Rescue of Jews during the Holocaust

Lore & Background

Jews were hidden or saved by non-Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. The Catholic Church and Vatican opposed the systemic murder of Jews, and in Italy the Fascist government enacted anti-Jewish laws and interned Jews, while Mussolini's Italian Social Republic later collaborated in deportations. Many diplomats were involved in efforts to help Jews escape, such as by providing documents that allowed safe transit. In Poland, the council to Aid Jews – Rada Pomocy Żydom (codename Żegota) – was established in late 1942 in co-operation with church groups, saving thousands.

Reader's Guide

The rescue of Jews during the Holocaust demonstrates both the extreme risks taken by some non-Jews and the complex motivations behind their actions. In Poland, the death penalty was threatened for individuals hiding Jews and their families, yet over 6,500 Poles have been recognized as Righteous among the Nations, the largest national contingent. The Żegota organization, founded by Catholic and socialist activists, saved thousands, particularly children. However, rescuers' motivations varied widely, from altruism to expecting material gain, and some helpers betrayed or murdered Jews when money ran out. The legacy is preserved by Yad Vashem, which since 1953 has recognized 26,973 individuals as Righteous among the Nations, honoring non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by Nazi Germany. The story also includes diplomats like those in the Ładoś Group, who produced illegal Latin American passports, saving over 3,000 Jews.

Did You Know?

• In Poland, the death penalty was sometimes enforced on people hiding Jews, and 700 Polish rescuers officially recognized as Righteous lost their lives.
• On the Greek island of Zakynthos, the mayor and bishop presented the Germans with a list of only two names—their own—and all 275 Jews survived.
• The Ładoś Group, a group of Polish diplomats and Jewish activists in Switzerland, produced illegal Latin American passports that saved over 3,000 Jews.
• Princess Alice of Battenberg and Greece, mother of Prince Philip, sheltered Jewish refugees in occupied Athens and is recognized as Righteous among the Nations.

The Leak and the Chain of Alarm

The rescue of Denmark's Jewish community began with a single act of conscience rather than a coordinated plan. On September 28, 1943, German diplomat Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz—who had already attempted in vain to secure Swedish safe harbor for Danish Jews—leaked Hitler's imminent deportation order to Hans Hedtoft, chairman of the Danish Social Democratic Party. Hedtoft swiftly contacted the Danish Resistance Movement and C. B. Henriques, head of the Jewish community, who in turn alerted acting chief rabbi Marcus Melchior. By the early morning of September 29, the eve of Rosh Hashanah, Danish Jews were being urged to scatter into hiding and warn every friend and relative they could reach. The German move also galvanized the Danish state church and every political party except the pro-Nazi NSWPD to publicly denounce the operation and pledge solidarity with Jewish citizens. Bishops issued a pastoral letter to be read aloud in every church the following Sunday. In the chaotic first days, civil servants across multiple ministries independently reached out to friends, who then combed telephone directories to warn anyone with a Jewish-sounding name. Most Danish Jews spent days or weeks in uncertain hiding, unaware that a full evacuation was being organized.

Sweden's Open Door and the Crossing

Sweden's willingness to receive Danish Jews was not spontaneous. When martial law was introduced in Denmark on August 29, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs recognized the immediate danger. On August 31, Chief Legal Officer Gösta Engzell—himself a delegate at the 1938 Évian Conference on Jewish refugees—authorized the Swedish ambassador in Copenhagen to issue passports to Danish Jews. By October 2, the Swedish government had officially declared its borders open to all Danish Jews. The actual crossings over the Øresund strait from Zealand were varied and often improvised. Some refugees traveled in large fishing boats of up to 20 tons; others squeezed into rowboats or kayaks. The ketch Albatros and the lighthouse tender Gerda III were among the vessels used. For the very young, elderly, or infirm too weak for a rough sea passage, operatives broke into empty freight cars sealed by the Nazis, smuggled refugees aboard, and resealed the cars with forged or stolen seals to defeat further inspection. The average crossing took under an hour on the choppy winter sea. Fishermen charged between 1,000 and as much as 50,000 Danish kroner per person, with the Danish Resistance Movement financing much of the operation from wealthy donors. The total cost is estimated at around 20 million kroner.

Niels Bohr's Personal Stand

The Danish physicist Niels Bohr, whose mother was Jewish, made a determined personal stand for his fellow countrymen during the crisis. After a persuasive phone call from Greta Garbo, who knew Bohr personally, King Gustaf V granted him an audience. Bohr was spirited to Sweden together with his wife on September 29. Upon arrival, Swedish government representatives informed him he must immediately board an aircraft for the United States, where he was expected to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Bohr flatly refused. He told the officials—and eventually the king himself—that until Sweden broadcast over its airwaves and published through its press a declaration that its borders were open to receive the Danish Jews, he was not going anywhere. Bohr later recounted these events in his memoirs. The historian Richard Rhodes has noted that on September 30, Bohr pressed his case directly. His condition was not a political demand but a moral one: the public announcement would signal to the Danish people that their Jewish neighbors had a genuine destination, transforming a desperate hiding operation into a rescue with a destination.

Survival and Historical Significance

The rescue stands as one of the largest acts of collective resistance to Nazi aggression in any country occupied by Germany during the Second World War. Working together, the Danish Resistance Movement and countless ordinary Danish citizens managed to evacuate 7,500 of Denmark's 8,000 Jews, along with 686 non-Jewish spouses, by sea to neutral Sweden. The result was extraordinary: 99 percent of Denmark's Jewish population survived the Holocaust. This remarkable figure was further bolstered by Danish intercession on behalf of the 464 Jews who were nonetheless captured and deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The rescue was not the work of a single government or organization but a mosaic of individual courage: fishermen who risked their lives crossing the Øresund, civil servants who combed phone books, clergy who issued pastoral letters, wealthy donors who funded the operation, and a foreign government that opened its borders. Together, these disparate efforts produced a survival rate that remains a singular achievement in the history of the Holocaust.

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