, has more of a British or European audience in mind, and assumes some basic knowledge of European countries and history facts.)
The relation between Denmark (Denmark being the southernmost of the Nordic countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) and Germany is complicated and ancient. Denmark as a name is first documented in the late 800s AD. However, the fortified earth wall called Danevirke dates back to 650 AD, and presents a major separation between the northernmost Germanic tribes and those to the south. It is located near the town Schleswig, where the Schlei (Sly) river flows into the Sly Firth on the Baltic side of Jutland. The peninsula on the east side of Jutland just north of Schleswig is actually called Angel or Angeln, and is also the place from where a large group of Angle people migrated to Great Britain, together with Saxons, Jutes and Frisians a few hundred years earlier, becoming the Anglosaxons, and giving England and the English language their names. Fast forward roughly 400 years: by 1050 Christianisation of Denmark was ongoing. FF roughly another 400 years: 1420 the Treaty of Ribe was signed by the Danish king, establishing the unity of the Duchies Slesvig/Schleswig (a Danish duchy) and Holstein (a duchy under the Holy Roman Empire). FF yet again 400 years (skipping the 100 years and 30 years wars, the Lutheran reformation and other stuff): 1848, under the influence of the German nationalist movement, Germans in Holstein (by now a member of the German Confederation, although still with the Danish king as its duke) demanded that the duchy of Schleswig (due to the "unity" declared in 1420) join the German Federation also, leading to an uprising and the 1. Schleswig War 1848-1851, which the Danes won. This didn't last long, a succession dispute resulted in the 2. Schleswig War, or the War of 1864, resulting in the annexation of both duchies into the German Confederation, Prussia and Austria. 50 years later, in 1914, we have the First World War, in which my great-grandfather died, of Danish heritage, but fighting as a German soldier. A referendum resulted in the northern part of Schleswig to return to Denmark, placing the border where it is today. Which eventually leads us to the events of the video. Denmark, which had been rather humiliated in 1864, had remained neutral in WW1, and hoped not to anger our southern neighbor Germany. Germany, otoh, wanted to secure steel availability from Sweden from Norwegian ports, and needed to occupy Norway before the UK did so. Denmark was seen as a stepping stone to Norway. The invasion on 9. April 1940 wasn't unexpected, and the Danish army had mobilised, but not deployed fully, to not give Hitler any excuse to attack. As the Germans very effectively entered Copenhagen early in the morning (using a freight ship to sail troops right into the city harbor), the King and government surrendered very quickly; the information however did not reach the partly deployed army in Jutland until several hours later; in the meantime, some fighting had taken place. Eventually the army got the information and all units surrendered. From April 1940 to August 1943, the Danish coalition government (we even held elections for parliament in March 1943, which confirmed the coalition, and also showed very minimal support for the nazi party) maintained a policy of reluctant cooperation with the occupying German forces. The military (army and navy) had been retained, although within limits set by the Germans. 29. August, following a period of protests and strikes in the Danish population the Germans declared martial law in Denmark, the government ceased the cooperation (but technically remained, as the king didn't formally accept their resignation), and while the administrative bureaucracy continued (this included the Danish police), the military was dissolved - not _entirely_ without fight. The navy tried scuttling the fleet, with some success. This was the culmination of a growing resistance movement that had already started from the very beginning of the war. As a result of this, there probably was good contact between shall we say less militant Germans and the Danes, which is probably a part of the reason why the information on the plans for arresting the Jews got leaked. Thanks to the great degree of freedom retained, communication was relatively easy. Denmark had also established a kind of concentration camp, at Frøslev near the border, to prevent deportation to German camps of people arrested for resisting the Germans, although sometimes there would be deportations from there to actual concentration camps further south. In 1944, the Danish police and border gendarmes (a paramilitary force tasked with guarding the border, mainly for customs) were arrested, and interned, some going to Frøslev, and some deported further, mainly Buchenwald and Neuengamme. In the early part of my childhood, our neighbor was a former captain (ritmester Aage Malling Jacobsen) of the gendarmes - he had first witnessed the crossing of the German army on the morning of 9. April and was also interned at Frøslev, and deported to Neuengamme, from which he returned with the famous "White Buses", also mentioned in the video. These buses were the result of negotiations by the Swedish diplomat and Swedish Red Cross vice-president Folke Bernadotte, to evacuate Norwegian and Danish prisoners from German concentration camps. This resulted in the evacuation of around 15000 prisoners from various camps, including around 450 jews from Theresienstadt (although exact numbers are difficult, as - as is customary in the Nordic countries - religion was never registered.) When the white bus convoys arrived in Denmark, after a harrowing journey through a now war-ridden and devastated Germany in the early spring of 1945, the rescued people, many of whom were starved and sick, were fed and attended medically by Danish doctors and nurses, before continuing to Copenhagen by the safe Danish roads (and ferry across the Great Belt), and finally by ferry from Copenhagen to Malmö in Sweden.
In my opinion, the role of Sweden in both the rescue of the Danish Jews and in the evacuation of prisoners from the horrors of the concentration camps in Germany and Czechoslovakia deserves more recognition that it usually gets. Sure, the Swedes sold steel to Germany, and were neutral, but they also had little choice; had they refused, they too would have found themselves invaded. In fact I think some historians claim that Sweden only escaped being occupied, because Hermann Göring had strong ties to Sweden, with a Swedish wife, and having lived there for some years.
Damn, history is complicated! :-)
Thank you for your input, its a long and complicated story. About Sweden ( and it is very difficult to get hold on what happened for real) , maybe they saw their change to change the picture of them selves as "Hitler friendly", when they saw that Hitler couldnt win the war ( after Stalingrad). The Swedish king was very fond of Hitler - there were many nazi's in Sweden, and he refused to let the Norwegian Crown princess stay in Stockholm, so she had to flee to the USA, a very dangerous travel ( by ship ) at that time. The Swedes allowed transport of German soldiers through Sweden up north, so they could take Norway from the back. But what else should they have done? With the way they chosed to go, they earned a lot of money under the war, like Denmark did under WWI.
@@ursin1- the German troop transports through Sweden was for supporting the Finns in the war against Russia.
11:37 Czechoslovakia split into two countries in 1992, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It's kinda in the name. ;)
My grandfathers brother used to sail jews to Sweden from the northern coast of Sealand. Have no idea of how many he was helping.
The fact that the suvival rate in the Netherlands was even lower then the rate in Germany baffles me. I knew we didn't do well by our Jewish fellow men but I never expected it to be this bad...
I could've known though. 75 % of the Jewish inhabitants of the small town I was born and raised in didn't return. Some of 'm went to Israël but most of them perished
The Dutch experience of occupation, after initially being much the same, ended up very different to the Danish. Comparatively early and more active resistance + more jews resulted in harsh reprisals.
You should look up the dutch famine, the winter of 44-45, its a story of profound evil !
My great grandma was (what is called “a young woman in the house”, who would earn money by helping around the house, take care of the kids etc.) back then in Copenhagen, when the nazis invaded. She told us about it many times. How she could hear them marching up and down the street during the night and how they would give children candy, which she hated because she knew what they were up to. Her brothers where in the resistance back in Jutland, where they made and distributed resistance papers.
41yr old dane here. My 93 yr old grandmother is still alive and sharp as a knife. She was alive back then. She is from bornholm, the eastern danish island that was bombed by the russians in the days after the germans surrendered. She has told me stories about how they would flee to the countryside and hide in barns when the bombers came. Her bike had flat tires and they couldn't get patches, so they had filled the tubes with wine botlle corks...
my Great grandfather escaped to Sweden as the only jew we know of in the family and well he came back and got kids with his wife that he had left in Denmark :D
Love from Denmark🇩🇰🔥 i have grandparents who lived thru these days as teens (15-17 years old) and you are absolutely right, we wouldnt had stand a chance against the Germans, it would be like Hawaii vs America lol🤣
A very important thing to consider when speaking about the German occupation of Denmark is that Germany saw Danes as Aryans and so not automatically viable to simply kill off to make room for the German Aryans (like they thought of Slavs). Additionally, Denmark was used a lot for propaganda; "Look, if you're an Aryan, you have nothing to fear, so there's no reason to resist the German occupation of your land, everything is fine! We're actually nice!" and to continue to be able to do that, they needed to keep resistance in Denmark low and to do _that_ they needed to avoid any kind of violence or overt use of force.
The most important thing is not what you know about the world, but that you are curious to learn. When the Germans occupied Denmark they had 40,000 troops at their disposal with modern weapons. The Danes have 13,000 men with old weapons and virtually no air force. If the Germans had needed more troops it would not have been a problem. German bombers circled around Copenhagen and even if they never actually had a plan to bomb the city, you couldn't know it at the time. But against such a superior force, the government chose to stop the fighting.
To be fair some of the fishermen wasnt as much greedy as they wanted compensation if they lost their livelyhood still could live a decent life during the war which obviously isnt selfless but not necessarily greedy either... I mean sometimes you have to consider the wellbeing of your own family too
And the whole operation needed funding. They couldn't just ask the bank for money to pay for gas, food, vehicles, bribes etc.
@@MrMaxEdelstahl Many years later we found out, that the King actively helped with organizing the evacuation and personally gave the funds needed. As he said, when the Germans first occupied Denmark - the Jews are not different, theyre Danes, same as every1 else. We have never registered ppl by religion, hence why theres not exact numbers of Danish Jews killed during WWII.
In 1986, I was with the school in Theresienstadt. It was something that we in Denmark call after-school. It is a religious boarding school that cannot be found anywhere else but in Denmark. There were many people who were doing outdoor tours behind the old blanket. When that norm was a steering wheel closed from people from the west. Always forget that trip over the pine tree. A lorry came with iodine waste that was going to West Germany and there were guards with long javelins to check if there were any of their own population who wanted to flee underground. On that trip we also passed by Theresienstadt. Although it was not one of the worst camps. The guards were amused that if they could find a father and son, then they would have to knock one dead. In the newest part of the camp, there was so much disease that guards walked on a rampart or footbridge so it wouldn't get infected. And at the end between two rows of barracks was a place where they could shoot, I think it was 50 prisoners at a time, So the next team that had to shoot had to start by removing the bodies from the first before it was their turn.
Danish jews warent targeted at first - The germans that came here in Denmark, saw denmark as a form of holiday place away from the war. MANY Many people in Denmark that were deported also ended up in -> Neuengamme Concentration Camp located in Hamburg Hands down the most intense thing i have ever experienced in my life!
Most of them returned to Denmark where their homes were still in tact. Please find out about the white busses. The Danish politicians had arranged the pick up of the people from the camps they saved 24.000 and brought them to Sweden before the war was over. My mom and grandma helped. my mom said I have seen how they looked, they did not dare to take a shower so we went with them in the shower. There is a wonderful film called the final solution and it was on you tube but unfortunately not anymore. I now live in the Netherlands but I am a Dane. The Dutfh were bad and helped to get rid of 100.000 of their jews. The yellow stars were even made in Holland.
the movie was called the Danish solution
Thank you for sharing
I think there was around 6000 Danish SS, under the name Frikorps Danmark. Many fought for the Germans, mostly at the eastern front.
A lot of those, who were in Denmark, helping the Germans, were executed in the latter part of the war (attacked by the Danish resistance), or right after (lined up and shot).
There were a lot of non German SS soldiers, during the war, from all over Europe - also in the US.
Their first Leader, till he became killed at Lake Ilmen, Von Schalburg was of Russian Decent, and definitely not a "brilliant soldier", but he hoped to be able to get his family Estates back, lost by the Revolution!
@@finncarlbomholtsrensen1188 he was after all an officer of the "danish life guards" which is supposed to guard the royal house. the guards do not like to remembered of that fact.
As a Dane, i like You’re curiosity and honesty… It’s never to late to study and to learn… Well done…
You are open and learning. Good on you!
well we didnt surrender THAT fast.. our soldiers fought the germans when they went up through Jutland AND the guards protecting the royal family fought aswell BUT yes we didnt fight aslong as our brothers in Norway did............My grandfather was in the danish resistance and he had 2 jews. a mother and her 3 y old child hidden away in a fake coal cellar they escaped to sweden aswell .. my mother had pamflets in her school bag and delivered them to other resistens members she was 12 years old...
As long? Definitely not. We lasted less than a day.
@@akyhne what i wrote wasnt wrong,
6 hours, Denmark surrendered after 6 hours, all in all it was one of the better Political decisions in our history, especially when you look at the political work to ensure that Denmark was considered as part of the allies.
Part of the story also is, that when the government met with the King and the Crown Prince at Amalienborg, the Royal Palace, to discuss whether or not to surrender, German troops were already in Copenhagen, in fact the Royal Garders guarding Amalienborg were in an active firefight with Germans, as the meeting took place inside.
I dont like the optics of surrending in 6 hours, but clearly they realised, that Denmark had been overrun. So they took the decision, that meant the fewest casualties and the most influence going forward.
I think, the most criticism is as to, how long they kept cooperating, and how far they acquiesced in some cases.
On a side note - 1 of my grandfathers was a Garder, the other worked with railway maintenance and used that along with his colleagues to actually sabotage the rails, sometimes under the nose of the Germans. As my grandfather spoke German, he could chat with the soldiers and distract them, while his colleagues covered their tracks, if the Germans turned up at a bad time.
Hey, you probably did`nt have this as a topic in school like here in Europe, so props to you for learning. No need to apologize.
A classmate of mine, very old, told us a story. He and his friends (11y.o.) would steal stuff from the nazis whenever they were bored. He brougt some of the stuff to a show and tell 😂
My great grandfather was in the Danish resistance in ww2, and my grandpa told me all kinds of stories about the sabotage and such that his dad got up too and all the people they saved.
Could not be prouder to be related to Denmark 🇩🇰
The home guard is a direct paramilitary organisation with roots in the resistance and the freedom fighters. Towards the end of WW2 5 larger organisations emerging from the underground took control over most strategic key points, and there was actually a little danger of those groups would begin to fight each other, simply because the security had been so tight many resistance fighters didn't trust each other, so at some point the 5 groups were joined to be 1 defensive organisation and this was the solution to the unrest, and the organisation still stands as a rear group to begin fifth column insertions and sabotage.
At any point the home guard consists of about 50,000 volunteers trained just as professional as the standing armed forces.
Thank you for learning about ww2.
If you do not know history, you are forced to repeat it.
Regards from Denmark.
The Danish police were warned in the same way that they would be interned by the Germans. Almost all fled and the few that were caught were sent to a KZ camp in Germany. Namely Bergen Belsen.
"The few"?
My greatgrandfather went to a concentration camp and survived. As my mom tells it, he survived because ordinary German people threw raw potatoes over the fences for them to eat. He weighted 45 kg when he came home to Denmark, he was about 1.90 m tall.
The Danish situation during World War 2 was unique in a myriad of ways, it was much more complex than "Aryan" status or German respect for Danes.
The biggest factor was likely that Germany imported as much as 20% of the food for the German army from Denmark, this meant that serious disruptions to their occupation there would really hinder the war effort.
Denmark surrendered immediately and was made a protectorate by Germany, this allowed Denmark to continue as normal for several years, this bound the German economy and war effort to Denmark much tighter than many other occupied territories, which gave Denmark power over Germany in negotiations and allowed Denmark to demand concessions from their occupiers.
These days Denmark is considered an occupied and a resisting country, however the truth is that while Denmark was occupied Denmark was also formally allied to Germany and the other Axis powers having signed the Anti-Comintern Pact.
At the same time Danish resistance fighters were in close contact with the British armed forces and supplied by the British.
Basically Denmark ended up leveraging its position to play both sides of the war and came out of World War 2 considered a friend to the allies despite going through the war as a formal ally of the Axis.
Compare to Norway which was just as "Aryan" as Denmark in Nazi eyes. Norway did not surrender and the Norwegian government fled the country into exile, and the Norwegian resistance immediately started fighting the occupiers. In Norway there were not the same considerations for neither the Norwegians nor the Norwegian Jews as those Denmark enjoyed.
Sweden was able to help Denmark as well due to Sweden being neutral and a trade partner of Germany, again being a vital supplier of resources for the war effort and thus they could leverage their position in negotiations with the German Reich.
If we examine similar situations to the Danish one, like Bulgaria, also a member of the Anti-Comintern Pact and formal ally of the Axis powers who also saved basically all their Jews then we see that similar forces come into play though the Bulgarian state was not as protective of the Jews as the Danish they came under pressure from the Bulgarian people to protect them. Bulgaria then used similar leverage to forestall the deportations and protect its Jewish population.
The case of Denmark in World War 2 is a funny one, and for a long time it wasn't acceptable to talk about the alliance, cooperation and aid Denmark offered Germany during the war, and Denmark was allowed to portray itself as a purely occupied nation both at home and abroad. Reality though is much more complex and the Danish allegiances were murky.
Recent decades has seen a rise in criticism of the Danish position during WW2 and before it, centering on the idea that Denmark basically did only what was best for Denmark and had no larger moral stance or willingness to take sides. With the immediate answer of course being that there would have been no way to do things like protect and save Jews if Denmark had been openly antagonistic to Nazi Germany through the war and hadn't surrendered and made deals. It's a complex debate and in large part ones stance on the matter depends on what one finds most important and moral in the grand scheme of things.
Either way the rescue of the Danish Jews is a point of light in a dark time, whether it was possible only due to self-serving prior actions or not.
It is quite significant information that Denmark's adherence to the Anti-Comintern Pact had an additional protocol where Denmark was only obligated on Danish soil. The Danish foreign minister would, for negotiation reasons, let Denmark accede to this pact in order to avoid restrictive consequences for the Danish people in other areas, for example internment or special laws regarding Danish Jews.
You can think what you want about this real-politic approach (Germany kicked ass everywhere in Europe and destroyed, among other things, France, which at the time had the world's largest army in 6 weeks.)
In the dim light of the occupation, there was really no reason to look optimistically at our freedom. That that optimism later appeared is a completely different matter. It is completely free today to criticize Denmark's actions, but the actions must be seen in the light of the occupations and not sitting at the top of the moral compass.
The Danes' fairly consistent reaction to the Germans' attempts to intern the Jews says something completely different about the Danes' morale when they have the opportunity to act.
Another thing about the Resistance organizing and fundraising for the evacuation of the Jews, that we only found out many years later, was, that the King, Christian X (yes, the same King riding unescorted around Copenhagen wearing an old Danish cavalry uniform while studiously ignoring the German soldiers) behind the scenes actively assisted in organizing the evacuation and personally funded it.
My father was alive, him and his parents lived in southern jutland (the place hit the hardest) Pretty tough times. But nothing compared to poland
Bornholm was hit hardest.
southern jutland was hit pretty hard, they where under nazi territory for a looong time. I dont know about bornholm, but if you say so, i believe you.@@MrMaxEdelstahl
My grandparents were kids during the war and my great-grandpa was part of the resistance - Some of the stories they used to tell about those times are wild..
@itsCharlieVest
There can be several reasons why Denmark and danish jews/communists were treated better than most other countries. I'll list some of them:
Denmark was seen as more Aryan than Germans.
Denmark had, in 1918, refused to annex the entirety of Slesvig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, even though France and England pushed for it.
Denmark's government was trying to cooperate with Nazi Germany and was allowed to remain.
Denmark only fought for 6 hours.
The Danish kings have pretty much all been Germans: Oldenburgs, Glückburgs, and a single Wittelsbach.
I think you need to read and refresh your history again. Your story is somewhat very simplified, and quite far away from historical facts
No, everything i said is correct.@@andersbechchristensen9627
My friends grandfather was in the resistance. He was in the police and land out his uniform to others, so they could slip around more easily. Her grandmother fled to Sweden so her mother was born in Sweden 👍
My dad was in the resistens as a 15 year old Boy. The histories he told in ny childhood was crazy
One of my favorite Danish movies is The Boys from St. Petri from 1991, it's about some young guys forming a resistance group doing that time.
Danish ss volunteers....we all know what happened to them after the war. And good on those who did the deed. F fascism forever. And let me assure you, the pain of what happened to the Jewish populations and others in Europe is not forgotten even to this day. I lived in Mexico years ago...my friend was Dutch, from Holland (Netherlands) and when 2 German girls came in his bar he turned 3 shades of red. I asked him what's wrong. He said he despised Germans. I said buddy, the war ended over 60 years ago. He didn't care. That informed me that the pain caused by the reich runs very deep indeed.
I don't know what you may _believe_ you know about what happened to Danish SS volunteers after the war. And I'm not sure you want to know what really happened to them, but not all were executed, if that's what you believe. As for your friend, he sounds quite weird, and not at all typical for a person living this side of the year 2000. Most - if not actually all, by now - Germans with any direct kind of responsibility for what happened in the war are dead. Most living Germans have to live with the remembrance of the history of their country and whatever their ancestors have done, but they don't forget, most also think it is terrible (there are new nazi idiots everywhere, of course), and have nothing to be personally ashamed of. Did he feel guilt or shame because of the Dutch SS volunteers?
Also worthy of note: not all volunteers were necessarily nazis or SS. Some just joined Frikorps Danmark to fight USSR and communism. Although this itself is a complicated and not very well researched part of history.
@@KurtFrederiksen actually, we weren't victors at all after WW1, as we were neutral.
When the question of Schleswig-Holstein came up, we could possibly just have demanded everything, instead there was a referendum. Even Hitler seemed to accept the border that came to be as a result.
As for the volunteers, a few probably survived and also managed to evade punishment, like Søren Kam.
@KurtFrederiksen "Victory" to me implies participating in the fighting on the winning side. And we weren't offered SH just out of good will, but as a way to punish Germany. Although the scenario where Hitler had won is very hypothetical, and impossible to say with certainty, I strongly doubt he had any interest in eradicating Denmark as a nation, or UK for that matter. We would still depend on trade with Germany, and maybe there would have been some influence or manipulation, perhaps similar to the USSR and Eastern Europe after the war. Maybe after the victory the matter of SH would have been brought up again. Noone can say for sure, fortunately.
@@KurtFrederiksen The allied victory I am talking about, which gave us the 1920 referendum and the return of Sønderjylland, is obviously the victory of 1918 and the end of WW1. I believe that between the two of us, there is at most one who lacks understanding of what happened before during and after WW2 (or WW1 or the two Schleswig wars), but I know it is not me. Combining this with your insulting manners and lack of reading ability, I choose to not continue this discussion, unless an apology from you is forthcoming.
@@KurtFrederiksen Well, I'll let that "sorry" suffice then.
Strictly speaking, Schleswig was divided into three zones, and as zone 2 voted to Germany, no voting actually took place in zone 3. Of course this had everything to do with Denmark; the allied offered all of SH (with the most benefits for their strategic interests), but that would have become a huge burden for Denmark, plus a potentially hostile German population as the majority in the southern part, plus the risk of a future conflict with a rebuilt Germany feeling vengeful. By following the wishes of the people this could mostly be avoided. Which is also why I still feel quite certain that Hitler would have respected the current border in any case. Also remember that he thought quite amicably of both the Nordic and the Btitish people, considering them true "aryans". So if he had won the war, he would not have _wanted_ to annex Denmark, nor parts thereof. At worst, he would have manipulated the installation of a puppet government, but even that would have been unlikely given that Christian X remained as the official ruler, and would have been difficult - impossible - for Hitler to deal with. So at some point, the occupation forces would have been withdrawn.
i remember in high school me and some friends had this topic as a school project, and i was lucky enough to get to talk to one who had been part of it, also lived close to one of the small harbors that was used witch is not shown, but on the tip between Koge and Rodvig is small town called Holtug wich had a small harbor where there was a few boats going out aswell. i guess its not on since the numbers crossing there was very small compared to the other places..
Denmark had a policy of Cooperation with the Germans. We didn't have an active defense before Rommel started losing in Africa.
This was great for the Danish Jews, but frankly I admire the countries who fought back much earlier. If everybody had been like us, the the Nazis would have won.
Listening instead of talking is a good way to learn.
I read an annecdote about the Swedish cosstsl defence ship Manligheten that had a boat of refugees from denmar hiding along one side of the ship and talking to a german patroal boat looking for it on the other side that asked if they had seen it.
It has to be said that Danes were part of the SS. And also The Hilfspolizei (Hipo) that served under SS. But on the other hand, More Germans were on the side of the Danes than one would initially think. My dad was in the resistance and was carrying ammo for the group when the box split open and the rounds fell to the ground, right in front of a German Wehrmacht officer. He looked at the ammo, at my dad, at the surroundings, and then started to scoop up the ammo and put it inside the boxes not damaged, and then left without ever saying a word. He also did NOT report it after returning to the barracks as no forces or police or anything ever showed up to raid the shop my dad emerged from.
My inlaw family was running a farm in Jutland during the war which was also part of the fugitive pibeline. One of the main operators of that pibeline was another Wehrmacht officer stationed in Denmark, who later had to go through the pibeline himself because he was found out, but also warned by fellow officers in his regiment that he needed to get away ASAP. I had the honor of getting to know him in his final years, and I have rarely met a finer human being.
The most extraordinary thing though, was that after the surrender of German forces in Denmark, Danish SS and hipo and the like refused to surrender out of fear of what would happen to them, which ironically led to the first real battles of WWII fought on Danish ground. But the extraordinary thing was that the German forces that had not yet been disarmed at that time actually volunteered to help in the fight against the Danish nazies, and did so with the loss of life of several German soldiers. It goes without saying that even if Germans were not very well regarded after the war, the soldiers who actually took part in the fighting on Danish side received a bit better treatment during disarming and internment and being sent home. Not much since there were little to no resources available for anyone or anything, but enough to make it clear to them that they were being treated better and given preferential treatment as a result of their fighting on our side.
As for my dad being in the resistance, so was his brother. But sadly, some cousins were on the side of the Germans and served in the Shell House and as guards for the Germans. What happened to them after the war was never found out. They just vanished. Wether they fled the country or were killed by vigilante crowds or imprisoned and died while doing so, we never found out, albeit we didn't exactly do our outmost to find out either. Because Danish nazies in German uniform and service, helped by the SS and Gestapo and others would after the august 43 termination of the governments policy of cooperation start to terrorize the civilian population by random shootings with submachineguns through the streets and Schalburtage (A nickname for sabotage actions performed against Danish factories and institutions by members of the Danish Schalburg corps and SS and Hipo) and random voilence and destruction of property and even assasinations against well known Danish celebrities and dignitaries known to be against the nazies.
The Germans referred to Denmark as the “whip-cream front”, it was okay to be German in Denmark during the occupation - compared to other occupied territories. Danes did not like the Germans, but they were mostly passive or somewhat insulting, but the Germans in general had little to fear.
The German soldiers who were sent to Denmark feel that they have won the lottery...
Nothing was missing and they could relax as there were not much to fear compared to other countries...
One must certainly not rule out that the relatively peaceful coexistence between the Germans and the ordinary Danes contributed to the fact that the Germans were quite good at avoiding finding Jews. It in no way relieves the Germans of their responsibility for the atrocities that were carried out, but it belongs to the part of history that creates a slightly more nuanced and complete version of the Second World War in Denmark.
My father was a small boy, wenn the Germans rolled over the borders...
He lived in the south of Denmark, where they came first. It must have been very scary
Even without the Eugenics garbage, Denmark and Germany has always had a strong relationship. Harald Bluetooth the founder of Denmark was basically given the power to rule by German monarchs in exchange for being baptised. It's not the same strong sense of kinship we have with the other Scandinavian countries but it's definitely like a close neighborly relationship
Theresienstadt is now in the Czech republic. Theresienstadt was not specifically for the danes. The camp was a transit camp and those who was transported out of it went to Auschwitz II/Birkenau to be exterminated or used as slave labour. The relatively good treatment and none-deportation of the danish jews in Theresienstadt was due to some negotiations between SS-Obergruppenführer dr. Werner Best, the german civil administrator in Denmark, and the danish government.
The Danes actually put up a fight, for a few hours, until the order from the government to lay down arms reached them. The Germans made the first ever parachute attack in history, against the airport at Aalborg, Northern Denmark, to secure an airfield halfway to Norway from Germany, so that they could refuel their short range fighter aircraft that otherwise wouldn't be able to reach Norway. The Germans attacked both Denmark and Norway on the same day, April 9th 1940. And the local Danish garrison had no orders on what to do, so they did what seemed natural, they fought. Until orders reached them to stop doing that. The same thing happened in other parts of Denmark too. There's a Danish movie about that day, from 2015 called April 9th which is pretty darn good. Not super good, but very good, and very much worth the watch.
Almost all came back - but in a wonderful display of the law of unintended consequences, many came back in Danish uniform. (The Swedes has allowed the building of a Danish army-in-exile, which should fight the nazis). Many, many young jews joined the outfit and the first brigadista, who fell in battle against the Nazis was a young jew.
Because of the cooperation policy with Germany, Denmark could make demands on how Jews were treated. Most Jewish prisoners in the concentration camp survived. The head of the Danish police was imprisoned and tortured to death because he warned Danish Jews. Glory be to his memory
While i my self wasn't alive back then i remember my grandfather telling me some tidbits of his time as a resistance fighter during the last couple of years of the war... he was kinda tight lipped about it since he was a fighting for a communist group and he experienced some backlash from it back during the cold war times. God i miss him even if he wasn't my biological grandfather.
Also the SS was not super soldier, but Schutz Staffel which roughly translated means Protective Echelon.
Check out Count Folke Bernadotte White Busses. They saved a lot of jews right at the end of the war.
In November 1992, the federal legislature voted to divide Czechoslovakia. Having drafted separate constitutions, the two new countries, Slovakia and the Czech Republic (later Czechia), formally came into being on January 1, 1993.
Not one person in the whole world knows everything. We all just know bits & pieces. As long as we are aware of this and are up to learn more, everything is fine. Stay curious!
Even if I always been curious and tried to learn, it's now so much easier with online sources. When I was a teenager only the public library could assist my learning.
No judgement. You where never occupied by a hostile invader. You came to Europe being liberators. WO2 has a totally different meaning and emotional charge to Americans as opposed to Europeans.
That's very true. It affects future generations, even if they didn't experience it, in a way that's hard to explain.
Well "accidentally" some vital parts for the very heavy canons on the fortresses protecting Copenhagen were send for repear so the canons could not operate at the very moment the Germans attacked, so .... another important issue was that the jues was regarded as normal citizens so of course we protected them.
im so proud to be a Dane for what we as a nation has accomplished. everytime i watch this video it makes me cry both of how proud i am that my people did this to safe our own but also to see what the Nazis did to my people.
F. Duckwitch, being a German, Naval Representative, saw to that several of the Patrol Boats on the separating, Øresund became sent to Service, so that all the minor ships transporting Danish Jews had access to reach Sweden or Swedish boats, after a fast negotiation with Sweden, to accept the Danish fugitives!
And we saw to keep in touch and supply even the Danish Jews, who became caught and came to KZ Theresienstadt, to make the Germans "Keep up the appearances" that this was just a town for jews, so nearly all stayed, instead of being deported to the Death Camps! And they came home, when the war had nearly ended with the Swedish Organized, White Busses!! Swedish, Folke Bernadotte, negotiated this transport with Heinrich Himmler, who by that time still hoped to be a Leading Figure in "After War" Germany!
Duckwitch, for his services, became German Ambassador to Denmark after the war!
My grandparents helped……there came children to ther House …….stayed there for 30 minuts …end were then send to the next helpstation and ended up in Sweden.
My grandfather, who worked at the railwaystation…..together with his doughter…..my ant…..gav food and wather to people, who were send to the konsentrationslejre in Germany….with train.
My father and uncel went out in the night and fought against the german
My uncel got cout…..and was deportet to Germany. He serveived and came hom in april 1945, with the White busses.
Czechoslovakia was behind the iron curtain after WW2 and invaded by the Soviet union in 1968 where they knocked down their democracy, then after the Berlin wall came down and the collapse of the USSR in 1992 the country peacefully decided to split into the two countries, Czechia and Slovakia.
There are 3 reasons for how the German occupiers treated Denmark.
1. The Danish people was a perfect match for the racial and cultural ideals promoted by the Nazis.
2. Denmark was intended as an example of how benevolent German occupation could be.
3. The German govenor was very keen on keeping the occupation as cheap as possible and maximise profits from exploitation of Denmark.
great issue.... I am a Dane, and proud of my ancestors history ;) Yes we are empathetic, well i am and think many Danes are too
My mother was born during occupation. I'm still hearing stories from the war.
Sweden was neutral during World War II and in addition to Danish Jews, they also took in 70,000 children from Finland, as well as people fleeing from Norway. But despite neutrality, Sweden played an important role during this time, which meant that both Germany, the Soviet Union and the Allies posed more or less a threat to the country. There is a very good video on topics by the channel King & Generals where the video is called "Why didn't the nazis invade Sweden". I hope you will react to it someday.
Did you saw the Michael Moore’s documentary about the differences between the USA and Europe? It’s called “Where to invade next”. Cheers
11:25
Czechoslovakia was broken up during the war, with Czechia and Moravia under direct German control and Slovakia under a puppet regime, and then reformed as the Czechoslovakian SSR (soviet socialist republic) during the Cold War.
At the end of the Cold War the people decided to split in two as Czechia and Slovakia.
czechoslovakia, got separated into Czech republic and Slovakia in 1989. During a revolution (somewhat peacefully) that ended their communist regime.
Im really sad to see that the lack of knowledge of history in the US is as bad as seen in most reaction videos from Americans, but i am glad that some try to amend that.
Regarding the "German police and Danish SS" that's a little misleading
The police in Denmark was outlawed when the Germans declared marshall law, and replaced the police with the 'Schalburg corps' who was basically thugs in uniform(much like brown-shirts)
So they were neither German police or Danish SS, but somewhere in between
They were pro-german Danes in German uniforms
After the war, Denmark reintruduced the death penelty after 200 years absence, exclusively for these guys
Good ridence
i like you and you will learn :) in Denmark , we care for the jews still this day and we will protect them ... they still need that ALOT,,,,
8:31 The reason it was German police was that prior to this they had removed the Danish police and sent them to concentration camps. Danish police actually ended up having it worse than Danish Jews during the war.
Oh wow
Se also ræde busser/red busses with swedish Folke Bernadotte, Swedish and danish red cross.
Ræde... You mean Røde right?
No, the buses were white.
There is small mistake - in video and in a lot of comments too.
Terezín was not in Czechoslovakia in 1943 and Czechoslovakia did not split into 2 countries in 1992
- Terezín was those days under Nazi ordinance as protectorate Bohemia and Moravia and from 1939 to 1945 (end of WWII) we were Slovak state/(first) Slovak republic collaborating with Nazi regime (Similarly to Danish people, our strongly disagreed with government and collaborate on assassination of Heidrich /protector/ and resistance led to national uprising against Nazis)
And Czechoslovakia was split again when Slovakia declared independence and set up own state 1st of January 1993 - state holiday we celebrate since (which also did Czech republic)
you should watch the flame and the lemon it is a movie about 2 danish freedom fighters
It's not in Czechoslovakia, because there's no such country anymore. The Czech Republic and Slovakia separated in 1992. Terezin/Theresienstadt is in the Czech Republic.
At first, I believe, around 40.000 German soldiers attacked with tanks and very modern equipment for the time. The danish army had at that time around 16.000, divided onto 2 divisions, Jyske Division and Sjællandske Division. Pretty much outdated equipment except for the excellent Madsen machinegun. The Danish soldiers used bikes to navigate around and had no supporting lines behind them when they faced the germans. After a few hours, when the King decided that "we've fought enough to look decent in the allies eyes (we didn't)", we surrendered.
The Danish SS are another interesting story, this ua-cam.com/video/ctV6ytT2yDw/v-deo.html shows a story where a reporter travels back to an area in Russia, where they fought. And this is a doc about one of their commanders, who had a Russian mom, Von Schalburg: ua-cam.com/video/dIJdxLG809Q/v-deo.html
Continue the good work with the channel, greetings from Denmark.
Your assessment of the Danish 1940 Army is wrong.
1. When Poland was invaded 30.000 were mobilized to protect Danish neutrality. Most were sent back home in order "not to provoke" and when the fighting stoped the first reservists who had mobilized on their own initiative were ready to join the fight. In any case the defending personel strength was a lot smaller and of lower quility than it had to BY CHOICE.
2. The equipment of the Danish and German infantry units was very similar and while Dansih armour was almost non-existant, Danish anti tank weapons (20mm Madsen Cannon and 37mm Bofors anti tank guns) were quite capable of dealing effectively with the German armour. Using bicycles was a good thing that significantly improved their mobility and other nations like Germany used them too.
3. The figting that took place was a surprisingly effective dealying action intended to buy time for the Jutland division setting up a defence line at the much more defensible terrain at the height of Vejle from the Vejle fjord and the slopes around the Grejs valley in the East to the Varde river valley in the West.
4. As for the Army airforce they had been forced to stay at their peactime base being denied the permission to disperse to wartime airstrips and was alerted so late that the German air strike arrived just while the first Dansih aircraft was shot down during takeof and the rast caught on the ground. The pilots of the German Me 110 fighterbombers were very woried about meeting the Danish Airforce in the air where the 9 Me 110s would be overmatched by the Danish 13 Gloster Gauntlets and 9 Fokker DXXI
U also misunderstood, who made the decision to surrender. While the decision was taken in a meeting between the government and the King and Crown Prince at Amalienborg, the Royal Palace, the Kings role was and is nominal. Its the elected government, that has all the power in a constitutional monarchy, the King signs the laws and approves of their decisions, but he has no choice, hes required to do so. And Christian X knew that. he learned the hard way in 1920, when he due to severe disagreements dismissed the Prime Minister against the will of Parliament and the Easter Crisis lasted for a total of 6 days, until he had to surrender and admit, that Parliament had the power, and any further resistance could very well lead to the fall of the monarchy. Since then neither he nor any other monarch has tried to defy the government. Whatever the Kings personal opinion, he could only voice it as an advisor, but he would have to accept and support, whatever decision the government made.
U should also remember, that while this meeting was taking place inside Amalienborg, right outside the Royal Garders were in an active firefight with German soldiers. They knew, they were being overrun.
I dont like this any more than u do, but they, the government, decided to capitulate, not surrender, to achieve the best possible terms for the occupation. Imo, the real criticism is more about, how long they continued to cooperate, and how far they took that cooperation at times.
As for the Kings personal opinion, its pretty clear by his subsequent defiant action of continuing his daily rides around Copenhagen, unescorted, wearing an old Danish cavalry uniform, which he continued to do, even after the German head of the occupation asked him to stop. Even the German soldiers respected that and would stop and salute him, as he rode by, but while he was constantly saluting his Danish citizen right and left, as they greeted him, he never acknowledged the German soldiers.
So a long explanation to say - it was not the Kings decision, that we had fought enough. It was the elected governments decision.