German Police Begin Arresting Danish Jews

Historical context

On the night of October 1–2, 1943, German police began arresting Jews in Denmark. Most escaped to Sweden after being warned.

Archive record

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Date
1–2 October 1943
Verified sources
1
Archive threads
5

On the night of 1–2 October 1943, German police began to arrest Jews in Denmark after the occupation authorities took direct control. Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, a German maritime attaché, had warned Danish political leaders. Rabbis and resistance contacts spread the alarm. Most of Denmark’s Jews reached Sweden by boat in the following days.

USHMM estimates that about 7,200 Jews and some 700 non-Jewish relatives reached Sweden, and that about 470 people were deported, most to Theresienstadt. The arrests ran through that night, not as a completed one-day roundup.

Research trail

Sources and further reading

  1. Rescue in Denmark · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · Holocaust Encyclopedia View source

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