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Originally posted by WheelyNorway was the most heavily fortified country during the war. There was one German soldier for every 8 Norwegian citizens. Not the case with Denmark. Many refugees, including Jews, also escaped from Norway into Sweden. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Sweden should be recognized for it's humanitarian effort. So I'm not sure where you and I have an argument.
So was Denmark
Originally posted by UllrOh I agree we don´t have an argument as such 🙂
Norway was the most heavily fortified country during the war. There was one German soldier for every 8 Norwegian citizens. Not the case with Denmark. Many refugees, including Jews, also escaped from Norway into Sweden. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Sweden should be recognized for it's humanitarian effort. So I'm not sure where you and I have an argument.
I just wanted to show that Norway wasn´t a complete paragon of virtue either. I have to admire the efforts of the Norwegian resistance and many of the citizens. However, it is a source of much embarrassment to many Norwegians that the Norwegian response to the Jewish question was amongst the weakest (per number of Jews) in Europe.
Denmark was, I admit, a special case. Hitler decided it was better to leave the Danes to govern themselves as much as possible until he got fed up with the Danish refusal to hand over the Jews. However, when Hitler did make it clear there was no alternative, the response of the Danish government and population was quite remarkable. Particularly when you consider the somewhat subdued response of the rest of Europe and the USA.
Originally posted by Sam The ShamYou are right to an extent. Denmark was "taken" with co-operation really as both Denmark and Germany would have suffered if it had been armed conflict. Hitler was a bit stretched and Denmark would have lost eventually. However, Germany did get fed up with the Danes´un-cooperative stance over the Jews and took more direct control himself after a while.
The invasion of Denmark was a liesurely afternoon outing, I think. Didn't the Germans sail a ship into their harbor and dispatch a squad or something? It wasn't much of an invasion.
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Originally posted by WheelyYou're right. Norwary definately was not a complete paragon of virtue. Let's face they filled out almost an entire SS division with volunteers all by themselves. But then again their occupation was a little harsher than some others.
Oh I agree we don´t have an argument as such 🙂
I just wanted to show that Norway wasn´t a complete paragon of virtue either. I have to admire the efforts of the Norwegian resistance and many of the citizens. However, it is a source of much embarrassment to many Norwegians that the Norwegian response to the Jewish question was amongst the weakest (per nu ...[text shortened]... Particularly when you consider the somewhat subdued response of the rest of Europe and the USA.
Originally posted by UllrIt was, though not as bad as some of the Eastern countries.
But then again their occupation was a little harsher than some others.
I live ten minutes from one of the Norwegian SS headquarters. It is now just an ordinary house, indistinguishable from those around it but for many people it is a stark reminder of what people went through. I remember the first time I saw a photo of German troops standing to attention outside what is now McDonalds, with the Swastika draped out of the windows of one of my favourite bars. I felt rather angry about it.
I have also heard tales from the locals where I live of running through the forests at night picking up arms dropped by British planes and others who just moved into the forests to avoid the Germans. It is hard to imagine what it was like then and so rather difficult to take an unbiased position.