The Rescues
The Rescue of Jews in Scandinavia Offers Lessons for Today
By Rebecca Neuwirth, Executive Director, Thanks To Scandinavia
As we witness rising xenophobia in Europe and increased attacks on foreigners and Jews, it can look as if successful integration of minorities on the continent is impossible.
It may surprise some that the history of Jews in parts of Europe provides a better outlook. Although the great majority of countries turned against their Jewish populations during the Second World War – delivering them to the most horrible fate known to history – the rescue of Jews in Scandinavian countries stands as a counter example.
This story offers reason for hope during a part of history that is filled with despair. And it is a story too seldom told, though it offers powerful lessons for today about the possibility of courage in the face of evil and the ability of individuals to change history.
The Scandinavian countries – including Finland – stand out for the way they treated their Jews. Significant numbers – and in some cases, nearly all Jewish residents of Denmark, Finland, and Norway were protected by non-Jewish populations in the countries, many of whom stood up courageously and at great personal risk to save their Jewish neighbors. In each of these countries, politicians, churches and ordinary people not only refused to participate in Nazi plans for deporting Jews to certain death, but actually took an active part in dangerous rescue efforts. And in Sweden, many Jews were able to find the otherwise elusive refuge they sought.
In Denmark, saving the Jews became part of the popular resistance movement, resulting in a mass action in 1943 during which over 7,000 Jews were hidden, transported to the coasts, and shipped to safety in Sweden in small boats over occupied seas. Norwegian resistance fighters, though countered by their own Quisling forces, daringly helped half of the country’s Jewish population reach safety abroad. Neutral Sweden agreed to allow thousands of Danish and Norwegian Jews – and some from other ports – flee to the country, though it risked enflaming German anger. And Finland, though a co-belligerent with Germany in the war against the Soviet Union, refused to deliver its Jews when Himmler demanded it.
While there are other examples of rescue and heroism throughout Europe, nowhere are they so prevalent or concentrated as in Scandinavia.
What was it about Scandinavia that explains the difference?
From an historical perspective, many Scandinavian Jewish communities faced Nazi threats later in the war, when it was imminently clear to all that deportation would be a one-way trip and that resistance was a matter of life or death. It was at this point, for instance, that Denmark attempted the rescue of its Jewish population, and it was at this point that Sweden opened its borders to thousands of Jews fleeing from its occupied neighbors.
But the history of how Scandinavian countries treated their Jews during the Second World War cannot be explained solely by systemic factors, and attempts to do so do not withstand examination.
We lack the evidence, for example, to say that the small size of the Jewish populations in Scandinavia would necessarily have led to a low level of anti-Semitism in the society. Recent trends would seem to bolster the view that anti-Semitism is largely independent of the number of Jews living in a society. Nor does the affluence of a country – which might naively have been considered as a “civilizing factor” – immunize it from hate. Furthermore, Jews were not equally assimilated into all Scandinavian societies before the war. While Jews in Denmark were well-established and fairly assimilated – having arrived in the country as far back as the 17th century – Jews in Finland had arrived much later and many under far less auspicious circumstances, and even experienced housing and work restrictions in their new home. And yet, Finland’s politicians – responsive to their people – saw the limit of unequal treatment at the prospect of harm being done to the Jewish community.
So what explains the difference in the treatment of Jews during the Second World War in Scandinavia?
One is left with some historical conditions, and with some factors that are not systemic: the force of individuals, including Scandinavian monarchs and church leaders, the importance of tolerance in the self-identity of the cultures, the spirit of heroism that pervaded.
It is a sober, but also an uplifting message for our times.
Feature
RSVP NOW! TTS Dinner Benefit on Feb 28
Thanks To Scandinavia is very excited to announce that on Tuesday, February 28th we will be hosting our very first dinner benefit at Swedish star chef Marcus Samuelsson’s hot new restaurant, Red Rooster. Rather than waiting for months to get a seat at this sold out restaurant, why not join us for an evening of [...]
Read More >>
Follow Us:
