THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
16 Friday, April 11, 1980
Miracle of Denmark Is Recallet
By DON McEVOY
Senior Vice President,
National Conference of
Christians and Jews
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"There will be no service
this morning. Instead I have
important news to tell you."
That is the way Rabbi Mar-
cus Melchior greeted his
congregation at the
synagogue in Copenhagen
on a fateful day in 1943.
What followed was the
shortest sermon of his
career. And what followed
that was one of the most
thrilling stories of compas-
sion and courage in all his-
tory.
"Last night I received
word that the Nazis plan to
raid Jewish homes
throughout Copenhagen to
arrest all Danish Jews for
shipment to concentration
camps. This situation is
very serious. By nightfall
we must all be in hiding."
The Jews of Denmark left
the synagogue as Rabbi
Melchior had urged and the
disappearance began.
There had been no
plan, but suddenly an
entire nation seemed to
know exactly what to do
and set out to do it. Taxi
drivers drove through
residential areas- stop-
ping at every Jewish
home to warn them. Hos-
pitals released every
Jewish patient, and then
re-admitted them under
assumed Christian
names.
one to contemplate. Prim
ily it was one of acquies-
cence to tyranny if not out-
right cooperation with the
tyrant. One unique excep-
tion was Denmark. The
dramatic rescue of the
Danish Jews is the sole
example of an entire nation
rising up to protect its fel-
low citizens in their hour of
need.
April 13-20 has been
designated by Congress and
proclaimed by the President
to be Days of Remembrance
of the Holocaust. It is an-
ticipated that at least
10,000 congregations in
America will recall the
Miracle of Denmark in serv-
ices of worship on these
Sundays.
It is _important that we
not only repent of our past
failures, but that we re-
member and learn from
those who did not fail in the
time of testing.
Denmark should become
for us a role-model at every
time and in every place
where any of humanity's
family is imperiled.
Ambulances picked up
Jews and brought them to
hospitals for hiding. And
ambulances spirited them
away when a hiding place or
passage on a ship to Sweden
was secured.
Danish storekeepers,
farmers, businessmen,
housewives all took Jews
into their homes, their
stores, their cellars and at-
tics, their barns. By night-
fall practically all of De-
nmark's 8,000 Jews had
simply vanished into thin
air.
While the transport ships
waited in the harbor the
Nazis made their raids.
They found and arrested
only 202 Jews. These were
the ones who could not leave
their homes or who refused
to believe that it could hap-
pen to them. Subsequent
raids captured an addi-
tional 270. Out of nearly
8,000. All the others had es-
caped into hiding and in a
matter of weeks were
smuggled by fishing vessels
into Sweden.
For the remainder of
the war the Danes main-
tained the homes, the
shops, libraries, religious
treasures and commu-
nity institutions of the
absent Jews, their coun-
trymen, so their
neighbors could return in
1945 to begin life anew.
The role of the organized
Church in the days of
Holocaust is not a pleasant
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