Only One Occupied Country in Europe Rose to the Defense of Jews During World War II

Dr.Yoav J. Tenembaum lectures at the Diplomacy Studies Program, at Tel Aviv University. He holds a doctorate in Modern History from Oxford University and a master's in International Relations from Cambridge University. He read for his B.A. in History at Tel Aviv University.

Seventy years ago this year World War II came to an end. Alongside the collective sigh of relief in Allied countries that the most brutal war humanity had ever witnessed was over, there was as well a sense of disbelief at the sight of the concentration camps, the existence of which to be sure had been well-known to the Allies.  Humanity had not witnessed anything resembling the Holocaust. A systematic, rational, industrial plan designed to eliminate completely an entire people from the face of the earth, the Holocaust was to become an exceptional phenomenon in History. Carried out by one of the most cultured nations the world had ever known, the Holocaust would turn out to be a distinctive story of genocide.

Within this unique event, unique individuals emerged who were willing to risk their lives in order to save the life of a Jew. The most well-known of them all was Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat, who is credited with having saved, directly and indirectly, the lives of tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary. To be sure, there were many others. Wallenberg in a sense was primus inter pares, first among equals. His fate remains a mystery to this day. At the end of the war he was taken by Soviet forces never to be seen again.

Alongside these singular individuals, there was a singular nation that, as a collective endeavor, saved most of its Jews: Denmark.
In a sense, the role played by Denmark was distinctive, different from anything else known to us during the Holocaust.
To begin with, contrary to what happened in other countries, Denmark’s populace acted collectively, spontaneously and in an organized manner in order to save its eight thousand Jewish compatriots.

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