Inside the
Great
Syangogue of
Copenhagen

Denmark Revisited

Hatred and violence in the "righteous among the nations."

By Irene Shaland

D

id Shakespeare get it all
wrong?
"Something is rot-
ten in the state of
Denmark," declares an
officer in Hamlet, and
this is where I thought
the Bard was gravely

mistaken.
In May 2014, I visited Denmark,
Sweden and Norway. Everything we
encountered there looked beautiful
and, in spite of the cold and rain,
this beauty seemed almost surreal.
In the Nyhavn part of Copenha-
gen, brightly painted houses along
the canal sparkled like jewels in the
rare moments of sunlight. Elsinore,
the brooding Kronborg castle, the
fictional home of Shakespeare's
Hamlet, was an image of somber
beauty and overwhelming power as
if still threatening Sweden across
the narrow gulf.
In the magnificent Copenhagen,
we did not see many cars: Sky-high
tax of almost 180 percent made
bicycles, buses and ferries much
more attractive. The Danes are
highly conscious of their environ-
ment: Over half of their garbage is
recycled and more than 20 percent
of their energy needs are provided
by windmills.
Indeed, this part of Europe is
arguably one of the most sophis-
ticated on the continent, and
Scandinavians are among the most
educated and prosperous Europe-
ans, with the least income disparity.
Denmark and other Scandinavian
countries are also the most highly
taxed and socialistic, but their
people, the happiest we ever met,
think it works: They consider their
home countries the best places in

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the world.
All three — Denmark, Sweden
and Norway — regularly top every
survey of wealth and quality of life.
However, this highly sophisticated,
perfectly organized, everything-for-
the-people civilization has its dark
sides. Perhaps Shakespeare did
know what he was talking about.
In retrospect, it seems that the
February 2015 violence in Copen-
hagen was not unexpected and
shocking.
A few weeks prior to my May
2014 trip, I came across a De-
cember 2012 issue of Standpoint.
Norway, I learned from that UK
magazine, could soon top one
shocking ranking: the first country
in Europe to become Judenfrei, the
Nazi term for the ethnic cleansing
of Jews. Then a friend emailed me
intriguing 2013 documents: "Anti-
Semitism in Norway? - The Atti-
tudes of the Norwegian Population
towards Jews and Other Minorities"
and "FRA (European Union Agency
for Fundamental Rights) Survey:
Discrimination and Hate Crimes
against Jews in EU Member States."
The Jews of Scandinavia seemed
to be talking to me daily from my
computer screen. "How to Survive
as a Jew in Sweden: Shut up and
Fade into the Woods," wrote Annika
Hernroth-Rothstein in the Mo-
saic ,journal. "Hiding Judaism in
Copenhagen," corroborated Michael
Moynihan in Tablet Magazine.
In my attempt to understand the
complex realities of the Scandina-
vian Jewish story, Denmark was
at the center of our visit. After all,
this was the only country in the
world that defied Hitler and saved
its Jewish community almost in its

entirety.

A LOOK AT DENMARK'S PAST

Denmark became the first of the
Scandinavian countries where Jews
were permitted to settle. In Den-
mark, unlike any other European
country, rabbis were permitted to
openly practice and teach Judaism
to their communities.
The 19th century saw a flourish-
ing of Danish-Jewish cultural life.
The Great Synagogue of Copen-
hagen was built, designed by the
renowned architect G. F. Hetsch.
In the outbreak of World War I, the
great Jewish Yiddish writer Sholem
Aleichem and his family found a
refuge in Copenhagen when flee-
ing from violent anti-Semitism in
Russia and Ukraine. There, Sholem
Aleichem began writing his tragi-
comedy It's Hard to be a Yew.
In 1933, the year Hitler came
to power in Germany, Christian
X of Denmark became the first
Scandinavian monarch to visit a
synagogue. He wanted to honor the
centennial anniversary of the Great
Synagogue of Copenhagen.
This king became the subject of a
persistent legend: Christian X had
the yellow Star of David sewed to
his clothes and had gone to the city
streets during the Nazi occupation.
That never really happened, and
the Danish Jews were not required
to wear yellow stars. But this is
how Christian X, who personally
financed the secret transport of his
kingdom's Jews to safety into a neu-
tral Sweden, is forever remembered
in history.
Nazi occupation in Denmark was
relatively mild for the first three
years (1940-43), at least compared

to other European countries. The
Germans even referred to Denmark
as "the model protectorate." The
king retained his throne and the
Rigsdag (parliament) continued to
function. The Danish government
persistently stated that there was no
"Jewish problem" in their country.
However, by the end of the sum-
mer in 1943, the tide of war turned.
The Danish Resistance forces,
anticipating the war's end, increased
their activities. The German policies
in Denmark sharply changed. In
August 1943, the Nazis arrested 100
prominent Danes. In response, the
Danish government resigned, the
Nazis took over and immediately
began planning the deportation of
Danish Jews.
The German diplomat Georg
Duckwitz, who is now commemo-
rated in Israel's Yad Vashem as a
Righteous Gentile, secretly tried
to reach agreement with Sweden
in creating a safe place there to
harbor Danish Jews. In October
1943, Sweden agreed to shelter the
entire Danish Jewish community,
and close to 8,000 people were
smuggled out of Denmark over the
Oresund strait to Sweden.
There were numerous possible
explanations given by European his-
torians as to why the Danes behaved
drastically different from all other
nations in relation to their Jewish
compatriots. The rescue operation
was very easy logistically because
the Jewish population was so small
and most Jews lived in and near
Copenhagen. Jews were so strongly
integrated into the Danish society
that the Danes did not see them as
"others."
Whatever the reasons, the Danes