5th Grade Collaboration January 2012

Denmark and WW II

First, it wasn't officially an enemy country. Unlike Poland or the Netherlands, it wasn't invaded and conquered. The Germans rolled in and the small Danish army and more significant navy couldn't do much- though there was some fighting. The Germans announced that they had no desire to conquer Denmark, just to pass through on their way to Norway.

So the deal was that Denmark remained sovereign and neutral in the war. The Germans just occupied the country and enforced their idea of neutrality.

That pretty much worked for a while. Up until Stalingrad, the Germans looked like winners and in any case what could the Danes do? They were an agricultural country, the Germans bought everything available, and did nothing that interfered with ordinary Danes.

Eventually things changed. The Germans demanded more, the Danes got stroppy, and the occupation took hold.

The most famous bit of Danish resistance had to do with Jewish Danes. Everyone knows the untrue but lovely story of King Christian and the yellow star, and that the Danes deported their Jews to Sweden instead of letting the Germans have them. Brave, and the Danes had specific forewarning, few Jews, local administration in place, and a permeable neutral border.

Eventually the resistance became significant. But Copenhagen- unlike Lyon, or Karbala today- never became a place where an occupation soldier was unable to walk around alone in reasonable safety.

 

http://staghounds.blogspot.com/2010/02/danish-resistance-museum.html  1/25/2012

Danish Resistance

• The Danish Resistance http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/danish_resistance.htm
• A Force More Powerful  http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/films/afmp/stories/denmark.php
• Museum of Danish Resistance  http://www.natmus.dk/sw23424.asp
•  Jewish Virtual Library  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Denmark.html
•  Anecdote/interesting story  of Christian X http://theblackberryalarmclock.com/2011/01/15/random-anecdote-1/
• Heroes from History  http://christopheranton.hubpages.com/hub/Heroes-from-History-King-Christian-X-of-Denmark-and-his-resistance-to-The-Nazis
• U.S. Holocaust Museum  http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/faq/languages/en/04/01/denmark2.php
• Ryvang Memorial Park in Copenhagen  http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-map/CPH-Ryvang.asp

 Authors

  Lois Lowry



• http://www.loislowry.com/
• http://www.carolhurst.com/authors/llowry.html
• http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/lois-lowry 

 
       
 

Carmen Deedy

 

• http://carmenagradeedy.com/
• www.timeforkids.com/news/meet-carmen-deedy/11011
• http://peachtree-online.com/index.php/book/yellow-star.html