Danish rescue

On the Danish Island of Zealand, Valloe is situated only one mile from the shores of the Baltic. It is a proper castle with towers, a large courtyard and a moat, but the drawbridge has gone. It and all the land surrounding it_for s6me miles is crown property. During the war, the administrator of the castle was Aage Krarup, whose family (including the present Mrs Freud) lived in a large house in the castle-grounds. In April 1940 Germany invaded Denmark and initially treated the Danes with kid gloves. Even the 7200 Danish and immigrant Jews were more or less left in peace. In the summer of 1943, this superficially benevolent attitude changed. The defeat at Stalingrad, the loss of Sicily and the ever-increasing allied bombing campaign proved that Germany was not invincible. This gave heart to the peoples of the occupied countries, including Denmark, and Danish resistance activities increased. Hitler blamed the Jews and gave orders to have them deported. The plan was leaked by the German Attache FG Dukwitz and almost overnight the Danes launched a rescue operation. The Jews were to be shipped to Sweden by fishing and rowing boats. The shortest distance between the two countries is just 5 km between Danish Helsingoer and Swedish Helsingborg, but the Germans and their henchmen strictly supervised this passage. Further south, the crossing was longer but less likely to be interrupted. Basically, the plan was to collect the Jews in safe houses near the coast and take them to the boats as soon as these became available and the conditions were right. Aage Krarup offered his own home, knowing that it needed only one informer among the castle staff to trigger a visit by the Gestapo with foreseeable consequences. But the staff of Valloe were patriotic and silent to a man. Altogether over 7000 Jews were rescued in this way in a space of three weeks and the Gestapo managed to seize fewer than 500. These were sent to Theresienstadt but, due to the efforts of the Danish King, not transported any further. If one assumes an average boatload of 25 – 30 persons, then between 200 and 300 crossings were necessary to take the Jews across the Kattegat, averaging more than ten trips every night. The Swedes accepted these refugees hospitably and, in contrast to the Swiss, returned none to Germany. At the end of the war, the returning Danish Jews found their property untouched and Mr Krarup received heart-warming letters from some of them.