The Danish resistance

Much has been written about Righteous Gentiles, the men and women who risked their lives to help save the Jews in Europe during the Holocaust. One of the most successful rescues happened in Denmark, where Danish authority and innumerable private citizens working with Jewish community leaders came together to rescue thousands of their fellow citizens from certain death. 

Although the Nazis had occupied Denmark in 1939, initially there had been an uneasy peace. The Germans regarded the blond, blue-eyed Danes as "fellow Aryans." With only 7500 Jews living in the Scandinavian country, the Nazis had not even required the Jews to wear yellow stars. 

As the war progressed and Allied victory was in sight, however, the Danes' initial limited resistance had progressed to massive labor strikes and sabotage. On Aug. 29, 1943, the day after the Danish government had resigned, rather than help the Germans arrest and try members of the Resistance, the country was under martial law.

A week later, the Danish government learned through German officials who feared the political ramifications of such an action that all of Denmark's Jews, the 6000 citizens and 1500 refugees, were to face the same fate as millions of others in occupied Europe: On Oct. 1, they were to be rounded up and sent to almost certain death in Nazi concentration camps. The Danes immediately began a massive operation to save their Jewish neighbors, hiding them in their homes until they could be spirited out of Denmark to Sweden in fishing boats. 

For Dr. Eric Erslev, professor emeritus, Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, the Danish rescue of the Jews came close to home in a story orally passed down by his father, Allan Jacob Erslev, to him and Eric's son, Brett.

Although Aage Erslev was Christian, he had been married to Anita, a Jew who had passed away in June 1943. In late September, he had welcomed Anita's relatives in his home, hiding them as they awaited word that the fishing boat was ready for departure. 

Late one evening, he and his 18-year-old son, Allan, were awakened to the sound of Gestapo pounding on his front door. The oldest wearing a captain's insignia, was flanked by two much younger men.

The "Kapitän" announced that they were there to arrest Anita Erslev. When Aage told them that she had passed away, the soldiers, having heard this excuse many times, demanded proof.

Aage began searching his desk for the death certificate. Meanwhile, the two younger soldiers were ordered to start searching the house. Aage's attempt to find the paper became even more frantic when the two soldiers, having finished their search of the first floor, stomped up the stairs to the second floor. where the Jewish relatives were hiding under the bed and in the closet of one of the bedrooms. Frantically, Aage whipped through the papers as he heard the soldiers' footsteps in bedrooms over his head. He knew if the Gestapo found the fugitives, they would be killed and Jacob and Allan would be jailed. At that moment, Aage found the death certificate. The German, now satisfied, yelled to his two charges to come downstairs. 

As the soldiers were leaving, Aage, spurred by an overwhelming sense of relief, offered the soldiers apples from the bowl of fruit on the table. They grabbed the fruit and walked out. 

As soon as the two men could no longer hear the boots on the street outside their home, they went upstairs. The relatives, who were seconds from being discovered, told their rescuers how they heard the sounds of the soldiers' breathing and saw their boots from their hiding places, one under the bed and one in the closet. They all knew if the more experienced captain had been conducting the search, they would have been found. Thankfully, the refugees did make it to the boats and found safety in Sweden. 

Allan was shocked that his father had given the Nazis the fruit: These were the men who would have killed his mother and her relatives and were responsible for the death of untold others. As the son of a Jewish mother, he and others with "impure blood" were targeted by the Germans and later during the occupation Allan went into hiding but survived the war. 

In the conversation he had years later with Eric and Brett, Allan said he never forgot that moment and the horrors of the German occupation of his homeland. Of the approximately 7500 Jews living in Denmark in September 1943, only 120 Danish Jews died during the Holocaust, either in the Theresienstadt concentration camp or during the flight from Denmark. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this relatively small number represents one of the highest Jewish survival rates for any German-occupied European country.