Rescue Across the Sound

1 War comes to Denmark

On a spring day in 1940, schoolgirl Paula Gringer was sitting in her classroom in Copenhagen when she suddenly heard a rumbling from low-flying planes. Germany had occupied Denmark. When she returned home, her parents were shaken. But they were soon reassured by the Danish king’s proclamation that he would not accept any special treatment of the country’s Jews. Life went on as usual for a few more years, with school, bike rides and holidays by the sea.

2 Preperation of a raid

In the autumn of 1943, the authorities became aware that the Gestapo, the German secret police, were planning to mass arrest Danish Jews. The raid was scheduled to take place on the night of 1 October. The date was deliberately chosen: it was Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and the Gestapo reckoned that many Jewish families would celebrate at home and thus be easy to capture. On the afternoon of 1 October, Paula’s family was in the synagogue observing the Sabbath. To their surprise, the rabbi urged the congregation not to return home but to go into hiding immediately. In parallel, a thousand Gestapo men were preparing the raid. Telephone lines were cut off to prevent any communication. A ship carrying 5,000 people and extra trains were waiting in the harbour to take people to the concentration camps. The Germans expected the ship and trains to depart the next morning with a full load.

3 Sweden offers protection

News of the raid also reached the Swedish government, which decided to take swift action. The very next day, it was announced that all Jews in Denmark who could get to Sweden would be given protection. Ole Helweg was a Danish architect who worked in Stockholm. Earlier that autumn, when he read about the Germans’ identification of Jews in Denmark, he got worried. Ole’s mother was Danish Jewish and he wanted to help. “I can’t go on designing houses now,” he thought, “but what can I do as an architect?” A month later, just before the Gestapo raid, Ole had used all his resources and contacts to mobilise two boats and some comrades. Together, they prepared to rescue people across Øresund, the Sound.

4 Escaping the trap

The Sound was the water border between German-occupied and neutral Swedish land. At its narrowest part, it is just over three kilometres – a body of water under constant surveillance that thousands of people now had to quickly cross. In Copenhagen, Paula and her family did as the rabbi said. After collecting some warm clothes and valuables, they took the train out of town. In the summers, they used to rent a fisherman’s cottage a few miles to the north. They now travelled there by train, waiting for more news. Many of the train’s passengers were Jews, and the mood was subdued. Paula thought that everyone knew what was going on but not how things would end. When they arrived, the fisherman’s family welcomed them with open arms. Thousands of people followed in the family’s footsteps and left Copenhagen. Some hid in the countryside, while others went to the coast to explore the possibility of fleeing to Sweden. As the crow flies, it was only a few kilometres to Sweden—but how would they get there?

5 A narrow but dangerous stretch of water

When people began to realise that the raid had taken place, the situation became more urgent. How long could people hide? The Gestapo was checking all boats in Danish waters, but the fisherman Paula’s family had sought refuge with still offered to help. He offered to drive them across the Sound for 1,000 Danish crowns per person. It was a hefty sum. But the fisherman wanted to be able to leave money at home in case he never returned.

The fisherman knew how the Germans patrolled the area, and had noticed that the guard was quite young. The next day, Paula’s family walked to the fishing boat, two by two, waiting a moment after each pair’s departure so as not to attract attention. The guard turned and looked the other way as they boarded and hid in the fishy-smelling cargo hold. Then they left.

6 “Nice that you came over!”

After only twenty minutes, the boat had reached Swedish waters. Paula watched as her parents’ tight grip on each other’s hands relaxed. When the family came ashore, Paula was initially afraid of the soldiers in uniform. When the men said in broad Scanian dialect, “Nice that you came over!”, she understood that they were safe. Paula was given a chocolate bar by a soldier. After having become accustomed to the strict rationing in Denmark, she still remembered the delicious taste when she was old.

7 Unexpected volunteers

The refugees arrived with the help of motorboats, rowboats, canoes and sometimes a simple raft. It was tricky to find boats for everyone who wanted to flee across the Sound. Some even tried to swim across. Ole’s two boats were quickly put to use. During the planning, he discovered just how many people wanted to help: students, doctors, police, taxi drivers, train conductors and fishermen. Helping Jews was a way to protest against the occupation and Nazism. Ole’s own father, a psychiatrist, had moved his patients to other hospitals to make room for refugees. Then one family at a time was smuggled over to Sweden. Some of them travelled in Ole’s boats. He and his comrades ferried refugees across the Sound almost every night, rescuing around 700 people.

8 The Swedish navy lends a helping hand

The minesweeper M 20, today a museum ship at the Maritime Museum, was one of the Swedish ships that patrolled the Sound. The ship’s commander, Captain Emil Lilienström, lacked military training but, like many others, had been called up. During the autumn of 1943, he was on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. During the day, mines were swept and at night, boats carrying refugees were searched at the border. In early October, the M 20 crew took care of refugees almost every day. Many of the refugees were frightened at first until they saw the Swedish naval ensign. Emil and his crew knew as well as the refugees that they would be sent to concentration camps if the Gestapo got hold of them.

9 Saved by the M 20

One of the people who arrived in Sweden aided by the M 20 was Leo Demant. He was a pianist from Latvia who had moved to Denmark in 1933. Leo’s first attempt to cross the Sound failed. His comrades were discovered by the Gestapo and executed on the beach. Leo himself managed to escape with the help of a Danish policeman. During the next escape attempt, Leo was hidden under the planks of a rowboat. The Germans stopped and searched the boat without finding him. The boat hurried on towards the border, where the M 20 was waiting. Leo climbed over to the minesweeper and was soon able to go ashore in Limhamn. The vial of poison that he, like many other refugees, had with him never had to be used.

10 After the war

Not everyone was as lucky as Paula, Ole and Leo. 472 people were captured by the Gestapo and taken to concentration camps. About twenty people drowned in the Sound. Still, more than 7,000 of Denmark’s 8,000 Jews survived by fleeing to Sweden. Many rallied to help those who had come. Although the refugees were relieved to be safe, they were scared, too. No one knew how long they would have to stay in exile, or even how long they would remain safe in Sweden. Many also lived with the anxiety over relatives and friends. Unlike many other Jewish refugees, the vast majority of Danish Jews returned to Denmark after the end of the war. Paula’s family moved back home, but she herself stayed. Later in life she worked at the Jewish Museum in Stockholm.

11 Memories of the escape

Leo stayed in Sweden for a few years and continued his music career. At the end of the 1940s, his concerts were a regular feature on Swedish radio and he sat at the grand piano for many performances. After the end of the war, he set off on a worldwide tour that ended with his settling in Australia. Leo was buried in Sydney just before his 85th birthday. After the war, the commander of the M 20, Emil Lilienström, wanted nothing more to do with the sea. The memories haunted him for the rest of his life, and many years later, as he lay on his deathbed, he talked about the escape of the Jews.

Today, the M 20 is part of the collections of the Swedish National Maritime Museum. She is operated and maintained by an association. The old minesweeper is often moored at the museum’s pier at Galärvarvet, formerly a naval dockyard in Stockholm. During the summer, the M 20 makes a number of voyages and is kept open to the public in Stockholm and other ports.

12  “It was about our freedom"

Ole returned to his job as an architect and was active in both Denmark and Sweden. When, many years after the war, he was interviewed about the events in autumn 1943, he was asked how frightened he had been. He replied that he had never felt afraid as he crossed the dark waters, not even when things were about to take a turn for the worse. But he had been terrified during the days leading up to his decision to act. He then described the courage that grew within him and many others when thousands of people needed help to flee:

 “It was about our freedom, our freedom to speak and write and walk down the street and sit in restaurants and talk to each other.

I have respect for the kind of anger that’s clearly motivated. That anger builds slowly—it has to cross a very high threshold. But when it comes, you use all the means you have to be free again.”

Denmark, 1943

Denmark had been occupied by Nazi Germany since 1940. In the early years, the Danish government was able to safeguard its independence through a special policy of cooperation. Danish law continued to govern the country, and the government was able to protest somewhat against Nazism. An important part of the resistance was the preservation of the country’s democratic rights. The Danish authorities refused to discriminate between citizens by registering them on the basis of their religious affiliation, and anti-Semitic propaganda remained banned. During the summer of 1943, Danish resistance fighters began more active resistance efforts. In various ways, they tried to prevent the Danish navy’s ships from falling into the hands of the Germans. The August Uprising began with the blowing up of the German ship Linz at the shipyard in Odense, and the Danish battleship Peder Skram was sunk by its own crew. Several ships were also transported to Sweden. The events tested the patience of Nazi Germany, who had had enough of the Danes’ resistance. Resistance fighters and influential people in society were imprisoned. Soon after, a state of emergency was declared. The fragile balance had given way and the Danish government was forced to resign, drastically altering the situation for the Danish Jews.

Sweden, 1943

Sweden had pursued an active foreign policy since World War I, but as tensions rose in Europe its commitment was toned down. When World War II broke out, Sweden declared itself neutral just like the other Nordic countries. But when Norway and Denmark became occupied, unrest grew, as did the German threat to Sweden. Over the next few years, Sweden made a number of concessions to reduce its risk of occupation. In 1942, Norwegian Jews were threatened with deportation to concentration camps. In Sweden, discussions arose about how to help them. In the end, Sweden declared that it might be willing to make exceptions to its extremely restrictive refugee policy and accept Norwegian Jews, but Germany opposed the proposal. Instead, most Norwegian Jews were taken to camps where only a few survived. A year later, the turning point had arrived. When the war began to take a turn for the worse for Germany, the courage to protest against Nazism grew. With the collapse of the cooperation policy in Denmark, the Swedish government became aware that the Danish Jews’ situation could also rapidly deteriorate. They did not want to repeat its failure with the Norwegian Jews. So, in September 1943, it was announced that all Danes were welcome in Sweden.