About Us
Founded by Danish entertainer Victor Borge and New York attorney Richard Netter in 1963, Thanks To Scandinavia provides dozens of scholarships for students from Scandinavia and Bulgaria each year in gratitude for the heroic rescue and protection of Jews in Europe during the Second World War.
Our goals:
- Telling the inspiring story of how Scandinavians protected thousands of their Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust years.
- Granting educational scholarships to students, medical professionals, and teachers in continued gratitude and friendship.
- Building bridges of friendship among Scandinavians, Americans, and Jews worldwide that are vibrant today and into the future.
Thanks To Scandinavia is an institute of AJC
Back in 1957, Richard Netter came across a little known book of stories about rescue during the Second World War. Their Brothers’ Keepers, later reprinted by Thanks To Scandinavia, was among the very first volumes to document how a small number of fortunate Jews were rescued from the horror of the Holocaust. Early endeavors to establish scholarships as a tribute to these rescue efforts were made by Robert Hershey and Abe Salkin, who recognized the need to have a permanent tribute to this heroic work.
Subsequently, Richard Netter joined forces with Victor Borge, the beloved pianist and entertainer, to pay tribute to the Danes, whose rescue of Jews mobilized an entire society.
Thanks to the Danes, as the organization was called in its first year, was launched in 1963. At a major opening event attended by the prime minister of Denmark, Victor Borge performed a dramatic piece he wrote for the evening called “The Legend.” In the following years, the organization expanded to recognize the rescue efforts of Finland, Norway, and Sweden. From its early days, Thanks To Scandinavia was dedicated to involving younger generations of Scandinavians and building on the history of friendship. The foundation funds scholarships for students and teachers from those countries, giving them the opportunity to study in the United States and, since the 1990s, in Israel.
In 2000, Thanks To Scandinavia became an institution of the American Jewish Committee. The cooperative arrangement signals a bright future for the foundation.
Feature
A Melancholy Beauty: Interview with Founders Kalin and Sharon Tchonev
Liv Grimsby, Thanks To Scandinavia A Melancholy Beauty, a Songs of Life Production, had its World Premiere tour last year with performances in Washington DC, Boston and New York City. A Melancholy Beauty is a commissioned oratorio which depicts the rescue of 49,000 Bulgarian Jews from Hitler’s death camps, in 1943. It was founded by [...]
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