The Holocaust and Collective Memory in Scandinavia: the Danish case¹

1 This article is a revised version of a German article ‘Der Holocaust im kollektiven Gedächtnis in Skandinavien. Dänemark und Schweden im Vergleich’. In Geschichtspolitik und kollektives Gedächtnis. Erinnerungskulturen in Theorie und Praxis, ed. Harald Schmid. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2009, 181–98. Published with permission from Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG.

Abstract

The annihilation of the European Jews, the Holocaust, had in ensuing decades occupied a different place in the collective memory of Scandinavian countries than in other parts of former Nazi dominated Europe. This was due to most Scandinavian Jews, and especially Danish Jews, being rescued from deportation and extermination in the Nazi extermination camps. This made the rescue of the Jews central to the collective memory of the German occupation, and it might explain why the Holocaust was long concealed behind this ‘master narrative’. In more recent years, historical research has advanced a more nuanced view of the Danish rescue in October 1943.

Keywords:

• Holocaust
• rescue of the Danish Jews
• October 1943

Notes

1 This article is a revised version of a German article ‘Der Holocaust im kollektiven Gedächtnis in Skandinavien. Dänemark und Schweden im Vergleich’. In Geschichtspolitik und kollektives Gedächtnis. Erinnerungskulturen in Theorie und Praxis, ed. Harald Schmid. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2009, 181–98. Published with permission from Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG.

2 Hilberg, ‘Developments in the Historiography of the Holocaust’, 21.

3 Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, published in 1961. It was only translated into German in 1981.

4 Cf. Bryld and Warring, Besættelsestiden som kollektiv erindring, 18; even Sørensen, ‘The Afterlife of the War Experience’, 67f. Cf. even now Østergård, ‘Swords, Shields or Collaborators?’, 31–54.

5 Even if the relations of Denmark and Sweden to the Holocaust have been historically researched, this is not the case when dealing with the Holocaust as part of political culture after 1945 and with its place in collective memory. In Sweden, the theme has been taken up by researchers, whereas much is still to be done in the case of Denmark. Cf. Levine, ‘Förintelsens historiografi i Sverige i dag’, 69–95; Runblom, ‘Sweden and the Holocaust from an international perspective’, 197–249. On the Danish side, see the unpublished MA Thesis by Juul on Holocaust reception in Denmark, ‘Holocaust i den danske erindring’. University of Copenhagen, 2005; Bak, Jødeaktionen oktober 1943; Østergaard, ‘Holocaust, Genocide and European Values’; Østergaard, ‘Der Holocaust und europäische Werte’; Banke, ‘The Legacies of the Holocaust and European Identity after 1989’. Symptomatic for Denmark is that the Holocaust has been treated as a historical theme, not as a question of public reception and memory, cf. Sode-Madsen, Føreren har befalet!; Jensen and Jensen, Denmark and the Holocaust; and Sode-Madsen, I Hitlers skygge. This applies to the research on their rescue by Kreth and Mogensen, Flugten til Sverige and Bak, Ikke noget at tale om.

6 Cf. Bertelsen, Oktober 43 (in English October 1943, 1971), also Königlich Dänisches Ministerium des Äusseren ed. Oktober 1943. Text by Therkel Stræde, Hans Kirchhoff, Nyt lys over oktober 1943.

7 Cf. Stræde, ‘Aktion hvide busser’.

8 Nissen quoted in Dethlefsen, ‘Ud af mørket’, 108f.

9 Kirchhoff, ‘Introduktion’, 14.

10 Ibid., 15.

11 Yahil, Et demokrati på prøve. An equal solidarity had not been shown to the Danish communists in June 1941, when several hundred communists were arrested by the Danish police at the request of the Germans.

12 For new research on the shift in policy, see Kvist Geverts, Ett främmande element i nationen. For recent research on Raoul Wallenberg and his work in Budapest, see Levine, Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest.

13 Cf. Bundgaard Christensen, Danmark besat.

14 Cf. Levine, ‘Förintelsens historiografi i Sverige i dag’.

15 Quoted in Pätzold and Schwarz, Tagesordnung, 108.

16 Kirchhoff, ‘Endlösung over Danmark’, 136f.

17 Tangestuen, ‘“Også jøderne kom for övrig over grensen”’.

18 Cf. Sode-Madsen, ‘Her er livets lov egoisme’, 217.

19 For the term ‘state collaboration’, see Kirchhoff, Samarbejde og modstand under besættelsen, 15f.

20 Cf. Kirchhoff, ‘Endlösung over Danmark’, 104.

21 Cf. Lammers, ‘Det fremmede element’; Bak, Dansk antisemitisme 1930–1945.

22 Cf. Vilhjálmsson, Medaljens bagside; Kirchhoff and Rünitz, Udsendt til Tyskland, 25f, 129f.

23 Cf. Lammers, ‘Det fremmede element’; Bak, Dansk antisemitisme 1930–1945.

24 Cf. Kirchhoff, ‘Den glemte interneringsplan’; Kirchhoff, ‘Endlösung over Danmark’, 167f.

25 Cf. Kristensen, ‘Hvorfor en Fårhus-udstilling i Frøslevlejrens museum’.

26 Cf. Herbert, Best, 630f.

27 Cf. Bundgaard Christensen, Danmark besat.

28 Hilberg, ‘Developments in the Historiography of the Holocaust’, 21.

29 Cf. Juul, Holocaust i den danske erindring, 15f.

30 Cf. Sørensen, ‘Danmarkshistoriens vigtigste parentes’, 356f.

31 Levine, From Indifference to Activism, 83f; Zander, ‘Holocaust at the Limits’, 283.

32 Runblom, ‘Sweden and the Holocaust from an International Perspective’, 203f.

33 Cf. Bloxham, Genocide on Trial.

34 For a further and more in-depth discussion, see Holmila, ‘Portraying Genocide’, 206–20.

35 Cf. Bloxham, Genocide on Trial.

36 Cf. Herbert, ‘Vernichtungspolitik’, 12f. So did Alan Bullock in his famous biography, Hitler, who only devotes some 10 pages to the extermination of the Jews.

37 Cf. Bertelsen, Oktober 43, 15.

38 Cf. Knudsen and Ringsted, Maskerne falder i Nürnberg, 78, 135. See also Juul, Holocaust i den danske erindring.

39 Cf. Pendas, The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial 1963–1965.

40 Cf. Herbert, ‘Vernichtungspolitik’; also Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship, 93f.

41 Schoenberner, Jødestjernen.

42 Why the Swedes hold on to their own term is not obvious. In their anthology Sidor av Förintelsen, the editors Fjellström and Fruitman claim that the term ‘Förintelsen’ – compared to ‘Holocaust’ – is a cipher for something unprecedented, and shows the comprehensiveness and depth of the National Socialist crimes. At the same time, it expresses respect for the victims. For a new discussion on the Swedish terminology on the Holocaust, see Bruchfeld, ‘Är det dags att göra sig av med “Förintelsen”?’.

43 Cf. Koblik, The Stones Cry Out; Levine, From Indifference to Activism. See also Yahil, Et demokrati på prøve.

44 Cf. Herbert, ‘Vernichtungspolitik’, 9f.

45 Cf. for instance, Sode-Madsen, Føreren har befalet; Levine, From Indifference to Activism; Kirchhoff and Rünitz, Udsendt til Tyskland.

46 Thus, Karlsson, ‘The Holocaust as a Problem of Historical Culture’, 18.

47 Cf. Koblik, The Stones Cry Out; Levine, From Indifference to Activism. See also Yahil, Et demokrati på prøve.

48 Om detta må ni berätta. At the same time an English version with the title Tell ye your children. A book about the Holocaust in Europe 1933–1945, was published.

49 Stockholm Declaration, quoted in http://www.holocausttaskforce.org/about-the-itf/stockholm-declaration.html.

50 Cf. the four volumes on Danish refugee policy 1933–1945: Kirchhoff, Et menneske uden pas er ikke noget menneske; Rünitz, Af hensyn til konsekvenserne; Banke, Demokratiets skyggeside; and Kirchhoff and Rünitz, Udsendt til Tyskland.

51 One of these projects was ‘The Holocaust and the European Historical Culture’, led by the professors Klas-Göran Karlsson and Kristian Gerner in Lund. Among many of the new titles on these issues, see, for instance, Byström, En broder, gäst och parasite; Andersson and Kvist Geverts, En problematisk relation?; Nordlund, Affärer som vanligt; Hansson, Flykt och överlevnad; Thor, Hechaluz – en rörelse i tid och rum; and Bachner, Återkomsten.