In
the opening chapter titled “Paper Bullets” he discusses a form of Resistance
far from the traditional images of bombs and bullets. Through the Occupation there
were underground newspapers published across Denmark. A secret news service, Information, was established that put
out frequent bulletins, 575 in all, that were sent out to “eighteen illegal
newspapers all over Denmark”.
There
is a chapter on the rescue of Torben Ørum, a
Danish Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel, rightly considered by the Germans to have
set up a spy network. He is sentenced to a lengthy term in jail. Unhappy that
Denmark did not have capital punishment the German authorities were planning to
take him back to Germany where he will be executed. A Danish Resistance group
carried out a clever scheme to save him. While Ørum is in the Copenhagen
Military Hospital members of the group overpower his guards. After disguising Ørum
they plan to walk out of the hospital. As they near the entrance another member of the
Resistance creates a distraction by dropping a bottle of pills. Wearing the cap
of a Customs Officer Ørum greets a Gestapo man on the docks and walks on to a
Customs cruiser that takes him to safety in Sweden.
There is a fascinating chapter on how a group of doctors
were instrumental in helping Danish Jews flee Denmark for Sweden. To assist in
the costs of the program they solicited donations from businesses and wealthy
individuals that eventually totalled over 1,000,000 kroner. Jewish men, women
and children were gathered in hospitals and transported by the Red Cross and
sent to Sweden on small boats. They succeeded in helping about 2,000 of the
7,200 Danish Jews reach Sweden. The doctors did not have a single person lost
during their transport operations.
I had not known that the Danes kept track of the 570 Jews
who were captured and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Discovering they could send food and clothing parcels to them a secret
government fund was used for Danish government officals to send parcels to
individual Danish Jews in the camps. The book states only about 50 Danish Jews
of the 570 died in the camp.
The actions of the Danish people with regard to their
Jewish populations illustrate how much more could have been done by other
Western European countries with regard to their Jewish populations.
Yet
another chapter sets out how the Danes dealt with secret radios. They had been
sent radios by the English that were bulky and not operating on the electrical
current used in Denmark. Arne Duus-Hansen, an engineer at Bang og Olufsen,
invented a radio “smaller than a London telephone directory, worked on both
alternating and direct current, used valves that could be replaced with those
in almost any Danish home wireless, transmitted on all the frequencies assigned
to the Danish Resistance, weighed only three pounds, and had twice the power
output of the British-built transmitters”.
It
is a book about the accomplishments of the Danish Resistance rather than a
critical look at the Resistance. It spends little time on the issue that the
Resistance did little to directly confront the German occupiers until three
years into the Occupation in 1943.
In
visiting the Danish Resistance Museum in Copenhagen I saw challenging exhibits
on how much Denmark co-operated or colloborated with the Germans for those 3
years. The word “collaboration” is so emotionally charged.
Mark
Mazower, in Hitler’s Empire, recognizes
there were reasons why a more violent Resistance did not take place in Western
Europe. While wanting to limit casualities in occupied countries the British,
for political reasons, did not want large Resistance organizations that could
challenge the exile governments that had been established in England. As well,
the harsh reprisals of the Germans to Resistance actions in France discouraged the
Resistance in other countries.
Hitler’s Savage Canary is an
interesting and informative book.
Bill, I was interested to read (in your answer to a recent comment) that you too had visited the Resistance Musuem - the displays were very good, and your choice of the word 'challenging', above, is apt. I had known almost nothing of Denmark's war history till then, but now would like to read this book and find out more.
ReplyDeleteMoira: Thanks for the comment.I encourage all visiting Copenhagen to go to the Museum. It is well worth the time.
DeleteBill - What an interesting-sounding book. It also sounds well-researched and thorough. And I don't know nearly enough about the Danish Resistance during the war, nor about the role the Danish people played. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMargot: Thanks for the comment. I could not describe it as thorough. It features stories of people and events rather than analysis. I have read enough WW II history not to need the chronological historical facts. I now enjoy reading these ancedotal histories.
DeleteSounds very interesting and informative, Bill. My husband reads more non-fiction in this area than I do, I will see if he is interested in the book. Years ago I read a book (fiction, not mystery) that featured the Danish Resistance (Leeway Cottage by Beth Gutcheon). I have wanted to re-read that for a while.
ReplyDeleteTracyK: Thanks for the comment. I had not heard of Leeway Cottage. Did you enjoy the book?
DeleteYes, Bill, I did enjoy it very much. I read it almost 10 years ago, and I plan to re-read it sometime soon(ish).
DeleteTracyK: Thanks for the recommendation. I am going to have to go looking for the book.
DeleteBill, over the years I have read about Danish and French Resistance in WWII in newspapers and online but my knowledge of these underground movements is sketchy. It is nice to read about the nameless and faceless people, the unsung heroes, like the doctors in this book who reached out to so many Jews in their hour of need. Stories like these re-instill one's faith in humanity.
ReplyDeletePrashant: Thanks for the comment. Would that we all take such action when faced with human need.
Delete