Countrymen

by Bo Lidegaard

  This is the fundamental argument of the active resistance against the complacency and convenience of accommodation, and Free Denmark concludes its pamphlet with the following declaration: “The battle is raging and the battle exacts its victims.—143 Danish Communists were deported to the concentration camp Stutthof near Danzig, side by side with the Jews.—And no one knows who will be next.”11

  In its first edition after the roundup, another illegal newspaper, Free Danes, with an independent leaning, expounded on the action and what it meant. If anyone is in doubt about who were the “us” and who the “them,” they could find help in this commentary and its vivid description of the offense: “For us Danes it was particularly shameful that there were ‘Danish’ Nazis of all kinds involved in the removal of the Jews; SS men, Schalburg people, and civilians. People who helped the German executioners. They showed them the way around in the dark capital, and they performed with even greater brutality and rawness than the Germans.”

  Although Free Danes also mentions the figure of sixteen hundred internees, which proliferated in the Swedish and illegal press in the first days after the operation, the underground press is aware that the flight is very large in scope, and that the result of the raids is ambiguous: “As far as is known in the capital, it is mainly the poorest Jews around Nørrebro, Vesterbro, and the inner city’s side streets who have been taken at present. Its shoemakers, dressmakers, secondhand dealers and other small-business owners—the honest and industrious people who have never done anyone any harm. Seen in even the most favorable light, it’s impossible to accept what war-justified purpose their abduction could serve for the German Reich.”

  For Free Danes it is of vital importance to emphasize “that the Danish police have not in any place or any way had anything to do with this crime. It is solely on the Germans and their cronies’ bill!”

  It is reported that in some places the Germans had requested police assistance in breaking down front doors, but also that this was “rejected with indignation.” On the other hand, Free Danes notes “that in a few cases the German military police have shown an ounce of consideration for their hapless victims,” and it speculates: “Some of them have been ashamed of what they had to do. They apologized to non-Jewish family members of the victims saying that they only followed orders, otherwise they would be shot.”

  Free Danes expresses gratitude to the Swedish government for its offer to provide all Danish Jews sanctuary in Sweden and also tells the story of the Swedish démarche in Berlin. Then the paper ventures into the delicate question of the role of the Jews in armed resistance. Here the paper needs to work its logic carefully between firm support for armed resistance, and Germany’s claims that the Jews are responsible for sabotage: “The Danish Jews are innocent. It cannot be stated strongly enough! The claim that the Danish Jews took part in sabotage and other illegal activities … is a deliberate and baseless lie.… It must be said here that the Jewish community in this country has repeatedly been blamed for not supporting various illegal undertakings. Jews have always rejected this. They have taken the view right from the beginning of the war, since they knew that the spotlight was on them, that they would not engage in any kind of illegal acts. And the Germans know well enough that not one of the arrested saboteurs has been a Jew.”

  Although the reference to the Jews’ blanket rejection of the illegal is of course a generalization, the passage reflects at once the position the leadership of the Jewish community had taken—and the resistance movement’s tacit acceptance of this view—and the paper’s closing clarion call also shows that the resistance, even at this early stage, understood very well that the crime committed against the Jews was also a turning point for their cause: “THE FREE DANES repeat: ‘This is the vilest crime that has yet been committed in Danish society.’ ”12

  These are strong words, coming only one month after the resignation of the legitimate government and the imposition of martial law with draconian penalties, which hit the resistance fighters hardest. This statement is amplified and explained in a short note in the underground newspaper Danish Monthly Post, which wrote in its October issue: “The Germans are mistaken if they believe that Danes forget or forgive the Jewish action out of sheer joy at the release of the detained soldiers.… This simplistic idea has only cast their action in an even worse light. We Danes don’t barter with our Constitution and least of all in the matter of citizens’ equality. No distinctions are made in Danish society between one or the other race. But from now on the distinction between Danes and Germans will be sharper than ever before.”13

  Cooking the History: Round Two

  While the many Jewish refugees still crowded along the coastline of Sjælland, Werner Best at Dagmarhus concentrated on mitigating the unfortunate impression the failure of the action had made in Berlin, and the harmful effects it had caused in relation to his Danish counterparts, the permanent secretaries. In the relationship to Berlin, especially the headquarters of the Reich Security Head Office, which was administratively responsible for the extermination of the Jews, this constituted a problem, and in a telegram on October 5, Best tried to erase the impression that the roundup in Denmark had not led to the desired result, while he also shifted as much of the blame as possible to everyone but himself.

  Thus Best reminds Berlin that it was Mildner who “gave all the orders.” When apartments were not broken into, it was because the Jews had been warned beforehand and were therefore not home, and also so as not to make a bad impression by breaking in. It was Hanneken who had not issued the follow-up orders regarding those who fled and those who helped the refugees, but this was of less importance as Mildner believed that German police would gradually be able to locate the Jews who were still in hiding. Denmark’s coastline made effective surveillance physically impossible, which Best had also previously emphasized several times. And incidentally, the problem had actually been solved, as Best pointed out in his reporting to Berlin: “Since the factual purpose of the action against the Jews in Denmark was to cleanse the country of the Jews and not to conduct a manhunt, with as much success as possible, it has to be stated that the action has achieved its goal. Denmark is now entjudet [de-Jewed] since not a single Jew, who comes under the relevant decrees, can henceforth legally reside and act here.”14

  In relationship to Berlin, it was good for Best to be able to issue the information that on the night of October 4 an additional sixty refugees were arrested. And if he could deflect further German actions, Best would also have something to deliver in his efforts to rectify the battered relationship with Svenningsen. The cards were back in Best’s hands with the repeal of martial law the following day, and he maneuvered with great skill to ensure that the recent course of events, which had threatened to tear asunder the whole laboriously built-up cooperative structure, was replaced by a situation in which Best again became the key figure in the German occupation of Denmark. Best had made a huge bet. As things were on October 4, he stood to win.

  In order to ensure Best’s victory, Svenningsen had to return to the line of cooperation. To obtain this result, on October 5 Best took a most unusual step: He issued to Svenningsen the written guarantee the latter had demanded the previous day: “Half Jews and those with a lower percentage of Jewish blood remain untouched by the measures taken in regard to pure Jews. This also applies to full Jews married to non-Jews.”

  At the secretaries’ meeting on the same day, Svenningsen could provide information about Best’s oral and written commitments, with the addition that Kanstein had also spoken to the same effect. For the time being these assurances were circulated only by word of mouth, but before a week had passed, one of the best-informed underground papers, the independent Information, published the exact wording of Best’s guarantee to Svenningsen. The paper could not possibly have known how much trouble this would cost Best. But if it had, it would surely have found all the more satisfaction in the publication.15

  Although no one dared rely on Best’s promi
ses, they were still better than nothing, and it is remarkable how much confidence leading Danes still had in the official German assurances. As mentioned before, the wealthy C. L. David, who was of half-Jewish descent, was unsure if he should flee. Through the Supreme Court lawyer H. H. Bruun, on October 1, he had already received reassuring messages from the German authorities, and even though he had taken measures to escape, he had not yet left by that Tuesday. Bruun now thought that if David could get to Sweden legitimately, it would be advisable because of “the fact that he is generally perceived as being of Jewish descent, and the fact that in the domestic Nazi press he was loathed and cast as a typical representative of big capitalism.” But Bruun would “in his place be reluctant to flee illegally,” and moreover felt that David “could present himself at the office as usual.” Neither the man directly concerned nor his adviser could bring himself to cross the boundary into the illegal. That evening Bruun’s advice for David to stay was confirmed, as he received reliable notification of Best’s commitment to Svenningsen.16

  Based on the latest move by Best, the permanent secretaries reinforced their engagement. This was a delicate move. With each passing day, more were managing to escape, and even a limited postponement of further action against those now on the run could save many lives. At the same time Svenningsen and his colleagues in the Foreign Ministry put every effort into rescuing as many detainees as possible from the clutches of the Germans before their deportation. Despite all German assurances, it was quickly apparent that for those already deported, arguments helped little. Therefore it was all the more crucial to avoid the deportation of anyone who fell outside the Germans’ own criteria. Before long the efforts to limit the scope of the assault and to soften its consequences for the victims became one of the most important activities of the permanent secretaries.

  These were all strong arguments for the permanent secretaries to engage—as they did. But by doing so they also moved one step further down a road no part of the Danish administration had previously been willing to travel. Hence Danish authorities were working with categories such as half Jews and Mischlinge, the Nazi term for “less than half Jews.” When individuals asked Svenningsen and his colleagues in the Foreign Ministry whether they were in danger or safe, Svenningsen referred them to the assurances received from Best. In order not to be personally committed to the promises, Svenningsen chose to authorize copies of the October 5 letter from Best to be forwarded in confidence to those concerned. Even so, it was inevitable that the engagement in the ongoing effort to soften the blow against the Danish Jews forced Danish authorities to base their moves on at least a recognition of the racial criteria established by the German action. There is no evidence that this meant that the permanent secretaries at any point or to any extent began to internalize the Nazi concepts—but continued cooperation at the practical level did presuppose a degree of confidence and mutual respect between the permanent secretaries and their German counterparts. This was a price the Danish authorities chose to pay.

  An Old Man with White Hair

  In Ystad the two families struggled at their own pace to get a firm footing. Much was done by the Swedish refugee aid organization—but there were many formalities and great uncertainty about what to do next. Poul Hannover had set course for ASEA, Titan’s Swedish partner and co-owner, which was headquartered in Västerås, some one hundred kilometers west of Stockholm. Hannover had friends and business associates there who committed themselves to help him. It was a matter of urgency to get there and begin a new life. His son, Allan, describes in his diary how on Tuesday morning, only two days after the exhausted family reached salvation in the port of Ystad, he was roused by the porter at four in the morning to begin the train journey to Stockholm and Västerås, which they reached late in the afternoon. There they were received by colleagues from ASEA: “We went to the City Hotel, where we were assigned rooms and then the aforementioned gentlemen invited us to a meal in the hotel restaurant. On the table was a Swedish and a Danish flag, and while we ate, the orchestra played some Danish songs. Right after dinner Mette and I went to bed.”

  Allan’s aunt, Kis Marcus, and her family also leave Ystad the same day. But they are not on the same social level, and they do not have the equivalent business relationship. Therefore the family has to take the stipulated path through the Swedish reception system:

  Palle woke up pretty early. He got himself ready and ran down to the porter, who he had a good time with. He had been with him to the confectioner’s, where he gave Palle some candy and a box with a fine piece of cake for Dorte. I packed our clothes and went to the police. After lunch, which was pretty confused as half of the group went over to the bank to change money, we were supposed to travel by bus to Snogeholm Castle, which was converted into the refugee camp.

  At the hotel we met a Mr. Salomonsen, whom Gunnar knew from Iceland. He had come to Ystad on the night between Monday and Tuesday in the same boat as we sailed in. The weather had been far worse than the night before, and the fisherman said that he would not have sailed over in that weather with all of us.

  We then said good-bye to Ystad and traveled by bus and car to Snogeholm together with the Ledermanns, the Goldsteins, and Margolinsky. The first thing we saw when we arrived was the Dannebrog waving from a high flagpole. We were received by Danish men, most military personnel, police, and saboteurs, as well as some sailors, many of them fine people. We also entered to greet the director, who was Swedish.

  We got careful instructions about how we had to behave both at Snogeholm and in Sweden in general. We had to sleep in large rooms, Gunnar with a lot of gentlemen. I was luckier and was together just with Mrs. Goldstein and the kids alone. We were to help make beds and put things in order, clear the table, and wash the dishes.

  Dorte was very unhappy that evening, both because we still knew nothing about Grandfather, and because she was disappointed with the place as she had thought it was a castle in the true meaning of it. Now she found everything so menial, as she said. She was obviously too tired and confused by all the impressions she had received over the last week. She said to me: “If tomorrow we hear that an old man with white hair has arrived (‘Yes, and goatee,’ interjected Palle), I would be so happy.”

  To make the crossing was crucial. But as soon you were over, new questions arose. It was not ideal for the Marcuses, who were used to living in their own house, now to be suddenly accommodated in a refugee camp. The refugees were welcomed. They were treated well and more than correctly by the Swedish authorities and warmly by the local population. This was highly appreciated and there was no murmur to be heard from the refugees, quite the contrary. But reading between the lines of the contemporary accounts, it appears that even with all their courage and determination it was hard on the families, now in safety, to accustom themselves to life as refugees. A few days before, they had felt safe in their homes and within their daily lives. Now they longed to get out of the refugee reception organization and to become part of their new country. Kis cautiously puts it into words: “We so wanted a little more peace and quiet than there was in the camp, but we were told that first we had to take care of a lot about passports, ration cards, etc., before we could move forward. They also needed to know that we had someone in Sweden who would take us in [before we were] to be allowed to travel, and Gunnar therefore called Henry, who immediately called the director who said that he could give us shelter.”

  In his diary entries from Copenhagen that Tuesday, Bergstrøm gives a vivid impression of how the dramatic events during the escape filtered back to those who were following things from a distance: “Up at the paper everything was in a commotion. They had been told that Valdemar Koppel [former editor in chief of Politiken, a member of the board of the newspaper since 1937] had been arrested that night in the coastal village of Humlebæk with wife, son, and daughter-in-law. They were on their way to Sweden. The family had probably been released, but Koppel had been driven to Horserød camp. Everyone found it very sad abou
t the old man.”17

  On October 5 the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed its envoys in London, Berlin, and Copenhagen of orders to the Swedish coast guard to protect its territorial waters with all means at its disposal. Also, fuel from military stocks was distributed to some thirty local Swedish fishing boats, so they could voluntarily participate in the search for Danish refugees and pick them up as quickly as possible. Local authorities were later ordered to shield landing sites and ensure the illegals freedom of passage. The telegram notes that “no reports have been received on German violations of our territorial waters in connection with the ongoing stream of refugees.” Swedish marines’ patrol boats were posted outside all Swedish ports from Höganäs in the north to Trelleborg in the south. In order to lead the Danish refugee transports to safe harbor, the patrol boats were given the exceptional order to display full lighting at sea.

  Kreth og Mogensen

  CHAPTER 11

  * * *

  WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6

  GILLELEJE