Denmark 1920-1939 Denmark 1945-1949






Denmark, 1939-1945



On March 31st 1939, Germany and Denmark signed a Non-Aggression Pact. On December 7th 1939 the Scandinavian Nations agreed to take a neutral stand in the ongoing Winter War in Finland.
On April 9th 1940, without declaration of war, German foirces occupied Denmark proper, en route to Norway. The Danes did not offer any resistance. The British occupied the Faroes and Iceland to prevent the Germans establishing outposts there; Greenland later was occupied by US forces. The British also attempted to seize Denmark's merchant navy. On April 10th 1940, Danish PM Thorwald Stauning formed a National Samling government (all major parties included). On April 16th 1940, the Faroe Islands, a Danish possession in the North Atlantic, were occupied by British troops. On July 4th 1940, in the Folketing (Dan. Parliament), Stauning emphasized the necessity to economically cooperate with the 'neighbour nation'. On July 8th the cabinet was reshuffled; Erik Scavenius became foreign minister.
On Jan. 18th 1941 the Lex Ørum was passed. making actions against foreign (occupation) force punishable. On June 26th 1941 Denmark severed her diplomatic ties with the USSR. On July 7th, a Free Corps Denmark was established, a volunteer force which was to participate in the German war on the USSR. On August 22nd 1941 the Anti-Communist Law was passed. On November 25th 1941, Denmark joined the Anti-Comintern Pact, with the understanding that Denmark maintained her neutrality.
PM Stauning died May 3rd 1942. In May, Christian Möller, former minister of trade, fled to Britain, where he became a leading figure of the Danish exile. In October/November 1942 the Telegram Crisis unfolded. On Nov. 4th 1942, Scavenius was appointed new pm. In August 1943, Denmark experienced strikes and unrest. On August 29th, martial law was proclaimed. On September 16th 1943, the Danish Liberty Council was established, as the body representing the Danish resistance. On Oct. 2nd 1943 the Danish Jewish community was evacuated, to neutral Sweden (2. 10. 1943); ca. 500 out of ca. 7.500 ended up in Theresienstadt. In November, the Liberty Council published "When Denmark is free again". On Jan. 4th 1944, Danish resistance activist and poet Kaj Munk killed by the GeStaPo. On September 19th 1944, the Germans arrested c. 2000 Danish policemen. During the occupation, Germany exploited Denmark by having Denmark's National Bank paying for the costs of the occupation. In other aspects, the occupation was less harsh than in the countries of the east, for the Nazi racial theory regarded the Danes as of "Aryan" stock.
Denmark's king and politicians had remained in Denmark during the occupation; there was no Danish government-in-exile. Denmark's government collaborated with the Germans until 1943; then the Germans took over the administration of Denmark. However, resistance organizations such as Holger Dansker sprang up, and mainly targetted individual collaborators. Denmark remained occupied until the German forces in Denmark surrendered on May 5th 1945; Bornholm was to be occupied by Soviet forces on May 8th 1945.





EXTERNAL
FILES 		The Occupation, 1940-1945, in : History of Denmark, from Dan. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Paul Lopresto : Did the Danes collaborate with the Germans during World War II ? What were the consequences for the Danish Jews ?, from Nordic News 1999
The Atlantic Wall in Denmark
Rescue in Denmark, from USHMM, on the rescue of the Danish Jewish Community in 1943
Nonviolence in World War II. What happened in Denmark. from Peace Pledge Union
Articles Operation Weserübung, Occupation of Denmark, Werner Best, Christian X. of Denmark, Thorvald Stauning, Vilhelm Buhl, Erik Scavenius, Danish Resistance Movement, Rescue of the Danish Jews, Kaj Munk, Bornholm, from Wikipedia
Werner Best, The Fate of the Jews ofDenmark, Danish Resistance during the Holocaust, from Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
Århus under besættelsen, from historien.dk, in Danish
Speciel Operations Executives arbejde i Danmark 1940-43, from historien.dk, in Danish
Waffen-SS og Dansk-Norsk frivillige, from historien.dk, in Danish
Folketingsbeslutningen 19. januar 1940 (Parliament's Decision of Jan. 19th 1840), from jenschristian.dk, in Danish; the decision deals with Danish defense policy, just prior to the German invasion
Articles Besættelsen, Den Danske Modstandsbevægelse, Holger Danske, Werner Best, Erik Scavenius, from Wikipedia Danish edition
Kategori : Danske Personligheder i 2. verdenskrig, Besættelsen, from Wikipedia Danish edition
Besetzung von Dänemark, from DHM, in German
DOCUMENTS Historical Population Statistics : Denmark, from Population Statistics at Univ. Utrecht
World Statesmen : Denmark, by Ben Cahoon
Minilexikon Danish Resistance, from historien.dk, in Danish
Images from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, of Occupied Denmark (14), of Copenhagen
Danish encased postage stamps used as replacement coins, from Joel's Coins, images with comment, scroll down
Hitler's Directive for the Occupation of Denmark and Norway, March 1st, 1940, from WW II Primary Source Homepage
Denmark : Ration Books, Coupons, from Hendrik Andersen's WW II Site
Danish Underground Newspapers from WW II, from Hendrik Andersen's WW II Site
Danish-language documents on Denmark in WW II, from Dansk Militaer Historie
Danish banknotes, from Ron Wise's World Paper Money and from Currency Museum
Images on Denmark in World War II from Danish Royal Library's Image Database
Instrument of Surrender of All German armed forces in Holland, in northwest Germany including all islands, and in Denmark, May 4th 1945, from Mei 1940 Operation Fall Weserübung. Hitler's directive for the occupation of Denmark and Norway, March 1st 1940 (executed April 9th), from Mei 1940, a Dutch site; document text in English
Statement by President Roosevelt on the Invasions of Denmark and Norway, April 13, 1940, from V. Ferraro, Mt. Holyoke; from Public Papers of the Presidents : Franklin D. Roosevelt
Historisk Samling fra Besættelsetiden 1940-1945 - Archives of Danish Occupation History 1940-1945
Sources on Danish History 1940-1945, from Skræp, in Danish
REFERENCE Knud J.V. Jespersen, A History of Denmark, Basingstoke : Palgrave MacMillan 2004, KMLA Lib.Sign. 948.9 J58h
Siegfried Matlok, Dänemark in Hitlers Hand (Denmark in Hitler's Hand), Der Bericht des Reichsbevollmächtigten Werner Best über seine Besatzungspolitik in Dänemark, Husum : Husum Verlag 1988
Article : Denmark, in : Statesman's Year Book 1943 pp.822-833 [G]
Article : Denmark, in : Americana Annual 1940 pp.28-229, 1943 pp.229-230, 1944 pp.218-219, 1945 pp.229-230, 1946 pp.232-234 [G]
Article : Bornholm, in : Americana Annual 1946 p.107 (on events of 1945) [G]
Article : Denmark, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1944 pp.231-232, 1945 pp.233-234 [G]
Article : Denmark, in : New International Year Book, Events of 1940 pp.182-185, 1941 pp.167-170, 1942 pp.193-195, 1943 pp.162-165, 1944 pp.168-171, 1945 pp.157-160 [G]
Article : Denmark, in : Funk & Wagnall's New Standard Encyclopedia Year Book 1940 pp.156-158, 1941 pp.146-148, 1942 pp.132-133, 1943 pp.136-138, 1944 pp.98-99 [G]
Llewellyn Woodward, British Foreign Policy in the Second World War, London : HMSO 1962 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 3rd 2008

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