![Danish fishermen (foreground) ferry Jews across a narrow sound to safety in neutral Sweden during the German occupation of Denmark. [LCID: 70737]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/8e96194b-2079-4915-8a2b-59d7150495f9.jpg "Danish fishermen (foreground) ferry Jews across a narrow sound to safety in neutral Sweden during the German occupation of Denmark. [LCID: 70737]")
Danish fishermen (foreground) ferry Jews across a narrow sound to safety in neutral Sweden during the German occupation of Denmark. Sweden, 1943.
Item ViewPreben was born to a Protestant family in Snekkersten, a small fishing village. The Germans invaded Denmark in 1940. Preben became a courier in the resistance. When the Gestapo (German Secret State Police) began hunting down Jews in Denmark in October 1943, Preben helped hide refugees in houses near the shore and led them to boats which took them to Sweden. Preben himself had to take refuge in Sweden in November 1943. He returned to Denmark in May 1945.
Item ViewThe Germans occupied Denmark in April 1940, but the Danish government remained in existence and was able to protect Danish Jews. In August 1943, the government resigned after refusing to accede to German demands. German police began to arrest Jews in early October. Leif and his family decided to flee, and were smuggled by fishing boat to safety in Sweden. In Sweden, Leif attended school and his parents worked in a garment factory. The family returned to Denmark after the end of the war.
Item ViewGermany occupied Denmark in April 1940. The Danish government remained in existence and was able to protect Jews in Denmark from anti-Jewish measures. In late August 1943, however, the Danish government resigned after refusing to accede to new German demands. In early October 1943, German police began arresting Jews. Tove and her family decided to flee. They made their way to the fishing village of Snekkersten, from where they were able to sail to safety in Sweden. Tove returned to Denmark in May 1945.
Item View![Preben Munch-Nielsen [LCID: 1652]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/905848e4-ef6a-46bd-9010-d00f1413c703.gif "Preben Munch-Nielsen [LCID: 1652]")
Preben was born to a Protestant family in the small Danish fishing village of Snekkersten. He was raised by his grandmother, who was also responsible for raising five other grandchildren. Every day Preben commuted to school in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, about 25 miles south of Snekkersten.
1933-39: There were very few Jews in Preben's elementary school, but he didn't think of them as Jews; they were just his classmates and pals. In Denmark they didn't distinguish between Jews and non-Jews, they were all just Danes. By fifth grade, Preben and his classmates heard rumors of a German military build-up. But later, in 1939, his parents said that Hitler had promised not to invade Denmark, which made them feel relatively safe.
1940-42: Occupation. In April 1940 Preben arrived in Copenhagen, where he saw planes overhead and German officers in the street. He joined the resistance as a courier, but he became more involved in October 1943 when the Gestapo began hunting down Danish Jews. They began to help Jewish refugees. They hid them in houses near the shore and brought them to waiting boats at an appointed time. Under cover of darkness, they took up to 12 Jews at a time across the straits to Sweden. The four-mile trip took about 50 minutes.
Preben helped transport 1,400 refugees to Sweden. He fled to Sweden as well in November 1943 when the Germans seized the Danish government. Preben returned home in May 1945.
Item View![Leif Donde [LCID: 1372]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/981fe626-dc7d-4e1d-b8a6-2c608343da05.gif "Leif Donde [LCID: 1372]")
Leif was born to a Jewish family in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. Both of his parents were active in the Jewish community there, and his father owned a small garment factory. The majority of Denmark's 6,000 Jews lived in Copenhagen before the war. Despite its size, the city's Jewish population supported many Jewish organizations, often aiding Jewish refugees from all over Europe.
1933-39: Leif went to a Jewish nursery school, which was next to a girls' school in Copenhagen. He didn't like his school because they made him take a nap in the afternoon. At school, they learned how to spell and read and sometimes they even sang songs. He played with all kinds of children--some of them were Jewish and some of them were not. Leif didn't really care; they were all his friends.
1940-44: The Germans occupied Denmark in April 1940. On August 28, 1943, the same day they took over the government, Leif's parents took the family to Tivoli Gardens, a huge amusement park in the center of Copenhagen. Leaving the park, they saw people gathered in the street as a convoy of German tanks passed by. Later, his father told them to prepare to leave the city. His parents were scared but it seemed like an adventure to Leif. They collected warm clothes and took a train south. In October they were smuggled to Sweden on a fishing boat.
After German troops in Scandinavia surrendered on May 4, 1945, Leif and his family returned to Denmark.
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This boat, named "Sunshine" (formerly "Lurifax"), was used during World War II to transport Danish refugees from German-occupied Denmark to neutral Sweden.
Item View![Rescue of Danish Jews, fall 1943 [LCID: sca78040]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/7570a672-ff94-4597-91ad-33f1529049bf.gif "Rescue of Danish Jews, fall 1943 [LCID: sca78040]")
Germany occupied Denmark in 1940. When the Germans decided to deport Jews from Denmark in August 1943, Danes spontaneously organized a rescue operation and helped Jews reach the coast; fishermen then ferried them to neutral Sweden. The rescue operation expanded to include participation by the Danish resistance, the police, and the government. In little more than three weeks, the Danes ferried more than 7,000 Jews and close to 700 of their non-Jewish relatives to Sweden, which accepted the Danish refugees. The Germans seized about 500 Jews in Denmark and deported them to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Bohemia. The Danes demanded information on their whereabouts. The vigor of Danish protests perhaps prevented their deportation to the killing centers in occupied Poland.
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